The Brand Man Speaks

Luxury Watch maker Tag Heuer drops Tiger Woods as endorser

As expected luxury watch maker Tag Heuer has announced it will drop its alliance with now disgraced professional golf phenom Tiger Woods. The company will not be using any image of the golfer in its holiday ads or any ads for the foreseeable future.

Tag Heuer follows Gillette and accounting consultancy Accenture who have in one way or another dropped Woods from their campaigns.

The major hold-out so far is Nike which has the most at stake in this gamble. As reported in numerous retail news stories in the media most Tiger Woods merchandise is being sold at discounted or clearance prices as consumers, especially women, shun the golfer's apparel because of his lies deceit and infidelity.

I believe ultimately Nike is going to have to take a stand by dropping the use of Tiger's image in its stores and by reducing the displays of Tiger's logo'd apparel from main view in its stores. As this saga continues to play out with no honest information forthcoming, Nike will be hard pressed to stand by and wait. If more negative information surfaces the damage will be great to them. This is especially true because they bank on Woods' overall image to enhance the total Nike brand not just Tiger Woods branded clothing.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Tiger woods: This brand in free-fall may significantly impact sports endorsements in the future: Update: Gillette and Accenture put use of Tiger officially in phase out mode

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED. SEE BOTTOM FOR DETAILS

Nearly two weeks after the 2:30AM car crash that has led to the acknowledgment of infidelity by the world's richest Golfer and best known athlete, Tiger Woods, we still don't fully know what happened to cause this to become the most notable celebrity misstep in years maybe decades.

What I do know is that the damage is significant and the Tiger Woods Billion Dollar brand is in free-fall. His agents and handlers are of course saying any loss of endorsements is pre-mature but I'll bet senior marketing management and lawyers at Tag Heuer, AT&T, NIke, Accenture, Gillette among others are up sleepless nights trying to figure out how to manage this PR disaster and discern whether or not they can can him. (I'll bet GMs decision to drop Tiger last year as an endorser of the Buick line because of financial difficulties at the automaker is heralded as "brilliant" somewhere inside that company).

Tiger announced today that he is leaving the game of golf "indefinitely" to figure out his life. A little late for that huh? You should have done some figuring before Thanksgiving and leaving all those emails and voice mails. Was Tiger so naive to think none of these women wouldn't go public for big money?

One TV pundit I saw insisted that he "knew" the contracts with Tiger were "ironclad" and nothing could force sponsors to stop paying him. I find that hard to believe. Virtually all endorsement contracts I have seen or have worked on in my career always had a back door out clause if the celebrity failed to perform or caused the sponsor's company or brand harm by his actions. Even if this were true..that all deals were unbreakable....it doesn't stop sponsors from not using him in their ads (I think all endorsement uses of TW have been stopped to my knowledge as of this point) and I do not expect them to use him in anyway for an indefinite period of time.

Wood's story continues to get worse and the lack of information keeps the story top news and only causes more financial harm. He is the butt of late night comedians and the internet is on fire with "have you heard" jokes about Tiger. Certainly no longer the perfect sports role model.

Speaking of which, because Tiger Woods was the single largest sports endorsement brand on the planet (as far as I know) this completely unexpected incident will certainly make all companies that use celebrities, especially sports stars re-evaluate hiring these folks in the first place. If Tiger can fall so hard and fast it proves the risk/return is becoming too great. My understanding is more companies are sponsoring sports teams or events rather than specific performers to reach their targets with far less risk. It is clearly possible the fall out from Tiger Woods infidelity may change an entire industry permanently. 

The Tiger story goes way deeper. It impacts Television sports, ratings and revenues. Tiger helped build this sport into a more democratic one bringing millions of new fans and dollars to the industry of Professional Golf. When he last left the game for medical reasons, TV viewership dropped dramatically as did ad revenues. This will happen again, except, if and when Tiger does return to televised golf, the ratings will likely soar, at least in the short term and golf on TV will be hot again. It does remain a serious question: Might Tiger give up the game permanently to find "religion, healing, forgiveness and family"?

