"I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect."
Death of a Salesman, Starring Tiger Woods
BY Joel RubinsonThu Dec 10, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Oh Tiger, what are you doing, man?! How can the biggest personal brand in sports, the best golfer ever, double-bogey like that (or nonuple-bogey, actually, presuming there are, in fact 10 mistresses and marriage is a par-one)?
Tiger makes $100 million or more per year from endorsements--more the result of his personal brand than his golf swing. His brand transcends the sport. He is The Natural, and he gives youth to a sport that skews old in its demos. His squeaky clean image made him a no-brainer for marketers and ad agencies.
None of this really changed when he smashed his car driving down a residential street he'd driven hundreds of times before or even because there was something fishy about the whole incident; it changed because he stonewalled.
In an era of social media, the table-stakes of branding are honesty, openness, and transparency. We all knew something happened, and we knew brand Woods should talk about it, explain it, let us forgive him for it. And we probably would have forgiven him, but now we can't even consider that without smirking and thinking of him as fodder for Letterman's top 10 and tabloid headlines about "the back nine."
I'm not sure why a big brand like Tiger didn't have better brand management. Tiger didn't say anything for a few days and then blogged, "This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way. Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible." Sorry, private citizens don't make tens of millions of dollars in endorsements. You are public. Brands exist in the mind of consumers that don't like being lied to.
Need a testament to people wanting and needing to know more? Tiger Woods was the number one source of traffic to news sites in December, according to New York research firm Experian Hitwise.
How brands respond in a crisis can be decisive. In 1990, Perrier was the coolest drink around, ordered by name as if it were an exotic mixed drink. Then laboratory technicians in North Carolina who regularly used Perrier as purified water in lab tests discovered an unacceptably high level of benzene (a carcinogen) in Perrier. According to the Economist in August 1991, Perrier broke the first rule in a crisis: "Don't play the problem down." Before they knew the real source of the problem, they announced it was "just one region (North America)," which turned out to be false. They joked at a press conference in Paris saying they were pulling the product off shelves worldwide because publicity is good! Net/net, management stonewalled the issue, market share plummeted, and the brand never recovered.
Contrast that with the Tylenol poisoning in the 1980s. J&J's response was quick and decisive, pulling all products off the shelf and eliminating capsules as a product form. I remember an article in The New York Times where experts were split on whether or not the brand name was still viable. Some need to surrender their expert badges; Tylenol maintained public trust because of how it responded and regained all of its market share.
Today, branding is about two-way loyalty; a consumer has a right to ask, "How will you show loyalty to me?" Loyalty is also about forgiveness. I think the public would have forgiven Tiger's transgressions, but I don't think the public will completely forgive him for not voluntarily coming clean ... for Tiger not showing loyalty back to his fan base.
In the world of athlete celebrity endorsements, an article in Promo Magazine (Sept. '07) talked about the need for careful 360-degree research on athletes, ensuring their "brand attributes" match those of the marketer to be endorsed and the need for an "exit strategy" in case things head south. The marketing research firm, Marketing Evaluations, Inc. The Q Scores Company (Manhasset, New York) tracks "Q scores" of roughly 1,800 celebrities. The scores are used to evaluate how positively or negatively the public feels about a celebrity and show how fast things can change after an incident. Two years after the rape charge, Kobe Bryant's unfavorable Q score was 53% (vs. 35% before the incident). Michael Phelps' unfavorable Q score went from 11 to 21 pre-post the bong photo. It used to be that this risk applied to most athletes, but not to Tiger; never to Tiger.
Now, Tiger has introduced risk into the equation and that will undoubtedly hurt his marketing value. Will he rebound? Will he conjure up unfavorable semi-conscious associations in the consumer mind? We just don't know for sure yet. We're all somewhat risk adverse so why take the chance? I can picture a marketer and their agency agreeing, "Maybe we better go with Jeter."
Read more of Joel Rubinson's
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What Do Tiger Woods and the Dow Jones Index Have in Common?
By: Bob SmileyWed Aug 19, 2009 at 12:19 PM In troubled times, investors are as desperate as ever to find a financial advisor they can trust. Good news--I found him! Warren Buffett? No. Jim Cramer? Please. I'm talking about Tiger Woods.
