Creating revenue via Organisational 'Brandpression' Management (OBpM): a marriage of brand management and impression management in professional sport

Characterised as activities organisations take to positively influence the image the public has of them, organisational impression management (OIM) is essentially analogous to brand management. To date, however, there is a dearth of literature that links OIM and brand management. Taking this into account, this paper dovetails OIM and brand management literature, detailing a process we refer to as Organisational 'Brandpression' Management (OBpM). Focusing on professional sport, we illustrate how professional sport organisations can proactively employ OBpM, thereby contributing to its ability to maintain support from its current consumer base while also creating positive first impressions and attracting those yet to 'buy in' to the organisation's brand. This, we argue, permits the organisation to leverage their brand as a revenue generator in the marketplace. We identify key areas that professional sport organisations should focus on in order to accomplish this: legitimacy, distinction, consistency, trustworthiness, reputation, affiliation, and employee satisfaction. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions.