Newswise — There is hope for Tiger Woods to redeem his career and his sponsorships, according to Jennifer Regina, an adjunct professor of marketing at Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J.
“The personal chaos that has surrounded Tiger Woods has also dealt a severe blow to his financial account since he has lost many corporate sponsorships due to his alleged marital infidelities,” Regina said. Both Gatorade and Tag Heuer dropped Tiger in early December, although their reasons were cited as “not related to his recent actions.” Many others such as Accenture and AT&T also followed suit and decided that Tiger Woods was not the best reflection on their company. Nike still remains tied to Woods.
What will Tiger Woods have to do to get those sponsorships back? Is it even possible?
“There is a good chance for Tiger to redeem himself,” Regina said. “One piece of evidence is the recent announcement this week of Britney Spears reconvening her sponsorship of Candies Shoes. For a long time, Spears was the kiss of death for all products when she shaved her head and attacked paparazzi with an umbrella. The idea of ‘fixing’ and ‘reinventing’ or ‘apologizing’ does hold weight in the eyes of many American consumers. Woods needs to establish a series of steps to bring him back to a marketer's dream sponsor.”
The Tiger Wood's Plan, according to Regina, would be as follows:
1) Fix the Problem - He is currently doing this through sex addiction therapy.2) Apologize - I believe his Friday news conference will be all about apologizing to his wife, family, the golf industry and his sponsors.3) Disappear - Woods needs to take a break from golf (which he already announced) and concentrate on his personal life. This will also allow the negative publicity to subside and be less of an impact in a consumer's mind.4) Rebuild - Woods will then need to slowly rebuild his image by maintaining an excellent personal reputation, volunteering to charities and cultivating a new image.
Regina spent 10 years in corporate marketing for Nielsen, Dial Corporation, Pillsbury and Mattel Toys in marketing research, product development and category management. She spent the last eight years teaching at local universities, including Rowan, where she teaches all levels of marketing classes (on topics such as consumer behavior, advertising and promotion) and MBA online classes. She has had many articles published concerning her specialty of social media for small businesses. She is CEO of Washington Township, N.J.-based The Marketing of Everything, a marketing consulting company, which shows small businesses how to promote, advertise and development long-term relationships with their customers using social media.
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