TW The Man, TW The Brand

(warning - this is just a rant on the PR and marketing side of the recent Tiger Woods car accident and spin mill that is flying, still out of control after 3-4 days)

Perhaps the deepest lasting impact of the Tiger crash news explosion is that we've lost trust in Tiger Woods the brand. I remain an enormous fan of his golf ability. I can't imagine that ever changing. But TW the brand has been severely damaged by his lack of talent in how he's communicated to his fanbase.

Tiger the man is entitled to all the privacy he wants, demands, and that the constitution will allow him. We all have the power of free will, of choice, and we live with the consequences of those decisions.

Tiger the brand had another mis-hit with today's poorly worded statement. A combo of bad timing and off center messaging produced more bad results. The 3 main constituents for TW the brand are his fanbase, his sponsors, and the media. This 3 some creates an ecosystem that drives that part of his business and rev streams. The ecosystem wants to know "why" and "how" and until we do this story will just not go away.

We want to know this, and feel we deserve it because what has transpired so clearly does not fit the brand we've been overtly sold and bought into all these years.

This incident has peeled back the curtain on how little respect and affection the brand of Tiger has for his audience ecosystem. That surprises the hell out of me and that makes me a little angry at him and at me. I may be even more surprised that I am this surprised.

When a brand loses respect for its fans, and shows it so clearly it puts all its equity at risk. That's just horrific business management.

Its a shame really. A little humility, transparency, and authenticity would go so far in a time like this. This ain't rocket science. And we don't expect to hear all the details. But when TW clamps down and goes into the control defense the full ecosystem smells blood and reacts, careening into assumptions and innuendo. We lose trust.

We lose trust. You lose credibility. That's huge. That costs a lot of money.

Important sidenote: This event caused me to really internalize his quote about why he loves to go scuba diving: "because the fish don't ask for autographs". When I first heard that I figured he was kidding and being flippant and yet now I pretty much believe that this sums it up. TW has an astonishing lack of respect and affection for the engine that drives his brand: his fans, his sponsors, and the media. He doesn't get it.

Get with it TW. You went to Stanford. You're supposed to be smart. We feel a little bit like you hoodwinked us and we hate that. It isn't too late. Time to get a few new caddies on the biz front and open up a bit. Communicate to your fans with some level of apparent sincerity. Punch it back in the fairway and grind it out, take the medicine.

this could be a great opportunity