Bad month for Woods and Gillette’s brand ambassadors
And then there was one...
Gillette must be kicking themselves! In the space of two weeks, two of their three iconic global brand ambassadors (Thierry Henry, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer) have made the headlines for the wrong reasons. Unless of course I’ve got the wrong end of the stick and Tiger Woods smashing into a fire hydrant outside his house was part of some elaborate guerrilla marketing campaign – he lost control of the car while shaving? He was dragged from the vehicle only to flip to his feet and have a 2am street-shave under the erupting hydrant? Maybe not – bit ‘80’s…
Two weeks ago, of course, brand ambassador number two, Thierry Henry, found himself in the centre of a storm of negative publicity after using his left hand – his shaving hand – to propel France into the World Cup Finals. Despite his clean cut image and exemplary professional record, he was immediately placed in the same bracket as comedy sporting baddy, Diego Maradona. And in some parts of Dublin football fans would have you believe that Henry had shared a changing room with the devil himself as they called for a complete boycott of Gillette products.
Of the smooth skinned triumvirate, only Roger Federer remains untarnished.
The Gillette brand ambassador strategy is quite interesting. The rationale for their choices is fairly self explanatory: Best of the best, clean cut, multi-national, multi-racial, cross-sporting, multi-award-wining, record-breaking, global heroes. If you could afford them, why wouldn’t you want these people endorsing your brand?
There is also a more functional element of this strategy. It is the same approach that aeronautical engineers take to designing jet engines on large planes – All engines have separate fuel lines, separate power sources and separate controls. On a large aeroplane, if one or two engines fail, no need to panic, there are two or three others working just fine.
The analogy is not perfect, and as a nervous flier, I’d rather not take it too far, but the point is clear; by spreading their bets Gillette can avoid any single misdemeanour undermining their whole endorsement strategy. Examples of stars being dropped by brands are fairly common: Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps was ditched by Kellogg’s after getting caught smoking a bong at a frat party, Kate Moss was ditched by Burberry after allegations of cocaine abuse.
Two down in as many weeks is a test for the Gillette brand ambassador strategy. As Woods himself said yesterday, “I am human, and I am not perfect”. As well as being a great way to increase desirability, personifying your brand’s values through a celebrity endorsement will always carry this risk. It is the humanity of this endorsement that is both the opportunity and the threat.
For Gillette, the key issue is the size, purity and ‘grouping’ of their stars. The three shine even more brightly together, but also make a tremendous impact when they come crashing down. Last week the company made a statement to say it would not be dropping Henry for his handball. The Woods story is of course still unfolding.
To return to my earlier analogy, Gillette will be praying that their third engine doesn’t fail and that Roger Federer holds his form until Christmas. However, knowing the brand’s luck at the moment, expect to see grainy images of the wholesome Swiss running down the street wearing nothing but his trademark headband, howling at the moon and playing his tennis racket like a banjo.
Tags: Tiger Woods
This entry was posted on Monday, 30 Nov 2009 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Branding, General.
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