As a marketer and brand strategist, it has been fascinating to watch the complete unraveling of the Tiger Woods brand. You would be hard pressed to find a more disastrous brand case history equivalent in size and scope. Maybe Tylenol back in the eighties would rival it for speed of brand dissent. All the brand pillars and tenets of Tiger have proven to be as phony as he is as a person.
The attribute that remains untarnished with Tiger's brand is athletic performance. Statistics bear that out: over 70 PGA Tour wins and 14 major titles. For that very reason, Nike plans to remain in the Tiger camp. After all, without Tiger, Inc., Nike Golf doesn't exist. Before Tiger as the lead Nike endorser, Nike Golf was a floundering brand. Today, golf accounts for 5% of Nike's total sales. Did you think for a minute that Nike was going to walk away from Tiger? Not when your brand is all about arrogance and athletic performance. That's the bedrock behind the Nike mantra, "Just do it." They could care less about Tiger's performance off the course; it's on the course that matters.
The game manufacturer EA Sports hasn't thrown Woods to the wolves, either. Does anyone think for a second that there would be any PGA Tour related video game without the presence of Tiger? Tiger made golf cool and relevant when the American populace had never thought of watching golf on television, let alone playing it in a video game. No Tiger, no golf titles in EA Sports portfolio products. Put EA Sports solidly behind the Tiger brand. It comes down to following the money. It's a monetary, not a moral decision.
Gillette and Gatorade are taking a hiatus to rethink all things Tiger. That is simply an excuse to buy time until Tiger returns at some point in 2010 and starts winning again. Ideally for these brands, it will be at the Masters or the US Open in Pebble Beach. Tiger as a pitchman for Gatorade just never made sense. The Gatorade Tiger Woods branded product really hasn't sold that well. As a demographic, golfers are not huge consumers of Gatorade. Sports and energy drinks skew younger. To me, Gatorade will always be one flavor, the green that I grew up with playing football back in the sixties. That's when Gatorade was first introduced by Stokely Van Camp. The green flavor was originally developed at the University of Florida by a group of scientists to help support the Florida Gator football team. Yes, Gatorade!! That's the only flavor I'll drink - old school, all the time.
Roger Federer, Derek Jeter and Tiger all had squeaky clean images up until now, much like the Gillette brand promise of better personal grooming. The brand endorsement by that trio was so right, but now Tiger has put a severe crimp in the advertising. It's costing Gillette millions of dollars to either redo a campaign or charge their agencies with coming up with new campaign approaches. What is revealing is that they didn't drop Tiger. The power of Tiger, Inc. is still there. It still has residual halo for Gillette.
For as many of those that have stayed for the allure of Tiger coming back and being an even stronger brand, other brands have turned tail and abandoned Woods. You can't blame Accenture for doing this. The face of the Accenture brand was built around the mystique and magic of Woods. Everything about this sordid affair was so wrong for Accenture. The tagline of, "Go ahead, be a tiger," is the brunt of so many jokes. Ads with copy, "20% inspiration, 80% perspiration," provide far too much fodder for the likes of Fallon, Letterman and Leno. Branding is a serious matter. There are too many business clients and customers of Accenture who wouldn't find this the least bit funny. They put their careers on the line by choosing Accenture. Just imagine the expense of having to change all of the Tiger airport ads that Accenture runs across the country. You can't take an airline trip without having Tiger Woods staring at you in one creative execution or another. Accenture's marketing communications people are going to be spending a lot of time coming up with an inspiration for a new campaign for the brand, in an accelerated time period, as well. The cost to Accenture has to be staggering. Something that their marketing budgets certainly didn't anticipate in the last month of a really tough business year.
