Athlete Endorsement Contracts: the Impact of Conventional Stars

ARTICLE 1: Athlete endorsement contracts: the impact of conventional stars .

Abstract:

[pic]

Critical Analysis:

Most companies are in it to make money for them self and one good way to achieve that goal is to increase their brand image. In the past companies try to do this traditional way such as commercials, advertising even through public relations. Since the rise of sports and elite athlete such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods became household names, companies realized there is potential endorsement to enhance their brand image. This article simply talks about how beneficial as to what is the return on investment for companies when they are endorsing athletes of various sports. For example in the article it mentions how Nike stock rose by .75% after Lebron James a basketball player signed with them or when Michael Jordan came back to basketball in 1995 how his clients market value went up by 2%. There is a definite jump in the market growth for these companies but growth isn’t that huge. There aren’t too many athlete like James, Jordan or Woods so the payoff to endorse a regular or “conventional” athlete wont have any change in companies market share, image or even stock.

From managers perspective at the end of the day you want to bring on good ROI either through higher stock price or more market share, in the article the studies shows that only the elite athletes creates a fair value for the companies, the conventional athletes has no impact what so ever. Another interesting finding of this article is the effectiveness of the sponsorship varies from sports to sports. As a sports marketing manager all these information must be taken in to account when considering making a endorsement deal with athelets. At the end of the day if there is no return of the investment we as managers make there is no point of making that investment at all.

Annotated Bibliography:

Fizel, J. McNeil, C. and Smaby, T. (2008): "Athlete endorsement contracts: the...