Does golf rely too much on Tiger as a brand?
The brand of golf has become so entwined with Tiger Woods, that the announcement he's going to miss the rest of the year because of the need for knee surgery will definitely hurt the game for the latter part of 2008.
It made me think about branding in general for businesses, which can live or die when they allow themselves to be connected in the public eye with one person or product.
In terms of golf, there's probably not much they can do about it, as the media has been fixated on Tiger Woods for years, and nothing was going to change that. So the play level of Tiger, along with the seemingly nonstop coverage of him, created Tiger as the face of golf to the world.
With our businesses, we do need to be careful not to brand something so strongly within the business that we will live or die with its success or failure.
As mentioned before, how Tiger Woods goes so goes golf's ratings on television. Over the last 20 years ratings for golf have been basically flat. When Tiger Woods advances in a tournament, the ratings surge through the roof, and this year it was no different.
In other words, Tiger Woods is his own brand within the brand of golf. Those that follow him as an individual brand add to the brand of golf when his performance drives interest from those that otherwise wouldn't watch a tournament on TV.
There's also the factor of him just showing up at a tournament and people coming to get a look at him personally in the gallery.
All this will have a great impact on the game of golf for the rest of the year, and reminds us that we can live or die with a strong brand.
The answer is similar to how Disney (DIS) does it. They have a number of strong brands, so if one falters there are a number of others available to pick up the slack. That's why they don't get too troubled when one of the stars they groom ends up doing stupid stuff. Even if the star falls, they have plenty of potential brands in the wings waiting for their chance to shine.
We have to operate in the same way when (not if) something we promote starts to falter.
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