Strategic brand management in and through sport

Within the extended academic literature on strategic marketing, brand management appears to be high on the agenda of scholars in the past seven decades. Despite the continuous enquiry over these years, the way in which a brand can or should be managed in a strategic manner appears to still attract academics’ and practitioners’ interest, with novel and often unexpected ideas and practices emerging. Among these, brand management within sport and through it remains a unique area for further enquiry, and one that is bound to yield interesting insights due to the social, political, geographical, cultural, and historical peculiarities of sport, granting it a natural ‘marketing’ advantage. This article explores the evolution of brand management, its manifestation in and through sport, and its potential future directions within and beyond the ever-developing sport ecosystem.