August 2010 – Marketing Decoded

Bolt’s Gold

The world’s most lovable athlete, who knocked us all out with his sprinting ability and personality in Beijing, has finally signed an athletic wear endorsement deal with his longtime supporter, Puma. What’s notable about this deal is that it’s the biggest deal in athletics history. Say again! The biggest deal ever! Details haven’t been released but this one echoes another fave’s, Ronaldo’s $32.5 million 4 year deal with Nike.
Bolt has been compared to David Beckham as one of the most marketable athletic stars. Many athletes can connect on the performance side of their sport. Bolt connects with fans in a unique way. Marketing and endorsement gold.The world’s most lovable athlete, who knocked us all out with his sprinting ability and personality in Beijing, has finally signed an athletic wear endorsement deal with his longtime supporter, Puma. What’s notable about this deal is that it’s the biggest deal in athletics history. Say again! The biggest deal ever! Details haven’t been released but this one echoes another fave’s, Ronaldo’s $32.5 million 4 year deal with Nike.
Bolt has been compared to David Beckham as one of the most marketable athletic stars. Many athletes can connect on the performance side of their sport. Bolt connects with fans in a unique way. Marketing and endorsement gold.
An interesting marketing question to consider is why do celebrity athletes command higher endorsement fees than actors, singers or musicians? Sports is the only arena in which the performance is unscripted and the day’s play spontaneous. Athletes gives us an opportunity to cheer and live our own best sports day vicariously through their performances. This is a quality that ad writers can’t create. Sports offers us the chance of failure, elation and memories. Remember Crosby’s Olympics goal. Where were you? What were you doing? Because of this, we’re willing to buy the golf clubs, sports drinks, even pain relievers, these demigods shill more than those endorsed by the latest movie star.

An interesting marketing question to consider is why do celebrity athletes command higher endorsement fees than actors, singers or musicians? Sports is the only arena in which the performance is unscripted and the day’s play spontaneous. Athletes gives us an opportunity to cheer and live our own best sports day vicariously through their performances. This is a quality that ad writers can’t create. Sports offers us the chance of failure, elation and memories. Remember Crosby’s Olympics goal. Where were you? What were you doing? Because of this, we’re willing to buy the golf clubs, sports drinks, even pain relievers, these demigods shill more than those endorsed by the latest movie star.

Different: Thoughts on differentiation

Just finished a fascinating book written entirely on the subject of differentiation and how most products with which we are familiar and regular consumers have become vastly undifferentiated. What, undifferentiated?! Think about it. Next time you stand in front of a row of power bars or running shoes or even your next laptop purchase: are one brand, one product really that different from the next? Or have you become an expert in the powerbar-running shoe-laptop category by now and THAT is why you can perceive differentiation?

It’s a powerful point that Youngme Moon puts forward in her new book, Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd. Moon shows us that product proliferation in a category does not beget product diversification but in fact, just the opposite. Consumers, we greedy monsters, want our favourite products do deliver more of what our competitors’ products offer too. We want it all in our favourite product. And so manufacturers oblige. Instead of playing to their strengths and giving us more of what they’re good at, manufacturers give us more of what everybody else is offering.

Moon’s antidote for reversal is for companies to become stripped down, simple, naked. Do just one thing and do it well. Don’t offer oceans. Be Google (when it started) not Yahoo. Ninteno Wii. JetBlue. By offering customers less, companies can become more successful by standing out, if it’s done strategically.