Generating Trust

Yet again, something which happened in one corner of the world has re-iterated the value of Trust.

Tiger Woods' infidelity admissions and disclosures and their affects offer us lessons in trust, ethics, salability and branding too.

In times of market recession, share market plunge, housing bubble burst and huge job losses, generating trust is difficult- yet very important.

Brands and their Ambassadors

Why do multi-national companies and big brands have larger than life sportsmen, film stars as brand-ambassadors?

Isn't it to cash in on their personal charisma, out of the world success stories and hard working, honest, committed bright shiny faces?

Now what happens to a brand when one of those bright faces has his/her dirty laundry washed in public? The "honest to God, pure as gold, committed to work and family" image of the brand-ambassador is lost. So the brand which almost yelled at the top of it's voice - "Hey.. we are what our poster boy is!!" wants to back-off.

Multi-million dollar deals are cancelled. Contracts torn up (not literally ..of course!)

A few multi-national companies Tiger is tied to - Accenture, Nike(my personal fav!.. :( ), Tag Heuer, AT&T, Gillette (maybe they will cash in on the bad boy angle!?)

Poor Accenture, It cashed in on the corporate image of Tiger Woods. Competitiveness, great ability to judge things - remember the ad where Tiger looks beyond, makes a decision and gets the shot right. "Seeing the big picture -50%, attention to detail -50%" goes the tagline (.. seriously the guy forgot both, and actually texted the ladies!)

"Accenture - High performance delivered" is gonna be the coffee machine joke - Where is the high performance delivered?.. of course in bed!

But a bigger joke would be "Accenture - Go on, Be a Tiger!" - Need I say more!?

Accenture had no other choice, but break ties.

Gillette need not break ties. Common!.. If you are a down to core , a guy's product and your ads once upon a time lived on "over rated sexiness, bordering on male chauvinism"- a little bad boy image won't hurt. If they drop him, it would be idiotic.

We all know he will be back!.. will take some time, bend his head, hug his wife, attend to kids, cry on Oprah, - But he will be back and will give us the nice mama's boy, honest smile. Won't we hug him? So Gillette won't drop him.

Tag Heuer brought his posters down, made a statement about "reassessing their ties with Tiger" Typical swiss guys!... "Let's sit and watch!.. Let's see how it goes" style

My advice (which they get free of cost, as I can't use it) - It's gonna be the usual story guys. He's too cute and too good at what he does not to be forgiven.

Of course Nike won't drop him. Nike has been his official sponsor for more than 10 years. Golf makes up only 5% of Nike's business. Most of this 5% comes from Golf equipment rather than shoes on which you can find Tiger's stamp. No damage done! and of course he will be back. Then Nike can smirk at everyone and say "See!... that's what we call commitment!.. We stuck to our boy in times of trouble"

But it's not brands, their contracts and ads I'm bothered about. (and I could still write so much about it!.. gosh!.. I can still surprise myself!! :P )

TV and the smaller guys

Tiger's indefinite break has affected TV more than MNCs. There are channels exclusively for Golf. These channels make more money covering every move Tiger makes than any other Golfer. The PGA unarguably sells Tiger's face to fill the audience galleries. Television ratings for the event are sure to plummet. The bigger picture - reporters who cover all the events Tiger plays, agents who sell tickets for the galleries, book hotels for the fans - Selling is tough more than ever, now.

Just a tit-bit about the game - There are fans who walk the whole course just to be along with players, mostly Tiger.

Having said all this, I think poor Tiger is taking all the heat, cause Golf is a relatively non-controversial (read gentlemanly= sleepy) game, and he is one of the few identifiable faces for a non-fan. If one of the soccer player has an affair, its not news. No one remembers who slept with whom.

Back to Brands and Marketing

So what makes Brands, Brand endorsements more stronger and really tells the target audience - Its just not success and competitiveness, but its about bonds, ties and freshness.

Isn't it time that MNCs stopped running after the most costliest celebrities? Isn't it time that they started looking beyond No.1?

Look at Formula 1 and Indy racing. It's time companies and sponsors looked beyond the champions - everyone is trying to get a chunk of Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button

I want to know who sponsors Sara Fisher, Erin Crockner, Allison Duncan. If Chevrolet and Audi are some of the biggest supporters of Women in Indy Racing and F1, they have me hooked. I like them better than Ferrari. Common guys!, which company would hurt from having a face like Danica Patrick? - a girl who says she is not afraid of the big boys :)

All these women may never make it to top 20. But I would love the brands for having the guts to stand by them.

When Nike was on its search for a sportswomen for the "Nike Women campaign" in 2006, it dint pick just another sportswomen (of course by then, they already had Serena Williams et al). It chose to pick a street dancer. The new face was Sofia Boutella - a less known hip hop dancer.

Just look at their ads of her to see the out of box thinking.

Its time brands started looking at the not so famous, graffiti artist in the neighbour hood as it next face. Trust, commitment, freshness, quality don't come only with big names. They can also be attributes of the young chess champion who stays in my apartment block.