Sports Endorsements: Are They Worthwhile?
How valuable are athlete endorsements? If you are the athlete, they are typically the gold standard. Everyone gets a salary, but not everyone receives an endorsement deal.
Some people still believe that endorsements are worthless. In this commentary on CNN, former best-selling author Bob Greene weighs in on the topic:
How would you feel if you read an ecstatic movie review that made you want to run right down to the theater and buy a ticket -- and then it was reported that the reviewer had received a large check from the movie studio to make sure he gave the film a rave?
What Greene ignores is the obvious fact that the public knows that all endorsers are paid. It is not a trick. We know Brett Favre was paid by Wrangler. We know Peyton Manning was paid by DirecTV. We know Walter Dix was paid by Nike. Yet the endorsements still work because fans want to be associated with athletes.
Greene’s column makes no sense. He argues that the endorsements are useless because the athlete is being paid. What he ignores is basic sports business – and common sense. Consider Favre’s endorsement of Wrangler. If a consumer had the time and resources to carefully study Wrangler versus all the other jeans in the same price category, he would probably not find a substantial difference between Wrangler and the competition. I am sure that the company would disagree, but if you ripped off the labels from Wrangler and Levi's and Lee jeans, would there be a notable distinction? From Wrangler’s perspective, the company needs every possible edge to beat out the competition. So they pay a lot of money to a well-known quarterback to endorse them. They create an image that they feel is associated with Favre’s image. People already like Favre, and they see him having fun playing touch football in the park with his buddies while wearing Wranglers. This helps people make decisions.
People are not stupid. If Wrangler was actually terrible quality and it fell apart after you wore the jeans once, then Favre’s endorsement would not mean much. Instead, his celebrity endorsement separates the product from the competition.
