Want to understand the significance of your company or product’s brand? Take a look at the brand icon known as Tiger Woods. In a recent Wall Street Journal article by Suzanne Vranica and Stephanie Kang, the authors site that the injury to Tiger’s knee and his resulting miss of the rest of the PGA season, will not only be painful to Tiger, but also to the companies whose brands he represents.
Think of General Motor’s Buick division that was planning a major promotion both online and offline highlighting the theme “Tee-Off with Tiger.” This probably could not have come at a worse time for GM, which is already suffering from poor sales. What will be the impact on Tiger’s other sponsors, like Nike, Tag Heure, and Accenture?
According to the WSJ article, TV ratings for the final rounds of tournaments show a 28% increase when Tiger Woods is in contention versus not in contention. Calculate this effect on advertisers of the PGA tournaments along with Tiger’s usual sponsors. The amount of money in lost ad revenue and sponsorship sales revenue must be staggering.
This event is just one illustration of the value of brand and why brand development needs to be a C- level, corporate responsibility. Many corporations can measure the value of their brand in their P&L's, but the Tiger brand story shows that even a brand icon can affect a company's bottom line. CEO's need to be sure that they maintain a strong brand strategy and be vigilant about their brands.