Marketing Tiger and the PGA Tour

[Richie3Jack]

I think Tiger is good for the game, until the PGA Tour, Nike and The Golf Channel market the game all wrong when he's there. The NFL does a great job of marketing its product. In a time when the Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season, Peyton Manning playing as well as arguably any QB of all time...they kept on marketing other players like Adrian Peterson, Drew Brees, Antonio Gates, etc. And they kep marketing small markets like Green Bay, Pittsburgh, etc.

If the PGA Tour, TGC and Nike were in charge of marketing the NFL...they would almost never bother to market anybody but Dallas, New York, and New England. And the Saints, a year away from winning the Super Bowl would become an afterthought.

This isn't Tiger's fault...I believe he's good for the game, but the powers that be do a poor job and just market him. So when he's not playing or he's out of contention, most TV viewers don't care anymore.

And at the rate Tiger is going, we may see a lot more times where he doesn't make the cut.






3JACK

 

[Bigwill]

I think Tiger is good for the game, until the PGA Tour, Nike and The Golf Channel market the game all wrong when he's there. The NFL does a great job of marketing its product. In a time when the Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season, Peyton Manning playing as well as arguably any QB of all time...they kept on marketing other players like Adrian Peterson, Drew Brees, Antonio Gates, etc. And they kep marketing small markets like Green Bay, Pittsburgh, etc.

If the PGA Tour, TGC and Nike were in charge of marketing the NFL...they would almost never bother to market anybody but Dallas, New York, and New England. And the Saints, a year away from winning the Super Bowl would become an afterthought.

This isn't Tiger's fault...I believe he's good for the game, but the powers that be do a poor job and just market him. So when he's not playing or he's out of contention, most TV viewers don't care anymore.

And at the rate Tiger is going, we may see a lot more times where he doesn't make the cut.






3JACK

They really can't successfully market golf the same way as they do the NFL or similar sports, or at least they don't feel that they can. For one, it's not as popular in the mainstream as football. For example, I was listening to a sports talk radio show, and the host didn't know who Rory McIlroy was. How often will a sports writer or talk show host not know who a top 30 NFL or NBA player is?

 

[Richie3Jack]

They really can't successfully market golf the same way as they do the NFL or similar sports, or at least they don't feel that they can. For one, it's not as popular in the mainstream as football. For example, I was listening to a sports talk radio show, and the host didn't know who Rory McIlroy was. How often will a sports writer or talk show host not know who a top 30 NFL or NBA player is?

That's the problem, the lousy marketing of the game makes it difficult for people to know other golfers not name Tiger (and to a lesser extent, Phil Mickelson). I always find myself laughing and shaking my head in those Golf Channel 'Top 10' lists because they always make sure to find a place for Tiger at the top of the list. If they had a 'top 10 golfers who were white and didn't cheat on their wife and didn't go to Stanford', I think they'd find a way to put Tiger in the top 5. Ridiculous.

Any sport needs to market itself on the premise of developing/marketing new stars on a constant basis or the sport will lose interest in viewers and fans.

The big thing that golf has to overcome is golfer's success and future success can be wildly unpredictable. Ian Baker-Finch and David Duval are prime examples. But, I think the same could be said for the NFL where the injury rate and it's impact on a player and team's future performance can be dramatic.

IMO, if I was in charge of marketing the PGA Tour I would hope that Tiger gets back to playing like the old Tiger and then I could use that to help market other players and perhaps build up those players to being better than they really are and/or create rivalries that are not truly there, but perception is reality and the perception of a rivalry can draw a lot more interest. I think that would draw more interest when Tiger is in the hunt and a ton more interest when Tiger isn't involved.







3JACK