Athletic Endorsements and its Advantages

I. Introduction

Did you know that Tiger Woods earned $87 million dollars in 2006 for

endorsements?

What is endorsement? Is there any difference between product endorsement

and advertisement? As readers, it is important for you to have an idea about

endorsements and advertisements before you read the body of the research. Will this

affect your daily life if you do not read this research? Apparently not, but it will be better

if you have an idea on what is happening behind the advertisements you see on media

every day. This study would be interesting to the readers as much as it interests the

author because most people, including the author, watch television; and that is where

you will find a lot of advertisements and endorsements.

If we say that advertisement is a way to spread information to do business, then

probably it started ages ago. For example, a man goes out of his house and shouts to

sell his crops; that probably is a form of advertising. However, advertising really began

when printing was invented around the late 1400’s. With this invention, advertising

developed from being an announcement to something that will persuade people to buy

a certain product.

“Advertisement is the means by which goods or services are promoted to the

public.The advertiser’s goal is to increase sales of these goods and services by drawing

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people’s attention to them and showing them in a favorable light.”(Petley,J., Advertising,

p.4)

On the other hand, product endorsement is a form of testimonial from someone

which indicates that they like or approve of a product. Commonly, product

endorsements are solicited from people who are socially prominent, allowing

companies to advertise their products. (Wisegeek, 2009)

Example of product endorsers is athletes. “They are like movie stars. Everyone

knows them or at least heard of their name. But they are better than movie stars

because most of them have a great success story attached to them, therefore making

them a role model in the society.” (Singh, I., Athletes Endorsements, n.d) Aside from

their image, credibility is also a factor when endorsing a product. “Credibility is an

important element for cultures with seeking the truth where testimonials must be

credible.”(Global Marketing and Advertising, p.255) Or in other words, the endorser

must be believable enough to convince the viewers to buy the product.

This research paper is not just about advertising and endorsements, but also

controversies about athletes. The studies stated earlier only shows what is

advertising and the positive side of athlete endorsers; it did not show their

negative side. Are there scandals that might have had happened to the athlete

before he/she became an endorser? Why did it not come out to the public? Will it

affect his/her career as a role model to the society? These kinds of questions are

to be answered in this research paper; and also will inform the readers about who

those successful athlete endorsers are and who are not.

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The readers of this study will surely have knowledge about athlete-endorsements.

But who are these readers? Probably people who are into advertising and marketing

profession will have the most benefit of this study.

I. Methodology

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 Athletic Endorsements and its Advantages

The purpose of this study is to determine how athletes endorse different products

and how they attract potential buyers. The data gathered that athletes can and may

draw more attention in TV commercials rather than other celebrity/ies was proven by the

researcher.

In order to gain data and facts for the study, the researcher conducted a survey

and did intensive research. The two methods were used in order to gather valid

information and statistics that may be helpful in analyzing and concluding the issue

about athletes’ endorsements and how they affect the consumers.

The first method used was the survey. The researcher had a total of 46

respondents in and out of De La Salle University. Random sampling method was used.

People were randomly tapped by the researcher to answer the survey questions.

The following research questions were included in the survey:

1. Do you watch sports on TV?

2. Who is the most popular sports figure you know?

3. Do you watch TV series of any kind?

4. Who is the most popular TV personality you know?

5. Of the two persons you mentioned above, who do you think would attract more

potential customers in a TV commercial? If possible, explain why.

It is inevitable that people will answer the survey inaccurately. So the researcher

took time to observe the people that took their time in answering the survey questions

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and who didn’t answer it properly. In the researcher’s point of view, a total of 28 people

took their time answering the survey questions and the rest answered it within 30

seconds or less. The less time the people answered the questionnaire, the more likely

they didn’t take it seriously.

Aside from the survey, the researcher also did intensive research. The

researcher used different books, journals and internet articles to get information about

the topic. The researcher relied more on books to get information, statistics, and

percentages rather than articles from the internet without authors. The book Sports and

Entertainment Marketing by Kaser, K. and Oelers, D. was used by the researcher to

gather data about marketing and advertisements inside sports. Another source gathered

by the researcher was an article in Time Magazine about who to watch in the Olympic

Games. The article was written by Gregory, S.

