It’s official. Pepsico has pulled their line of sports drinks bearing Tiger Woods’ name citing that they’re exercising the morality clause contained in the contract. The television ads featuring Tiger have been pulled and other contracts will probably follow the Pepsico lead.
The $100 Million + per year branding powerhouse known as Brand Tiger is officially dead.
There are many lessons for businesses big and small to learn from the death of the Tiger Woods brand. What may be the most surprising is the cause of death is not the string of clandestine infidelities or even the late night car crash – but rather its the slimy underbelly which those incidents revealed – and how social media was indeed the bullet that killed one of the most successful brands in recent history.
Transparency killed the Tiger Woods Brand
Long ago, I wrote the post Social Marketing is Like Showing Up Naked to a Cocktail Party which says,
Launching a social marketing campaign is like showing up naked to a cocktail party. If you haven’t been hitting the gym, EVERYONE is going to know as soon as you enter the room. Oh, and if you’re a pre-op transvestite… well THAT fact is going to be obvious as well.
The Tiger Woods brand was built on a house of cards. It’s painfully obvious now that the squeaky clean, family man facade created to sell everything from cars to sports drinks was a fictional character created solely for public consumption – and that is what killed the Tiger Woods brand.
Let me reiterate – the fact that Tiger was having affairs with a porn star is NOT in an act which if exposed would in and of itself be a brand killer. Had Tiger been building an authentic brand – one similar to the brand Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons has built for himself – the revelation of an affair with a porn star would be a brand building PR move.
Instead – because Tiger had been building a brand of affable family man – the news of his trysts is destroying his carefully constructed brand instead of building it. This is truly a case where the publicity generated is definitely BAD for the brand.
What’s sad is – it didn’t have to be this way.
The Tiger Woods brand is built on the foundation of a young man with exceptional talent and athletic ability. In the beginning – when Tiger was setting the world of golf on fire – he was known as a “man about town”. The public certainly accepts and even applauds the sexual promiscuity of an attractive, successful young male athlete. The problem for Woods began when he tried to create a false persona.
In the new “age” of social media – secrets are harder to keep than ever. Social media makes it easy for anyone with internet access to “blow all they know” and share virtually anything via the web.
Blogs are one of the key tools in the new social media explosion – and with over 10 million blogs registered with Technorati – business owners need to be aware that at some point in time, you’re probably doing business with someone who maintains a blog. These blogs are often used to tell customer service stories however, they can also be used to break news as well.
Bloggers love nothing better than a good story. When your business or brand creates one – expect a social media shit storm to erupt in the wake.
There are hundreds of bloggers pointing at the Brand Tiger melt down – saying, “He should have cleared the air. He shouldn’t have remained silent. He should have stepped up and stopped the stories.”
I contend Tiger couldn’t stop the story – because the REAL story here is the betrayal of trust between Tiger and his fans. His fans embraced the clean cut, well mannered family man persona Tiger created for public consumption.
That’s the danger of building an inauthentic brand in the age of social media. Now more than ever, it’s essential to embrace the transparency social media provides.
Abraham Lincoln said, “No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar,” more than a century before the advent of social media. Those words of wisdom are even truer today than they were in Lincoln’s time.
If Tiger had been building the brand of consummate playboy – his stock would be rising instead of falling at this moment. Hugh Hefner may have never been the inspiration for a series of successful video game titles – but his brand has endured more than half a century because it’s built on a foundation of Hefner’s true core beliefs.
In the long run – create a brand based on the truth – and you’ll never have to endure the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.
Hi Kathy, I’ve read many articles about the Tiger Woods debacle but this is the first that was approached from the idea that his brand was based on a lie.
I agree. The brand was based on a a fictitious character Tiger Wood’s certainly was not. So, who is Tiger Woods? And will people and companies forgive and forget with time?
Will a year off the circuit, a few TV show public apologies and counseling save the brand?
Tiger Woods is a very good golfer but his reputation as a cheating husband made him a bad character.~”,
Tiger Woods messed up big time, yes! However, he built his brand at a very very young age of innocence. Many billions of people will never be able to come an iota close to relating to his life. With so much pressure, money, opportunity, and surrounded by “yes” only people, it is not long before a mortal man will fall pray to all the vices that surround him daily. Tiger Woods veered of his path of righteousness a few years ago with his infidelities. He will continue to pay for his mistakes financially and emotionally for the rest of his life.
All can only hope that Tiger Woods will bounce back as a great golfer, role model, and charitable giver, yet importantly be a great father to his children, who will need him in their lives. Only time will tell, yet Tiger Woods is a competitor, and the best in the world. He has been set back, hit bottom, and can only go up from here… we hope.
.-= TigerWoodsWorld.com´s last blog ..Tiger Woods News- Elin may take their kids back home to Sweden =-.
Tiger Woods is great and golf and i guess she is also great in picking up women-“.
Tiger Woods is a living legend. Yet most AFCs (average frustrated chumps) will accuse him of being immoral because he banged a few women. Do you know what it’s like to have women throw themselves on you??
Wake up people! In the real world, most rich successful men are not faithful. Tiger Woods is famous because of golf, so he should only be judged on that. His personal life has nothing to do with anything.
Sorry for the rant 🙂
Tiger Woods messed up, but that can’t take away his superb accomplishments as a golfer.