Not only can Tiger predict the direction of the stock market, there's a good chance he might be controlling it.
Yes, as bizarre as it may seem, by superimposing a timeline of Tiger Woods' career achievements with the corresponding Dow Jones Industrial Average ticker, one begins to notice an uncanny resemblance.
It's a parallel that took form almost immediately, with the Dow increasing steadily after Tiger turned pro in the summer of 1996. In the six weeks that followed his first Tour victory that October, the Dow grew 10%. When Tiger won his first Masters by a record 12 shots the following April, it grew another 30%.
That jump has held true during each of Tiger's most dominating stretches. From mid-1999 through the end of 2001, Tiger won 21 tournaments, 5 majors, and held all 4 major titles at the same time. Over that same period, the market expanded to unheard of levels, passing 11,000 for the first time ever. Six years later, while Tiger was in the middle of winning eight of nine events between 2007 and 2008, the Dow registered its all-time high of 14,164.53.
But Tiger's performance doesn't just line up with bull markets. During those times when Tiger appears weakest, so does the Dow. In 2002, Tiger fired his longtime coach Butch Harmon and decided to attempt a much-maligned swing change. He wouldn't win a major for over two years, and the market stalled right alongside him, unable to match its 2000 and 2001 highs.
Last summer was far worse. After winning the U.S. Open in June with a torn ACL and two stress fractures in his left leg, Tiger announced that he would be undergoing season-ending knee surgery. He confessed that he had no idea when he'd be returning, and many feared that he would never be the same. The Dow, clearly distraught, dropped nearly 5,000 points during Tiger's eight-month absence.
And then there's what transpired just this week. On Sunday afternoon, Woods was defeated in the final round of the PGA Championship by Y.E. Yang, a 37-year-old South Korean who didn't even start playing golf until age 19. The stunning loss was also Tiger's first ever in a major championship when holding the 54-hole lead. Did the market notice? Of course, it was off 200 points by the end of trading.
The evidence is hard to debate but the significance is fair game. Is some part of this correlation coincidence? Sure. But I have to believe that just as James Braddock lifted the country's spirits with his uppercuts during the Great Depression, Tiger Woods has the unique ability to do the same with his fistpumps. When he wins, all seems right with the world, and investing in it feels prudent. But when he struggles, perhaps that's nature's clearest indicator that dark days are truly upon us.
Bob Smiley is a golf writer and tailed Tiger Woods for his entire 2008 season, chronicling the adventure.
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Tiger Woods - Updated Dec. 3, 2009
With a combination of power, touch and tenacious resolve, Tiger Woods has become one of the most dominating golfers ever, transforming the sport along the way. His astonishing success, often accompanied by his signature fist pump after holing clutch shots, has even placed him on many people's short list of greatest American athletes, alongside figures like Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan.
Woods has captured many of professional golf's most revered records. He is in close pursuit of many of the rest, including Jack Nicklaus's 18 major tournament victories, the most prestigious record of them all. He routinely leads the sport's world rankings, a result of winning more than a quarter of the P.G.A. Tour tournaments that he's entered, a figure unrivaled in modern times.
As a toddler, he sank a putt on "The Mike Douglas" television show. His legend has grown steadily since. He won three straight U.S. Junior Amateur titles and then three straight U.S. Amateur titles, both records. With the simple statement, "I guess, hello, world," Woods turned professional in 1996. A year later, at 21, he became the youngest winner of the Masters, and broke the tournament record for lowest overall score (-18) and margin of victory (12). In 2000, at 24, he became the youngest golfer to have won all four major tournaments.
Early on Nov. 27, 2009, Woods was left unconscious after he crashed his 2009 Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a neighbor's tree as he was pulling out of his driveway in the gated community of Isleworth, an Orlando suburb where many high-profile athletes live. Woods and his lawyers declined to speak to the Florida Highway Patrol about the crash.
