Branding is a direct relation that is experienced when a consumer hears a brand name or sees a recognizable company product. Function of a brand is how it builds a presence and emotion is the feeling it instills in their customers about a product and how they connect with a brand.
By utilizing brand extension, many teams, athletes, and sport (consumer good) producers have used existing well known brands to create a new category of product or personality to market to consumers.
With personality and "celebranding" sport has been able to use famous athletes to further their consumer interest and loyalty, increasing revenues.
The Davie-Brown Index shows the affect celebrity endorsers have on their represented brands and how fans consume the endorsed products.
The Beefcake/Cheesecake Factors are utilized in celebranding to attach attractive sport personalities to products seeking endorsements in the sport industry. For example Anna Kournikova or Raphael Nadal marketing non-tennis related products like clothing or watches.
We discussed some well-known celebrands in class such as Michael Jordan, and how he has dominated a culture with his personality branding, as well as brand extension to clothing, shoes, backpacks, etc. Michael Jordan has almost always emulated a role model for consumers. But does celebranding as a concept provide a positive externality for athletes? Who truly benefits from celebranding?
We also discussed LeBron James and "The Decison." Was this form of celebranding worthwhile to his image? To his team(s)? Or to the NBA?
Stephanie Loomis
Celebranding is usually seen as beneficial to the company and hurtful to the athlete. More often than not, people see athletes as greedy when they see an athlete marketing for a company. Sometimes the athlete actually holds a connection to the product/company, but usually this is not the case. Too often athletes are willing to do a commercial, or advertisement, just for the money. As for LeBron and The Decision, that answer is obvious. He hurt his own, his team, and the league's image by going through with that "TV special." Almost everyone outside of his family and Miami Heat fans dislike LeBron, and after The Decision, many people view the league just as greedy as the players, if not more.
ReplyDelete-Michael Discipio
I disagree with you about how celebranding is hurtful to the athlete. Usually when people see athletes marketing for a company, it makes them eager to buy that companies products if they like the athlete. For example, when Michael Jordan started endorsing Nike, their sales skyrocketed because people wanted to be like him. That didn't make him look greedy, that made him very popular along with the company. I agree with you that sometimes athletes agree to deals just because of the money, and other times they do have a connection with the company and it's products. However, when athletes do commercials or advertisements, they are usually actually using the products themselves. It might be just for the money, but other times they like the product and that is why they are endorsing them. It's like Kobe Bryant's show commercials. Yes there is money that he is receiving from those commercials, but he is also trying to get people to buy his product because it helps him perform and he wants to get his shoe out there so it will help other athletes perform as well. I agree that The Decision was a greedy act and it ticked off almost every NBA fan. Even though he might have raised money for charity, I think Lebron and others helping with the whole Decision idea could have come up with a better way to raise money.
ReplyDelete-Kody Burlingame
I'm not sure how I missed hearing this term "celebranding" so I'm glad you brought it up Stephanie. I googled it and found this link to a blog about how Celebrities protect their brands: http://cele-branding.com/2007/11/07/branding-the-athlete-the-good-old-boy-bubba-watson-inks-deal-with-steve--barrys-for-collection-of-highquality-lowpriced-golf-and-casual-apparel.aspx
ReplyDeleteApparently there can be legal and trademark implications for celebrities who make deals with various companies. In the above blog entry, the author discusses the ramifications of Bubba Watson's deal with Steve and Barry's. Very interesting. Thanks again for discussing this concept.
Dr. Spencer