What Does The Future Hold For Tiger Woods As A Business Brand?

How Soon Will Nike Put Woods Back In Their Advertising And On Their Web Site?

With Tiger Woods set to return to professional golf at The Masters, the "big question is where Tiger Inc. goes from there," as his fall "has been swift and mythic," according to Chris Young of the TORONTO STAR. York Univ.'s Schulich School of Business marketing professor Alan Middleton said, "He'll never have the attraction to sponsors that he had before -- he'll be automatically ruled out because of moral code issues, particularly in the U.S." Marketing Evaluations Exec VP Henry Schafer, whose company computes Q scores, said of Woods, "From a marketing point of view it'll be interesting to see if endorsers want to bring him back if he does well. ... I would be surprised. There's an awful lot of concerns among consumers. He's got a tough row to hoe" (TORONTO STAR, 3/18). CNBC's Darren Rovell noted Woods prior to his scandal "got a premium because he was clean, because he was safe, and he doesn't get that premium anymore." Rovell: "I would predict that he might get some more endorsement deal offers in the coming year maybe if we see that he is back to the game. ... But I don't think there is going to be a ton of the blue chip deals coming over the next year. There is going to be a lot of wait-and-see. I think the interesting question is how is Nike going to react? How soon will we have him in their advertising again and him on their Web site again?" ("19th Hole," Golf Channel, 3/17).

STAND BY YOUR MAN: The FINANCIAL TIMES' Lucie Greene reports while Tag Heuer in December said that it would downscale its use of Woods in advertising, the company still is "continuing to use him as a brand ambassador in specific territories." Tag Heuer President & CEO Jean-Christophe Babin said, "We've taken a culturally sensitive approach. We adjusted the intensity of the exposure according to the market. In the U.S. it shocked a lot of people, so we played it low-key there. Tiger prefers also not to be public in the U.S., which we needed to respect. However, in China, he's bigger than ever. We still use him there a lot." Babin added, "We don't feel there's been any long-term impact to our brand. Maybe in the short term we might have lost some U.S. sales. We've received some letters of complaint about our partnership" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 3/19). CBSSPORTS.com's Gwen Knapp wrote Nike "did something completely right, standing by Tiger Woods when other sponsors bailed out, refusing to hyperventilate over his extramarital activities and abiding by its own, frequently obnoxious value system." Nike officials "invested in a super athlete," and "they've still got it." AT&T and Accenture "extrapolated certain virtues from Woods' golf game," but then "cut him loose when they recognized how badly he had alienated many of his fans." However, a different demographic "prizes the will to win without assuming it makes for perfect citizens or model spouses." Woods has gained an "increasingly fierce following among these people, who believe that a law-abiding athlete should be judged by his behavior and performance on a field of play." Knapp: "This is Nike's sweet spot" (CBSSPORTS.com, 3/18).

STILL PACKING A PUNCH: AD AGE's Jack Neff noted research from TNS indicated that while Woods "did major damage to his own brand with his series of well-publicized extramarital affairs," most of the brands he endorses "escaped relatively untarnished." The research shows that "despite months of unremitting negative publicity," Woods remains one of the "most popular athletes in the U.S. -- still neck-and-neck with Peyton Manning and Brett Favre -- and easily the most popular golfer." Neff noted the "major caveat, of course, is that all of Mr. Woods' popularity derives from his athletic prowess, so to become a bankable commodity once more means he's got to win" (ADAGE.com, 3/17).