Sports Branding: Are you doing it?

Citizenship and personal development

Kids are every parent’s best asset, and sports bring them incredible value, but how can we ensure the investment results in a tradition of excellence?

Sports help athletes form healthy habits, create friendships, develop conflict-resolution skills, collaboration, and, most importantly, scholarship opportunities or professional ambition. It’s those life skills learned early that last a lifetime.

Parents want the best for their kids, and their coaches and teams become part of the parent-teacher-coach triangle. So, it takes enormous trust to invest capital in their development as athletes and young citizens. 

Parents want to know who is educating their kids and what their philosophy is and feel confident that their money will result in high-performance results.

From the organization’s point of view, the reason for branding teams is that it is crucial for talent acquisition. Of course, winning in amateur sports is important, but that is only part of it. The most talented athletes will go on to collegiate sports, and even fewer will realize their Olympic dreams or become professionals. As legacy athletes leave, does your organization retain the same clout?

Culture is your brand

Building a sports brand isn’t about winning; it’s about day-in and day-out reputation management. People need to clearly understand who is involved and what they stand for. The story matters more than the results.

Think about it this way: your long-standing reputation is your brand, and whether you win or lose, your brand sustains your image. 

Calgary’s International Hockey Academy (IHA) recently underwent a structural management rebuild and replaced the entire management team: new general managers, coaches, and training staff were implemented.

With new staff came an entirely new culture, and implementing a new program requires all stakeholders’ support. Performance statistics are important metrics, but storytelling brings clarity to the community.

Branding conveys key messages to stakeholders allowing the audience to feel a part of what’s happening with the team, and they will be motivated to come along for the journey.

The difficulty organizations experience while rebuilding or installing a new program is communicating their successors and failures. Both are important as the losses communicate resilience and successes that show it’s working.

Transparency creates trust, and trust is established when there is communication clarity.

People want to buy into the story the organization is living, and building a brand establishes a baseline of trust for all its activities so that whether you win or lose your program maintains its support.

When you win, winning elevates your brand; when you lose, your brand remains unchanged.

What are organizations trying to achieve? Are they just creating athletes, or are they making resilient citizens who understand the value of hard work and have the tools to be successful anywhere in life?

5 tips for better branding

1. Develop a Vision and pathway for excellence
   Show everyone there is a plan with a roadmap on how you plan to get there

2. Document the journey
   Create content that tells your story through the ups and downs so people understand who you are and what you stand for. Develop sex appeal for your team. Players will want to play with you, and parents will be gung-ho because they feel part of the journey.

3. Connecting Culture and Sport
   Nobody was born a winner. Winning is a learned skill through discipline and a system that enables peak performance.

4. Be Consistent
   Figure out what you stand for and be consistent with your messaging. Nothing gets in the way of building a program quicker than inconsistency. Build out your team, so everyone knows their role, and then get to it.

5. Have Fun and be creative
   Do something original with your team. If you copy everyone else, your brand will taste like porridge and no sugar. Be unique and stand out.