Nike to Tiger Woods: "Winning takes care of everything"

Nike released a new ad on it's Nike Golf Facebook and Twitter pages after Tiger Woods won this past weekend's Arnold Palmer Invitational and regained the world No. 1 golf ranking. Despite the win and reclaiming his position at the top of the golf hierarchy, the ad was met with backlash because it's controversial messaging of "winning takes care of everything".

While Tiger does finally appear to be  "back" at the top of the game, having won 3 of his last 6 tournaments including the last two he has entered, the message suggests that all of his infamous personal flaws should be forgotten because he is the world's best golfer. Not surprisingly, this message isn't sitting too well with everybody. The question is, did Nike put its brand equity at risk with the contentious statement?

My view is that while Nike will not win any new fans and its not a play I would have suggested, the bold message echos the sentiment of many golf fans who are ready to move on from the Tiger train wreck of yesteryear and see him make a serious run at Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 majors. In this way the ad can be viewed as distinctly honest and has a chance to connect with its core target consumer. To Nike's credit, it has stood-by Tiger while his standing in golf plunged and most other sponsors jumped ship, so there's no doubt Nike has much to gain from watching Tiger regain his status.

The bigger question is why would Tiger's publicist allow Nike to post this ad? I see more harm to his brand than Nike's as it seems like a counterproductive message for a man who should be working on humanizing his image. That said, Tiger has quietly been picking up new sponsors (e.g., Rolex), while returning to a more active role with some of his other longer-term sponsors (e.g., EA Sport), so maybe winning really does take care of everything afterall...

Rating Pepsi's New Bottle Design

Pepsi recently announced plans to launch new bottle shape for the first time in 16 years, with the new bottle starting to ship as early as next month.

The bottles will feature a swirled grip on the bottom portion of the bottle, a shorter label edged in a "cola-colored" border, as well as, a larger version of the brand logo. A spokesperson for Pepsi explains some added features of the design and how they fit with the equity: "It's not uniform, it's a little asymmetrical, there's a little edginess and playfulness, which is consistent with Pepsi's equities and youthful spirit."

Take a look...

I'm a fan of the new bottle for three reasons:

• The new bottle is more unique.  It's takes on a distinctly more masculine shape (e.g., broad shoulders, narrower waist) than the old bottle, which is also a sharper contrast to Coca-Cola's more classical feminine "contour-design" or "hobble skirt" bottle shape

• The new bottle design, higher label placement, larger logo, location of brand name do a much better job drawing your eye to the logo and brand name, quickening/improving brand recognition and brand building

• There's no doubt this new bottle design offers significant cost savings for Pepsi and lowers the environmental footprint. Part of this comes from the smaller label size and smaller cap size, but I also suspect the new bottle design requires less plastic as well - I just hope the structural integrity of the bottle is stronger than most environmentally-friendly plastic water bottles.

Do I think the new bottle will ever challenge to be on par with the classic, iconic Coke bottle?  No, definitely not.  But it does appear to be a solid effort to modernize the Pepsi bottle, while reducing costs and the environmental footprint.