Tiger Woods Scandal….A Marketing Disaster?
Posted on December 9th, 2009 in Marketing
- Is he losing his Marketing Muscle?
The continuing Tiger Woods sex scandal has still not caused Mr. Woods to lose any of his endorsement deals,…. yet. However, as each day passes with a new woman coming out with new revelations, Tiger’s marketing partners like Nike, Accenture, AT&T, and Tag Heuer, to name a few, have to be at least reviewing the “Morals” clauses in their endorsement contracts with Mr. Woods.
I don’t believe we are anywhere near the point where companies start dropping him left and right yet, especially with his Golf and sports related partners like Nike, whose contract with Tiger is reportedly in the $100 million range. The recent hype about Gator Aid canceling their deal with Tiger is murky. The company says its canceling a specific Tiger related product, and has not mentioned specifically that they are killing their deal with Tiger in full, at least as of this writing.
Still, there have been no Tiger advertisement at all, for any product, on TV and Cable since the beginning of December.
Tiger Woods is still a valuable commodity to these companies. But the value is eroding already. According to Bloomberg News,
Tiger Woods? standing with the public is in freefall following reported extramarital affairs, according to a consumer research company. The 33-year-old golfer?s ranking on a list of celebrity endorsers plunged to 24th from 6th, based on the Davie Brown Index, which marketers and advertising agencies use to gauge the ability of personalities to influence consumer behavior.
Still if things get to the “We need to disassociate with Tiger….” stage, things could get ugly for his endorsement income, very quickly. What could cause that can be left to speculation.
So what does all this tell us about marketing? Well, if you are the endorsed, Nike, etc., don’t put all your eggs in one basket, which I’m sure they don’t. But for smaller marketers, attaching your products to celebrity personas, large or small, can be a double edged sword, since you have no control over your celebrity’s actions.
If you are the endorser, watch what you’re doing because it could cost you big time.
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