The marketability of
Tiger Woods will suffer following his arrest for driving under the influence,
but the former world number one golfer’s current sponsors will likely stay by
his side, according to experts.
Woods, who had surgery in April to relieve
back pain, blamed the incident on prescription drugs, but that was not enough
to keep his droopy-eyed mug shot from being etched in the minds of many who
were once captivated by his dominance on the course.
Still, despite his
struggles on and off the course, Woods is the greatest golfer of his generation
and sponsors like Nike, Bridgestone Golf, Monster Energy and TaylorMade are not
likely to rush and cut ties with him, marketing experts said.
“They have to be very measured in terms of
their response to their relation with him,” said David Carter, professor of
sports business at the University of Southern California’s Marshal School of
Business.
“He may not be delivering value but you could
also be doing harm to your own brand if you cut and run on a guy with such
global notoriety.”
Woods is second on the all-time list with 14
major titles but a player whose famous fist pump and beaming smile were once a
regular site on the PGA Tour has lost his form and barely played in recent
years. Most of his sponsors, when asked if they would
review their agreements with Woods in light of Monday’s DUI arrest, either did
not respond to requests for comment or said it was inappropriate to do so at
this time.
Bridgestone Golf, however, said they “will
continue to monitor this situation and gather information from the appropriate
sources investigating the matter.”
But details of the arrest report which stated,
among other things, that Woods was asleep at the wheel of a parked car with the
engine running and was disoriented when woken up by a police officer, cannot be
sitting well with sponsors.
And with Woods expected to miss the rest of
the 2016-17 PGA Tour season after back surgery, his level of appeal to
companies may be at an all-time low.
“You can overcome a DUI if you are a big
enough star and you keep winning,” said Bob Dorfman, creative director of Baker
Street Advertising in San Francisco.
“But you can’t overcome not being on the
course for months, not winning championships and being pretty much a non entity
in the golf world.
This is not the first time Woods has made
headlines away from the course. In 2009, a sex scandal turned his previously
unblemished life and career upside down.
It also cost Woods a number of endorsement
deals, while other sponsors shifted away from using him in marketing but did
not end their contracts with him.
Woods could see a similar reaction this time
around.
“He’s not playing, he’s not winning and so he
has less chips to play with, if you will, in the endorsement game so that
clearly makes it even more difficult for him,” said George Belch, marketing
professor at San Diego State University.
“But you are still talking about an extremely
high profile athlete here who transcended sports in many ways even if his
baggage has clearly gotten bigger through the years.” While the arrest report showed Woods had no
alcohol in his system, results of a urine test that have not been released will
go a long way in determining Woods’ marketability.
Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at
Smith College in Massachusetts, said sponsors will likely cut ties with Woods
should the results show he was lying.
“The main issue is whether Tiger’s story is
accurate. If indeed he is taking multiple medicines and they interacted with
each other and knocked him out and he didn’t anticipate it then I think he
fully recovers,” said Zimbalist.
“Another part of his ability to rebound and
what happens to his legacy is going to be determined by how he comes back as a
golfer and nobody knows the answer to that, probably not even Tiger himself.”
