Brand Ambassador Dilemma : Tiger Woods ?
Yesterday i read that Accenture has snapped all its ties with Tiger Woods.He had been the brand ambassador of Accenture from past 6 years.He had become the face of Accenture consulting.’High Performance Delivered’ as tagline was used in the ad campaigns and Tiger was shown solving his golfing problems in the same way Accenture solves its client problems.
Now after a tornado struck Tiger Woods in his personal life and his image has taken a beating,Accenture and other firms associated with him have either snapped ties or are thinking of doing it.
But then there are firms like EA Sports and Tag Heuer who are not following suit.They say that they had Tiger Woods as Brand Ambassador because he was the best in Golf not because that he was a family man or was not involved in any scandals.
This is a big dilemma when it comes to having Brand Ambassadors.In the part one,I had talked how companies are confused over choice of brand ambassadors and what confusion gets created sometimes.
In this part the dilemma is that whether certain qualities of a celebrity should be associated with a brand or by default whole of his/her personality gets automatically associated with the brand.
All the ads of Accenture always featured Tiger Woods playing Golf,talking about Golf,tackling obstacles on the golf course.It was all about Golf.None of the ads had shown Tiger as a perfect family man or a loyal husband.None of the companies had associated any quality other than Golf Skills with the brands.
But sometimes actually the Brand can take a beating due to the brand ambassador.Nike already has started to face it.There are Mock Ads based on Tiger Woods Nike Ads which make fun of the current situation.’Just Did It’ is being used as mockery of the original Nike’s Famous line ‘Just Do It’.
In this case,Golf Skills of Tiger Woods didn’t come to rescue.
So the question is Does overall image of brand Ambassador matters or is it his primary Quality(e.g. Golf) which is most important ?
Near home, we see that more socially stable ambassadors have remained marketers favourite.e.g. SRK endorses much more brands than Salman Khan whose social image is not as stable as SRK.
Its true that a Brand Ambassador becomes the face of the brand and people sub-consciously associate Brand with the celebrity’s personality and social life.People who might hate a cheat or scandalous personalities might not buy Gillette or a Nike
But at the same time, i think about the business Tiger Woods have brought for them in the past due to his super skills in Golf.
This is a big dilemma for companies.Some made the decision against Tiger and some stood by him.Some are still evaluating.
Whether to have an ambassador for your brand or to stick by him in bad times are just few of the issues which lead to the Dilemma called Brand Ambassador Dilemma.
What Say?
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Brand Ambassador Dilemma : Tiger Woods ?…
Yesterday i read that Accenture has snapped all its ties with Tiger Woods.He has been the brand ambassador of Accenture from past 6 years.He had become the face of Accenture consulting.’High Performance Delivered’ as tagline was used in the ad campaign…
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This is a nice article which makes us think.
would be a common thing now, it helps to carry a ‘legacy’ of dissociating one with busted celebrities. It shows Accenture cares for ‘image’ rather than the ‘face’. It shows Accenture is ‘bold enough’ to show the celebrity the door in case s/he digresses. Your example of even a legendary punch-line of “Just do it!” being ridiculed with “Just did it!” shows the risk of running with fallen tigers.
I think it is ‘brand personality’ and that includes many other attributes different than the one which connects with your product. I think in the long run, Accenture will gain because it dissociated with TG at the right time. Since ‘celebrity busting’ (my term
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There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That?s a great point to bring up. I offer the thoughts above as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if best practices have emerged around things like that, but I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a fair game.
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haha, Tiger is so crazy! I love him.
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Heya i got to your site by mistake when i was searching bing for something off topic here but i do have say your site is really helpful, like the theme and the content on here…so thanks for me procrastinating from my previous task, lol
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Brands associated with Tiger due to his golf skills. But now that he is also announced he will not play professional golf till further notice..then brands have no reason to continue to be associated with him. But the only long term point-of-view is if and when he makes a comeback (and i expect that it will be with a bang) then remaining associated with the personality will give back tremendous return. Wat say?
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Ya i somewhat agree with you,because he is not playing golf roght now,companies dont see any reason but They still could have backed him up and could have gain tremendous returns on his comeback which they will lose now.Tiger is defintely gonna roar back.
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