It would be great to be able to eavesdrop on the conversations between the Woods' management influence, Mark Steinberg from IMG, and all of these representative brands. It's a real life brand book being rewritten everyday, with new chapters still to be written. Everything about the Tiger Woods brand is a fraud, with the exception of his ability to compete at the highest level. When will Tiger, Inc. be able to "ink" deals that center around Tiger Woods again, if ever? Going forward, it's going to be all about achievements and accolades that are won or lost on the golf course. That is the one true thing that's real about Tiger Woods. But, as Gatorade, Nike and EA Sports know, is that is enough to build campaigns and business around? As long as Tiger Woods continues to win and flourish on the PGA Tour, Tiger, Inc. and its respective brand will be alive and well. We're a land of winners and second chances. The PGA Tour needs Tiger and Tiger needs the PGA Tour. Watch for the renaissance later in 2010 or 2011. It will be fascinating to watch the Tiger brand redemption tour.
Great article. I'm tired of hearing about his personal life, but very interested in how this will play out for the brands associated with Tiger.
With golf being such a mental game, who knows how long it will take for Tiger to be Tiger on the course. Obviously the talent will remain, but the focus and "unconsciousness" is what allows him to surface from 8 down to win majors.
Tiger just broke the record for consecutive days on the cover of the New York Post, previously held by the 9/11 tragedy. I'll be surprised, and amazed, if he can leave a controversy this big at the clubhouse and pick up where he left off.
Then again, he's never failed to surprise or amaze.
I think he took a personal hiatus not to focus on his family, but rather because he knew he has too much going on to focus on his game. We all know golf is a mental sport and if he's not focused, he's not going to win. As you mentioned, if he doesn't win, Tiger, Inc. is gone.
It is too bad for Accenture that their tagline is now the butt of many jokes, but it is partly their fault. Big celebs have ghosts in their closet just like anyone else and that's something you have to take into consideration when you hang your brand on one person (not a smart marketing move).
However, both Kobe and MJ both had many "slip-ups" and still went on to have multiple brand endorsements. I'm sure Tiger (and Nike and EA sports) is hoping that time will forgive him too and that his infidelities will turn into a great comeback story.
Little known outside the Asheville, NC, area is that the huge, upscale Cliffs Communities hired Tiger for a reported $20 million to design his first U.S. course for The Cliffs. Just before his "accident," The Cliffs put up billboards throughout the area with a life-sized Tiger and the words "See What Inspired Me." One local blogger airbrushed a Motel 6 billboard onto the Cliffs board. A local artist created a cartoon showing a house labeled "Cliffs" sliding off a cliff, along with Tiger and his golf clubs. Before the accident, The Cliffs at High Carolina had sold just 30 lots at an average of $1 million each. They paid a reported $120 million for the 3,000 acres. Gillette and Tag Heuer can always find other shills, and Bill is quite right that Nike can wait it out in hopes Tiger's on course prowess will make some forget the serial adultery and poor handling of the resultant PR. But The Cliffs is between a rock and a very hard place. Larry, http://www.GolfCommunityReviews.com
Great blog. It seems there are going to be a number of advertising agencies cashing in on all of these new advertising campaigns and the re-branding of Tiger Woods. So between his wife and a number of advertising agencies some folks are going to do very well as a result of Tigers transgressions. Great for the economy.
Great analysis, Bill.
Although not completely similar because Kobe Bryant's fall from grace included criminal charges (that I believe he was eventually acquitted of), his rebound has been similar to your prediction for Tiger. After a sponsorship hiatus, Kobe recently was placed on the cover of a recently released video game. Tiger can rely on the same outcome as long as he performs at a high level, thus leading to some sponsors (like Nike and EA Sports) returning, or never leaving at all.
Just continues to show, he can steal headlines no matter what he does. It was smart and inevitable to take a hiatus. I thought John Daly's quotes/opinions (From a man who is accustomed to being in controversal situations) was dead on- the biggest Brand of all that will see the impact is the PGA as they've seen huge revenue differentials when Tiger is in the field vs not. After all, Tiger made a lot of golfers richer when he came into the picture as sponsors dumped more and more into increasing tournament purses. Let's hope the impact doesn't have any negative effect on the momentum of golf as a sport.