II. Results and Discussion Section

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 Athletic Endorsements and its Advantages

This part of the research paper will let the readers see the data gathered by the

researcher and how the researcher interpreted each data.

The questions were relevant for the researcher because of the following reasons:

• If the respondent does not watch sports or any kind of TV series, he/she

might not exactly know what to answer in questions number two and four.

So it will be inaccurate for him/her to answer the survey questions if

he/she does not watch television at all.

• He/she may have heard or know popular people, but the researcher

wanted to make sure that the respondent was aware of what made that

person popular to the respondent.

• The researcher wanted to make sure that the respondent didn’t only hear

the things and gossips about the popular person he/she wrote, but also if

he/she has seen the popular person on TV.

Figure 1 will show the tally of results for the women respondents.

The researcher believed gender was a factor when the survey was conducted.

The researcher had assumed that the female respondents would rather pick the

celebrity over the sports person and see that actor/actress in a commercial because

more women answered a YES on question number 3(three); and the fact that more

women are inclined on watching different TV series rather than sports may affect the

women’s decision on picking a popular person to endorse a product in a commercial.

But it went the other way around. Although more women respondents answered a YES

to the question: Do they watch a TV series of any kind; to a lower number of YES to the

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question: Do they watch sports on TV; 8(eight) out of the 15(fifteen) female respondents

picked the sports person to appear in a commercial. While the other 7(seven) female

respondents picked the celebrity actor/actress over the sports figure that they have

written on the survey sheet.

Figure 2 will show the following simple reasons why the 8(eight) female

respondents picked the sports person rather than the celebrity that they have written on

their survey sheets.

The researcher can now clarify that gender is not a factor when athletes endorse

a certain product. Although women watch more TV series than sports, they still prefer

athletes in commercials than the usual celebrities they see every day on TV.

On the other hand, Figure 3 will show the total tally answered by the male

respondents. The researcher assumed that the male respondents will all pick the sports

figure they wrote on the survey sheets because it is a fact that most men watch sports

rather than TV series. It is either they do not know much about celebrity actors and

actresses, or they do not care about them. So the tendency is for them to choose the

sports person on question number 5(five) rather than the celebrity actor/actress.

This proves the fact that more male respondents watch sports rather than any

kind of TV series. But it does not mean that all of the male respondents picked the

sports person they have written on the survey sheets to appear in a commercial. Some

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of the male respondents picked the celebrity actor/actress over the sports person. But

still majority of the male respondents picked the sports person rather than the celebrity

they have written.

The assumption of the author that all male respondents will pick the sports

person did not happen. But still the majority of the respondents chose the sports person

to appear in a commercial rather than the celebrity.

Figure 4 shows the following simple reasons why the male respondents picked

the sports person over the celebrity actor/actress.

This proves that both men and women prefer athletes’ endorsements not only

because of their popularity, but also their image to the people. Gossips and intrigues are

lesser in a professional athlete’s life so that helps them to be more wholesome than

celebrity actors/actresses.

Wholesomeness is one of the main reasons why different companies choose

athletes to endorse their brands and products. Another is their capability of proving

themselves. If these athletes can prove themselves in their respective sports, then it is

very probable that companies will hire them so that these athletes can also prove the

product’s strengths.

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These professional athletes earn as much in endorsements and in their

respective careers. Tiger Woods would be number 1(one) in the rank, and other

professional athletes like the face of international football David Beckham, retired NBA

star Michael Jordan, F1 racer Michael Schumacher follows the list of athlete

millionaires.

Although most professional athletes have a good image and earn a lot of money,

some people still find glitches in them. Kobe Bryant for example, he was accused of

harassing a woman in Colorado back in 2004. The woman filed a case against him but

after some time, he was found not guilty. The sales of his brand went down rapidly

during and after the case, but Bryant bounced back and proved to everybody that he is

not only a professional athlete, but also a good person. His NBA jersey now ranks first

on sales and he endorses different brands like Nike, fast food chain McDonald’s and

other brands that trust him not only for his image, but also his persuasive power to

attract potential customers.

Although this research had proved that athletes are more accepted to appear in

commercials due to their persuasive power, it may be limited only to the respondents of

the survey questions. If further research was done, it is suggested that the researcher

would gather more respondents so that it would be more accurate and not only limited

to a certain number of population. Other people might have different answers and it may

lead to a dissimilar result of this study.

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