Everyone knows that athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi in football, Tiger Woods or Rory Mcilroy in golf, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in tennis, as well as many others across several different sports are representatives of their own sports. They represent their sports across the world in tournaments, social events or simply by appearing in public, however, they are also ambassadors of their countries and this creates a great opportunity for the development of brand strategies for countries.
Sports superstars are followed by millions of people around the globe and if people could associate them with their country of origin, instead of the country in which they work, it would be amazingly profitable for the country if it could attract many of their fans to visit the country. But is this simple to do? Of course not. First of all, brand strategies for countries are very complex and require years of prior analysis and preparation. Secondly, a strategy using well known athletes would only succeed if those athletes could project a very good image of themselves and their respective countries and, finally, if the countries had a strong tourism strategy that could invite this type of public to visit it.
Furthermore, brand strategies for countries may not be very straightforward and may need some adjustments. For example, if Lionel Messi would be prosecuted for tax evasion in Spain, that would represent a bad promotion for Argentina, instead of a good one. This means that brand strategies for countries need to be flexible enough to adapt to any scenario because the image of athletes is very volatile. A good example of this was when the infidelity Tiger Woods was publicly disclosed and many of his fans started to change their opinion about his behavior. After this event, even Nike considered not to renew its sponsorship for the following season in order to avoid being associated with Tiger’s posture.
Summing up, top athletes can help setting up brand strategies for countries because they, most of the times, project a very good image of resilience, self-confidence and posture that can be associated with their country of origin. Nonetheless, a strategy like this needs to be very flexible to accommodate sudden drops in image that athletes may have along the years.
JOSHUA SMITTH