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

UPDATE: As of late today, both Gillette and accounting consultancy Accenture have announced they will put their marketing efforts behind Tiger Woods on hold indefinitely with Gillette indicating it will phase out use of the golf phenon relatively quickly. $$$ signs are dropping. I'm expecting more fallout within days. Word also has it that Tiger's yacht "Privacy" docked at Miami Beach Marina is being prepped for departure. Access to its dock has been restricted/keys changed even name on boat is being covered up. Privacy at sea shortly? Likely

Spirit Airlines "uses" Tiger Woods to sell cheap tickets; in bad taste?

I just came across the new TV ad for Spirit Airlines promoting their usual low low no frills fares. The unusual element is they are "using" the Tiger Woods car crash in an animated way to sell low fares titled "Eye of the Tiger".

In bad taste or is Tiger open for such abuse of sorts?

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Brand "Tiger Woods" put to its biggest challenge; Will sponsors stay on or bail?

The recent car "incident" involving the biggest richest branded athlete Tiger Woods is the first real test of the golfing greats ability to manage his brand (worth billions) under extreme stress beyond the course.

Brand Tiger Woods has become the biggest athlete brand in history primarily due to his squeaky clean beyond reproach family man/super athlete identity. There have always been rumors here and there about women coming on to Tiger...quite frankly I am amazed he hasn't been the target of more damaging rumors earlier kudos to his extremely well oiled PR and management machine.

But now comes the real test. Had the incident occurred during "normal" hours of the day or even evening I would bet silence without deviating from "full speed ahead" would have made this matter disappear and Tiger would be completely unscathed. However, the time frame of 2:30AM (or thereabouts) really won't allow this matter to be just ignore and pushed aside. Everyone knows it was a very odd hour to be out and about and to be "unnerved" (for a guy with nerves of steel) enough to smash his SUV leaving him unconscious within a few feet of his own home spells big trouble.

Tiger is going to have to come clean one way or another with the public or at least with authorities. Unwillingness to talk in our culture equals hiding something.

A brand like Tiger's worth more than 1 Billion Dollars has a lot to lose so his crisis management team must not make any mistakes.

As with other athletes, sponsors have so far said they are behind their man. However, I believe, many will reduce their use of Tiger, even eliminate it, for a period of time hoping for a positive resolution soon. The longer nothing is said and public opinion creates its own spin on the events, the more damage to the brand and the more likely sponsors are going to suspend their relationship with him or even drop him altogether.

Since Tiger was so "clean" this event only magnifies the circumstances and every move is being watched and monitored by the press and public alike. We, the public, want to believe in his fairy-tale life and career and unlike some other athletes or entertainers who get into trouble, we really do want everything to be ok with Tiger and for him to still be the gold standard among athlete/celebrities. If anything, we can accept that he is human, as long as we are told some of the truth versus nothing that is believable right now.

One thing in his favor; he didn't (it appears so far) do anything illegal just possibly (if rumors pan out about an affair) something questionable to negatively impact his perfect very moral family values posture.

Come Clean Now Tiger, show us you are human, seek forgiveness and get back to what you do oh so very very well...play golf.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Lack of Civility cuts across occupation, race and political affiliation...is the end of the empire near?

I just felt compelled to write a short piece on what appears to me and many others to be an rapidly approaching end of any type of civility in this country....maybe the world....that reminds one of the decline of the Roman Empire....

Between Serena's  unsportsmanlike/unladylike behavior at the US Open that cost her the match, Kanye West's selfish and inflated ego stage stealing from Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Awards to Congressman Joe Wilson's outrageous outburst during a Presidential speech to congress, ("You lie")....what has become of us, our cultural...more importantly our future? We are in deep trouble and it doesn't look too promising for things to get better.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Super Bowl Ads 2009; Not very super: Pretty weak and boring

Like many millions of folks, including fellow marketeers, I spent a good part of Super Bowl 2009 watching the ads looking for memorable creative that would be worthy of $3 Million per spot.

