Vanity Fair magazine couldn’t have predicted how their February 2010 cover would fly off the shelves… due to a shirtless photo of Tiger Woods by Annie Leibovitz. So, the question for today is how deeply do Personal Brands affect Corporate Brands?
To quote Vanity Fair’s Buzz Binnsinger, “In an age of constant gotcha and exposure, Tiger had always been the bionic man in terms of personality, controlling to a fault and controlled to a fault, smiling with humility and showing those pearly white teeth in victory or defeat. In the world of pro golf, even fellow pros and other insiders didn’t really know him, because he didn’t want anybody to know him.”
“Some pro golfers, such as Phil Mickelson, wear their hearts on their sleeves during press conferences. Mickelson could talk candidly about his game and the impact of his wife’s having breast cancer. He could also be snarky and pissy. Never Tiger.”
“Tiger learned very well to talk forever and say nothing,” says Joe Logan, a co-founder of a web site called MyPhillyGolf.com, which covers the game both nationally and in the Philadelphia region. For Woods, Logan remembers, an emotional response to a flawless round was “I had a pretty good day.” He never got rude or rattled. He never got irritated with a stupid question, in large part because he knew that the camera was always on him.
So, if he was unknowable to the writers who covered him, he was equally unknowable to virtually all the other golfers on the tour. Early on, he had learned that one of the rules of pro golf is to conform, a commandment only heightened in his case by his being black in a white man’s game. What is clear now, however, is that he lived a very abnormal life all his life in a sport in which guys are very conventional, and if you are not conventional you get ostracized right away. Whatever demons lurked within, he kept them well hidden. I think too well hidden.
So, once Tiger returns to golf, which most think he will, he’ll simply be another player trying to win a tournament… Not the $100 million a year super-endorser. What about Nike and their “wait and see” approach? Nike took this approach when Kobe Bryant endured consequences for his extramarital affair in 2003-04. Kobe Bryant’s situation was more severe, as criminal charges were filed. Eventually, charges were dropped. At that point, Nike and Kobe Bryant resumed their relationship.
However, in the case of basketball, Nike has plenty of other celebrity endorsers. And, for some reason, the general public seems to accept (and sometimes even assume) that basketball players will not be monogamous… almost like it’s a part of the “street cred.” However, Nike Golf has been built around Tiger Woods. There is no other since Jack Nicklaus that has been the clear golf brand leader like Tiger. Even though Nike Golf’s branding activities with Tiger have been focused on Tiger’s golfing abilities, not his personal life, my question is: Will his actions tarnish the brand?
What do you think?
Original post January 20, 2010 @ 13:54pm
January 23, 08:50am, LATEST UPDATE:
So, by now those of us who travel for business in and out of Dallas/Ft. Worth International airport have seen the latest and greatest Accenture… elephants and frogs??!!??!! Who in the world thought this was a brilliant creative idea? Doesn’t jungle animals just scream “High Performance. Delivered.” to you?
Yeah, I understand all Tiger’s crap came out hard and fast, so I can just imagine the scene of dozens of Creative Directors in a room desperately scribbling on notepads. Suddenly one of them shouts, “I’ve got it!… Everybody loves animals!”
So now when you now rush past these innovative displayed of marketing creativity in airports nationally by February 1st, let me know if they make you stop, stare, and think, “Man, I really need some consulting!”
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