For the past week, the Tiger scandal has been splashed all over both social and traditional headlines. Tiger’s unblemished reputation is now stained by his infidelity.
There are people who said that Tiger should be left alone, but there are also others who condemned him. Brands which endorsed the golfer are therefore, in one way or another affected.
Tiger’s case has clearly shown the adverse side of celebrity endorsements. Every action of the celebrity is placed under public scrutiny. The consequences of the action do not fall solely on him/her, but on the brand as well.
So far, three brands have dropped Tiger from their portfolio, possibly to avoid further damage caused by the Tiger saga (even if they claimed otherwise).
1. Accenture: Tiger Woods disappeared from Accenture’s website yesterday evening. According to David Martin, president of Interbrand Corp.’s New York division, the publicity may affect Accenture more than other sponsors, since the golfer is closely tied to its values.
2. TagHeuer: All outlets in Australia have removed its Tiger in-store advertisements. The Swiss watchmaker has denied that the drop was anything to do with the golfer’s personal life. Who knows?
3. Tiger (Gatorade): The main reason it was dropped was due to its dismal sales performance. It was reported that sales volume went down 30 percent for the year through the end of October. Gatorade further commented that the drop was already decided several months ago to make room for new products in 2010.
The brand has to make a choice
Kicking Tiger out of a marketing plan might seem like an easy task, but just think about the numerous changes a brand manager has to deal with. For example, dropping Tiger Woods would mean dropping a product for Gatorade. If the product was actually doing well, Gatorade might be expecting a sudden huge drop in sales. The decision of whether to drop Tiger would then be much more difficult.
For a brand that depends heavily on Tiger’s personal branding, dropping him might create a gap in consumers’ mind, which can be hard to fill. On the other hand, not dropping him indirectly shows that the brand condones Tiger’s behavior, leading to undesirable brand associations. Regardless, a brand has to make a choice.
“When you sign up to use celebrity endorsements in your advertisement, you have to be prepared to deal with things that happen to celebrities in their personal lives,” - Tom Bedecarre, chairman of AKQA, a San Francisco-based digital advertising agency.
That pretty much sums everything up.
Source: Bloomberg, The Herald, AdWeek
