Julien Combes’ blog post about David Beckham

I read Julien Combes’ blog post from February 24th about David Beckham. Beckham is truly a unique story among all athletes in the world. The product David Beckham has become known in every corner of the world. His latest transfer to Paris St. Germain (PSG) is just one of the transfers he has been through where he as a marketing tool has been discussed. For this post, I am just going to add on some more reasons for why Beckham is just as much as a marketing tool as an athlete.

The product David Beckham started in the 90s when he broke through as an athlete and married the superstar Victoria “Posh Spice” Adams from Spice Girls. Together they become the definition of a super couple. As Julien mentioned, Beckham signed lucrative sponsor contracts with companies like Adidas, Pepsi, H&M, and several more. He has appeared in many commercials and magazines, such as the Armani ad with Victoria seen on the right hand side.

I remember when I was a kid back in Norway, if Beckham changed his hairstyle then everybody did the same. Here is a summary of his hairstyles through the years. Everybody, both girls and boys, loved Beckham for his looks and/or his athletic skills.

He was a big reason why his hometown, which is London, got the Olympics in 2012, and now he is promoting football, or soccer as it is called in North America, in China.

Julien mentioned that Beckham played for LA Galaxy in the US. Many people stated that he decided to go there to capture a market where he was not as popular as he was in Europe. Of course, Beckham succeeded and became more popular than ever.

The perfect example is the €35 million transfer fee for Beckham’s when he left Manchester United for Real Madrid in 2003. Apparently, Real Madrid earned back all the money they spent on the transfer in a year only on jersey sales. From a financial perspective and a marketing perspective, Real Madrid did a very good deal! On top of that he was one of the best players on the planet.

In other words, I totally agree that David Beckham is a marketing tool; however, the transfer to PSG is not the only time he has been used as a marketing tool. In my opinion, He has been a marketing tool since he married Victoria Adams in 1999.