Tag Archives: sports

by | Tuesday, April 23, 2024 · 7:42 am

Tiger Woods Launches a New Brand – Sun Day Red

Even if you know very little about golf, you can probably recognize professional golfer Tiger Woods wearing his signature red Nike swoosh shirt …. Oops… I forgot, no more Nike shirts for Tiger, he ended that relationship a few months ago after 27 years of sponsorship.

Now, Woods is launching his new brand with TaylorMade Golf. But he still favors the red polo shirt for Sunday rounds. He’s even named his new brand “Sun Day Red” albeit with a tiger embroidered on the shirt instead of a swoosh. The tiger logo is composed of 15 stripes which is the number of championships won by Tiger Woods.

Sun Day Red will be marketed as a premium lifestyle brand for athletes, fans, and non-athletes alike, including apparel, hoodies, shoes, and cashmere sweaters. In essence, the company will be combining golf with fashion and leisure for lifestyle wear. Woods isn’t the only athlete to launch such a lifestyle brand; Roger Federer, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, and Venus and Serena Williams have also entered the marketplace with their own lifestyle/sports brands.

Products will be available online beginning in May, to be followed by international expansion. While pricey, the items are not extreme – polo shirts from $114 – $175, and cashmere sweaters $250 – $350. While TaylorMade does not yet have golf footwear, it’s reportedly under development.

Shall we get a tee time next Sunday?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss how professional athletes have started their own brands.
  2. Show website: https://www.sundayred.com/
  3. Discuss how to build and use a SWOT analysis grid: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (internal and external factors).
  4. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a professional athlete who also has a brand associated with them. (Include Tiger Woods as one of the athletic brands.)
  5. For each athlete, including Tiger Woods, direct the team to build a SWOT analysis grid.
    1. Strengths: what is the brand good at?
    1. Weaknesses: what needs work?
    1. Opportunities: what is going on in the marketplace?
    1. Threats: what should the brand be wary of?
  6. Based on the analysis, what are the issues and risks that might occur for each brand?
  7. Debrief by building SWOT analysis grid on the white board.

Source: Ferguson, D. (13 February 2024). Tiger Woods unveils Sun Day Red, a new apparel brand with TaylorMade. Associated Press; Hirsch, L. & Friedman, V. (12 February 2024). Tiger Woods introduces his new brand: Sun Day Red. New York Times.

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by | Tuesday, February 20, 2024 · 7:46 am

Super Bowl LVIII Sets a Viewing Record!

Winter may be cold, but the Super Bowl game always pumps up the heat! The thrills, the chills, the excitement and surprises – and that’s just the advertisements! The Super Bowl has become one of the premier venues for marketers. And, according to Nielsen and CBS, this year’s event broke a viewing audience record at 123.4 million. (The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce romance certainly helped to increase female and youth viewership.)

At a cost of a $7 million for 30 seconds of air time, the Super Bowl is also the most expensive advertising placement of any event or show. Add to the air time the costs of designing and producing ads, plus the integration into other marketing tactics, and a company can easily spend upwards of $8 million on a single day.

However, the ads aren’t limited to just the Super Bowl viewers; 39 brands released their ads in advance of the game as well. There were also a number of new brands making their Super Bowl debut, including Starry (owned by PepsiCo), Etsy, SNAP, Nerds, Lindt, and more.

Love them or hate them, Super Bowl advertisements have become a talking point before, during, and after the game. More than 50 brands took out ads designed to help them stand out to consumers, many with high-profile athletes and celebrities such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Jennifer Aniston, and Michael Cera.

While the metrics for sales linked to Super Bowl ads won’t be available for months, many respondents watching the game stated they would be open to purchasing products by Doritos, M&Ms, and Budweiser. Ads also led to increased global YouTube views with Booking.com, T-Mobile, and Beyonce’ (of course) generating the most engagement and social mentions.

Commercials were all over the place with top ads as ranked by viewers going to State Farm, Dunkin’, Kia, Uber Eats, Dove, and NFL. And for animal lovers, the Budweiser Clydesdale horses made an appearance and were in fine form.

Which ad is your favorite this year?  

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show one of the Web sites that have all the Super Bowl ads: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/Ad-Meter/2024/02/12/best-super-bowl-2024-commercials-ad-meter-rankings/72538932007/
  2. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a Super Bowl ad to analyze and present in class.
  3. What is the target market, key message, and offer from the ad?
  4. How does the ad integrate with a company’s other promotions?
  5. Are the messages integrated with a company’s Web site and social media?
  6. As a class, after each commercial have students assign one to five stars for the advertisements.
  7. Which advertisement won the class vote?

Source:  Koblin, J. (12 February 2024). Super Bowl viewership rose to 123.4 million, a record high. New York Times; Nerkar, S. (6 February 2024). $7 million for 30 seconds? To advertisers, the Super Bowl is worth it. New York Times; Schultz, E. J. (12 February 2024). Super Bowl alert: Big game ad winners and losers. Ad Age Daily; other news sources.

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by | Wednesday, January 24, 2024 · 7:56 am

Where do you golf?

How many readers are golfers? Wait. How should we define golfers? Are they regular players on a golf course consistently, or do we include folks who like the driving range but rarely walk onto a course?

The definition of ‘golfer’ has certainly been blurred by the expansion of Topgolf, as well as fueled by the use of technology in simulators and driving ranges. According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of people going to these locations now is greater than the number of people playing golf on outdoor courses.

And that’s a good thing for the golf industry in general. Long-viewed as an expensive, elitist sport dominated by males, the changing role of technology in golf now opens the sport up to more people who want to drive a ball, but not necessarily spend thousands of dollars and hours on it. Anytime an industry can introduce new consumers to its value, it has a chance of keeping the consumer’s interest.

Plus, Topgolf is more social than traditional golf courses. Topgolf’s approach is much more social, hosting groups of players with tables, couches, food and drink. Microchips embedded in the golf balls track shots, allowing golfers to virtually compete with each other, play famous courses and video courses.

As a result, some traditional country clubs and golf courses are also now more agreeable to revising old traditions and loosening dress codes, as well as designing new and entertaining games for the course and speedier play.

No need to yell “fore” on this tee.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Who would consider themselves as golfers? How would they define the market? Where and when do they play golf?
  2. Show Topgolf’s website: https://topgolf.com/us/
  3. Poll students about their Topgolf experience.
  4. Who is the target market for Topgolf?
  5. What is an off-course golfer and how can it be reached?
  6. Divide students into teams and have them research the trends occurring in golf both on-course and off-course.
  7. ALTERNATIVE: Have students explore Topgolf as a franchise investment.

Source: Feuer, W. (1 December 2024). For the first time, most golfers play off-course. Wall Street Journal.

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