The incident has been accompanied by reports and speculation about marital difficulties between Woods and his wife, Elin. The Windermere, Fla., police chief, Daniel Saylor, said that Woods's wife had used a golf club to break the rear window of the sport utility vehicle to help extricate him. The neighbors who rushed to his aid and called 911 offered their version of events through a lawyer, saying they believed Woods's injuries were caused by the crash alone. The Florida Highway Patrol said that aside from a $164 citation for careless driving, Woods would not face further charges.
Allegations of infidelity dominated news reports on Dec. 2. In a widely quoted article in US Weekly magazine, Jaimee Grubbs, a Los Angeles cocktail waitress, detailed a lengthy affair with Woods in 2007. Woods admitted transgressions the same day and apologized to his family and supporters in a statement on his Web site. Woods was not specific about exactly what he was sorry for. But the unusual admission by the usually composed Woods has shaken the PGA Tour and prompted his biggest sponsors to reaffirm their support for him.
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Born to parents both of mixed race and ethnicity, including African, Chinese and Thai, Woods's rise to stardom was made more noteworthy and barrier-breaking because he is the first non-white to lead a traditionally white sport. At Augusta National Golf Club, for example, which hosts the Masters tournament, the first African-American member wasn't admitted until 1990.
Some tournaments have tried altering course layouts to reduce Woods's advantage, but to little obvious effect. While Woods is among the longest hitters in the game, his putting and creative shotmaking, along with his much-ballyhooed focus and competitiveness, separates him from the competition.
Because of his skill and charisma, golf audiences have grown dramatically and the purses at professional tournaments have increased significantly since he joined the P.G.A. Tour. Golf's television ratings are largely dictated by whether Woods enters that week's tournament or is in contention. Huge endorsement contracts for Woods have followed as well. Combined with his tournament earnings, they could make him the first athlete to earn more than $1 billion in his career.
In 2008, after finishing second in the Masters in April, Woods won the U.S. Open in June with a stirring victory over Rocco Mediate after an extra 19 holes, despite a painfully injured left knee and a fracture in his left leg. The win at the Torrey Pines golf course in San Diego was his 65th over all and his 14th major championship; Woods called it “probably the greatest tournament I’ve ever had.”
Nine days later, he had reconstructive surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He revealed that he had played the event not only on a bad knee, but with a fractured left tibia. He sat out the rest of the 2008 season and the first weeks of the 2009 tour — a nearly nine-month absence — returning in February 2009 for the Accenture Match Play Championships in Arizona.
Woods said that the hiatus had given him the opportunity to reconnect with his wife; marvel at their toddler daughter Sam’s development, and attend the birth of their second child, son Charlie, on Feb. 8, 2009.
Woods’s significance to the PGA Tour cannot be overstated. His galleries are larger than players drew at many tournaments in his absence, and television ratings for golf tournaments fell while he was away.
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Major Sponsor Cuts Ties With Tiger Woods
Updated: 1 day ago - Mark Williams AP
(Dec. 13) -- Global consulting firm Accenture PLC has ended its relationship with Tiger Woods, marking the first major sponsor to cut ties altogether with the golfer since his alleged infidelities surfaced and he announced an indefinite leave from the sport to work on his marriage.
In its first statement since the Woods' scandal erupted, Accenture said Sunday the golfer is "no longer the right representative" after the "circumstances of the last two weeks." The move ends a six-year relationship during which the firm credited its "Go on, be a Tiger" campaign with boosting its image significantly. Accenture has used Woods to personify its claimed attributes of integrity and high performance.
"After careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising," Accenture said, adding that "it wishes only the best for Tiger Woods and his family."
The firm plans to immediately transition to a new advertising campaign, with a major effort scheduled to launch later in 2010. An Accenture spokeswoman declined to comment further. Advertising firm Young & Rubicam, which has handled the company's Tiger Woods ads, also would not comment on the move.
One of the risks of advertising tied to a celebrity is that "your image gets carried by someone you can't control," said Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management.
"They definitely understand there's damage," Bernstein said of Accenture.
Accenture's advertising campaign was almost entirely built around Woods and his success, portraying his ability to key putt or chip out of the rough. If Woods had acknowledged mistakes and said he would be back in a month, Accenture might be able to ride it out, said Rick Burton, a professor of sports management at Syracuse University, in an interview.
But Accenture can't afford to wait for what could be a long time before Woods returns.