Unfortunately folks, most ads were dull, boring, meaningless, stupid and certainly not memorable. If you are going to spend all that money to place a commercial in the Super Bowl, at least ensure the ad is one that will entertain and hopefully influence. In  my opinion, a lot of companies wasted a lot of money last night.

I found myself wondering, "what message are they trying to get across here?" in most cases and saying out loud, "that wasn't the least bit funny". By the end of the game, I had a very hard time remembering what brands had been advertised.

I feel the Bridgestone Tire ads (yes I do remember the brand) were the most "huh?" ads for me...seemingly disjointed and unclear what their message was all about. I certainly have no idea why I would want to buy that brand of tire.

The Cola wars are back but I didn't develop any partiality to one brand over another because of their ads.

Doritos? Awful just like the product in my opinion.

Budweiser needs to find a new ad agency.

A few were somewhat memorable.

The E-Trade talking baby is back with a friend and always gets a chuckle out of me. I enjoy this creative and think it is memorable stuff.

Pedigree Pet Food did a splendid job promoting animal adoptions showing why it is better to adopt a dog than many other (wild) pets. (Full disclosure: I provided expert commentary about this ad prior to its airing for a major media source...no pay...but I was already positively predisposed to the creative.)

Jason Statham continued his James Bondesque activities showing Audi's new A6 is one helluva fast car. I love the Transporter movie franchise I must admit. I think I might actually buy an Audi next time I have enough money to buy a new car, (if the economy improves).

Monster.com's "moose-head" ad was cute and clearly calls out that it is time to find a new job...if there are any out there......

The surprise hit for me was Cash4Gold.com. The late night direct response advertiser was "allowed" to buy space usually reserved for the prestigious consumer products/services brands because the economy is so weak and NBC had lots of unsold inventory. The bottom feeder advertiser used Ed McMahon and MC Hammer especially well to promote their mail-in gold redemption for cash service. It was surprisingly good creative that wasn't so cheesy as I would have thought and did a great job of message delivery with humor.

Finally, but it was an in-house ad for NBC's Hulu online service, Alex Baldwin did a nice "30 Rock" styled ad for the website that was extremely well-done and memorable.

What did you think? Share your thoughts.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Michael Phelps: Pot smoking photo to undermine his brand value

Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps has proved that his publicity machine can't prevent bad judgments from undermining his marketing value.

A tabloid picture of the 8 gold medal winner smoking a pot water-pipe at a university party this past November has caused the Olympian to make a public apology for his drug using behavior.  Prior to winning his gold medals Phelps had been arrested for driving while being impaired.

This incident could greatly diminish the "Phelps brand" which yours truly said in various press interviews during the Olympics was never going to be worth the billions many experts predicted. Besides the fact that it was going to be hard for his handlers to keep his name "current" and meaningful with few swimming events to compete in until the next summer Olympics, it was obvious from watching him be interviewed that he lacked the maturity of say an athlete like Tiger Woods.

Now many of his endorsements may be in jeopardy as consumer product companies have the option to drop him (and stop paying him) for this infraction. This photo questions Phelps ability to continue as a meaningful role model for young people around the world which is the reason so many companies wanted to throw millions at him in endorsement fees.

It is a sad day for athletes when these kind of events occur. However, it reminds us that even super athletes are just regular human beings and we shouldn't put them on such high pedestals and pay them so much money for being super athletes.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

GM cuts ties with spokesperson Tiger Woods after nine years due to dire financials

GM has announced they are cutting ties with phenom golfer Tiger Woods after nine years of endorsements. Woods was earning nearly $7 million from the relationship. GM and Wood's handlers say the announcement was mutually beneficial to each party; GM needs to reserve cash and Woods wants more family time.

I never understood GM's Buick divisions deal with Tiger. It was not a believable brand effort. Buick is GM's aging brand still pulling in mostly 60 plus year olds. Tiger was supposed to dramatically make the brand more appealing to younger car buyers but it really didn't work. Buick has had one auto entry success with the Enclave SUV/Wagon but other than that, the brand is nearly dead. ( I did see a great looking Riviera concept car at the LA Auto show this week...but it may be too late to revive that marque).

