If you did not notice Tiger Woods has been in the news a lot lately. How much? Lets take a look at some visual representations utilizing some of the exact tools that you would use to monitor your brand. Then I’m going to ask you a very simple question at the end of this post.
First we’re going to use the Trend search from Blog Pulse to create a graph that plots “buzz” about Tiger Woods in the blogosphere. We’re going to look at a 6 month window.
How about some search analytics from Compete? Notice an uptick?
Icerocket also tracks blog mentions and real time search trends, look at it’s graph and check out the numbers below the graph.
One of the most impressive and visually appealing of the tools that I used was from Trendrr which allowed us to track qualitative, quantitative, real-time, sentiment, and competitive trends. For the purpose of this post, we looked at Google results, tweets from Twitter and blog posts on Google..
Driving the point home, we now look at Google Trends.
So your team Tiger or your the brand manager for your company and you see these kinds of results. What are you going to do to repair this? What is your first step? How would a large organization manage its reputation after taking a hit like this? What does Tiger do now? What will repair a reputation damaged to this degree? What does Nike do?
Direct Marketing Observations 
Hi Marc,
Tiger gave up his right to privacy for $1 billion dolllars…
Being real, being transparent, being human and a bit less private… is a start in the right direction.
However, most importantly – winning will make this bump in the road go away in no time.
Mark – this is not a bump in the road. These are several bumps, then some potholes, then maybe more. Right now the amount of women he’s had affairs with is somewhere between eight and eleven.
Each will come with their own story. And maybe voice mails, emails, and text messages. Each will be bombarded with appeals from tabloid type media to come out with stories about their relationship. And, as always, in many cases, you’ll have “friends” of the mistresses come out and tell stories as well.
And then there’s the likely fallout from a potential divorce – a divorce that could provide plenty of fodder.
Brand Tiger, as it was, is no more.
You won’t see him on too many TV commercials anytime soon. Maybe during golf tournaments, but that’s it. He’ll be in print first – in business and sports pubs. But he is no longer the “nice young man” that emerged as a great marketing symbol.
Unfortunately…but the looks of your graphs, this probably won’t hurt him too much. I mean look how many people are blogging, talking, tweeting, commenting on this person. Never been a big fan of his, so whatever he endorses doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s just really sad that his bad choices have made him more of a “brand” as you call it, than his talent. And yes, one would argue that because of his talent and success that’s why his actions are under a microscope. Just more proof that fame makes some people think they are above the rules of society. But then I guess what once was frowned upon, cheating on your spouse, is now making him famous again. So to answer your question, how will he recover? Is it really going to matter? People will put him back on his pedestal and brush all of his destruction under the rug.
@Cindi, your last sentence nailed it. Is it really going to matter? People will put him back on his pedestal and brush all of his destruction under the rug.
One thing that people don’t realize is that all of this is relative.
Fall he will – he’s already losing endorsements – and he’ll fall far. And he’s never fully recover.
But that doesn’t mean he won’t have a loyal base of fans (golf fans that is) who will still pull for him. That doesn’t mean he won’t get endorsements. Those fan followings and endorsements shouldn’t be mistaken for a full comeback.
If it was just once affair, he would likely recover. But his cool-as-a cucumber image is shot because of his reckless behavior.
I got in a debate on another online forum in which one person pointed out how people like Bill Clinton and Elliot Spitzer have screwed up and then come back. I countered with the fact that Clinton’s second term wasn’t nearly as strong as it could have been and that Spitzer completely blew his chance at being the first Jewish American president.
Woods can bounce back, but the bounce won’t be as high and it will be on a different angle.
@jptrenn, all great point, not the least being that he will never fully recover. His legacy will forever include this chapter in an otherwise sterling career. He has lost the trust of the casual fan.