"They had tied everything in their campaign to Tiger Woods it appeared," he said. "If he's not golfing, those ads don't make sense."
Burton noted that Accenture's billboards and airport advertising need to be replaced quickly. Without a backup plan, the company might fall back on something simple and conservative that could highlight its logo.
"It is probably prudent to take a low-key, conservative approach until they determine what their next message is that they want to send," he said. Going forward, Accenture will have to determine whether it wants to stick with sports or whether its been too burned by what happened and will go another route, Burton added.
"Accenture has made a decision to not continue with their sponsorship. We are disappointed but respect their decision," said Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG. The PGA Tour said it would have no comment.
Accenture has been title sponsor since 2001 of the Match Play Championship, a lucrative World Golf Championship event that draws the top 64 players from the world ranking. Accenture earlier this year renewed its sponsorship of the tournament through 2014. The contract is separate from its business endorsement with Woods.
The management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company has clients in more than 120 countries and about 177,000 employees across 52 countries. Starting as the consulting arm of now-defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen, it split off in 1989 under the name Andersen Consulting, eventually ending all ties with Andersen and changing its name to Accenture.
The company went public in 2001 and now has a market cap of $26 billion. Earlier this year Accenture shifted its place of incorporation from Bermuda to Ireland, where it has done business for about 40 years.
While not terminating their relationship completely, another major Woods sponsor pulled away this weekend. On Saturday, Gillette, which uses the slogan "The best a man can get," said it won't air advertisements featuring Woods or include him in public appearances for an unspecified amount of time. Woods was hired by Gillette in 2007 and has been in ads for Gillette Fusion Power razors with titles like "Phenom" and "Champions" with other stars including tennis great Roger Federer and soccer player Thierry Henry.
However, other sponsors continue to stick with Woods for the time being.
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Woods' Wife Buys Island Home in Sweden
Louise Nordstrom - AP
STOCKHOLM (Dec. 12) -- Tiger Woods' wife bought a six-bedroom house on a small island near Stockholm that is reachable only by boat.
Stenake Johansson, chairman of the Residential Association on Faglaro island, told the Associated Press on Saturday that Elin Nordegren became the owner on Dec. 1.
"Elin Nordegren has bought it, but I don't know how much Tiger has signed on to those papers," said Johansson, adding that his organization is still awaiting all the paperwork.
Johansson could not confirm the house's reported price of $2.2 million and said he didn't know whether Nordegren and Woods planned to move in.
Tigers Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, recently purchased a home on a Swedish island that is only accessible by boat. The development surfaces a day after her husband released a statement on his Web site saying he was taking an "indefinite break" from golf following revelations of his "infidelity." Here, the couple attend a Cardinal game with their daughter, Sam, on Nov. 21.
Tigers Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, recently purchased a home on a Swedish island that is only accessible by boat. The development surfaces a day after her husband released a statement on his Web site saying he was taking an "indefinite break" from golf following revelations of his "infidelity." Here, the couple attend a Cardinal game with their daughter, Sam, on Nov. 21.
Woods announced Friday he is taking an indefinite break from golf in an attempt to save his marriage following two weeks of allegations of extramarital affairs.
There have been unconfirmed reports the couple may be headed to Sweden to escape the worst of the media frenzy. Nordegren's father, radio talk show host Thomas Nordegren, said Saturday he doesn't know if that's true.
"I have no comment to this. I don't know anything, either," he said.
Faglaro is one of the thousands of islands that make up the Stockholm archipelago. The quickest route there is a 45-minute ferry from Vaxholm - considered the main municipality of the archipelago - where Nordegren grew up.
The island has about 140 properties, mostly summer homes. Only two are used all year, Johansson said.
"But the Faglaro mansion used to be an old farm. It is solid and big and can be used throughout the year," Johansson said.
Nordegren's property is among the biggest on the island. Johansson said negotiations most likely started shortly after the house was put on the market in August - well before Woods' car crash last month at his Florida home touched off the scandal.
Woods and his wife have been married for five years and have a 2-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son.
Since turning professional in 1996, Woods has dominated the sport by winning 14 majors and 82 tournaments worldwide.
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