Tiger seemed the wrong sports guy to be affiliated with Buick. It was so NOT him to be a Buick man---Buick is so not youthful, over the top fantastic or always poised, polished and polite---it's a cranky old brand for pete's sake.... and I always felt it was just a good money deal for Woods and one that gave senior GM execs who love golf face time with the world's greatest golfer....not a brand relationship that could help the Buick product line.

In a way this move by GM is good for both parties. GM saves cash and Tiger who doesn't need money stops hurting his image by this miss matched association. No one looks bad with this split because of the circumstances.

Tiger I am sure can find a much more suitable automotive deal now worth more money even in this weak economy he is that valuable a resource. Although, he has been out of the limelight recovering from knee surgery and thus not as valuable as he has been....but relative to other celeb endorsers he's still King.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

Olympian Michael Phelps signs with Subway even though he prefers McDonalds

In a brand alliance move that makes little sense, Olympian Michael Phelps has signed on to be the spokesperson for the Subway brand of fast food.

On the surface this seems like a good fit. An incredibly athletic man with great appeal among young people world-wide promoting a healthy brand of fast food. The problem? Phelps doesn't eat Subway.

Phelps touted his addiction to cheeseburgers from fat laden brand McDonald's throughout the Olympic games going as far as to say it was his primary fuel....a 10,000 a day calorie diet...mostly of McDonald's food. He was even quoted as saying he wanted to be a spokesperson for the brand. So what happened?

After Phelps took an offer to promote Kellogg's high sugar Frosted Flakes cereal many scolded him for aligning himself with a product that promotes obesity among children. That rap didn't go well with his handlers who are trying desperately to make his all-American Idol like persona blemish proof to keep his income generating ability flying high even though the Olympics are no longer in the minds of most consumers or his herculean feat.

They are spinning this deal to promote the fact that it is more appropriate for Phelps to promote healthy food for a fitness lifestyle. The problem remains his celebrity endorsement does not ring true and could be harmful to both his brand and the Subway brand. This is a case where money trumps good brand strategy and certainly undermines Phelps credibility. Are Phelps handlers too greed oriented...so desperate to make him big money given there is nothing going on between now and the next summer Olympics to keep the Phelps brand relevant to consumers? Likely.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli

"Olympic Mother" Debbie Phelps signs endorsement deal with Chico's apparel brand

The rumors had been flying throughout the term of Olympics that an Olympian parent was on track to garner an endorsement deal because of the success of her son.

Debbie Phelps, middle-school principal by trade, mother of Uber Gold Medalist Michael Phelps, was shown on world-wide television nearly as much as her son during the Olympics. This exposure highlighted the fact that Mother Phelps was wearing clothing from mid-priced women's apparel retailer Chico's.

Chico's which has been suffering from a significant drop in sales immediately took advantage of the "free" publicity and started promoting the Debbie Phelps Collection online featuring the clothing items Mrs. Phelps was wearing as she watched her son gather gold medal after medal.

Now Chico's as gone one step further and signed Mrs. Phelps to a one-year six figure deal to represent the company and wear its clothes for public appearances including her up-coming visit to the Oprah Winfrey Show this week.

Chico's sees Mrs. Phelps as an "authentic" spokesperson for the brand. She is a good representative of the primary target for this line of apparel. For the moment as Michael Phelps and his achievement remain in American's consciousness this endorsement makes some sense. Mrs. Phelps is a loving mother, a professional women and a role model for "real" women across America. Like Dove, there has been traction in the marketing world behind promoting real women in advertisements versus the usual professional models finding that "authentic" is a hot button for American consumers these days.

As more and more consumers are jaded by hundreds of celebrities touting product after product fewer American's are influenced by such endorsements and likely will find Mrs. Phelps genuineness refreshing and very believable. Chico's could certainly use a major boost as their sales performance has been extremely weak for nearly a year from both the weak economy and a failed effort to shift the brand's focus from average middle-aged women to younger audiences.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli