{"id":4619,"date":"2013-01-23T14:48:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T14:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=4619"},"modified":"2014-12-21T17:36:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T17:36:50","slug":"what-will-become-of-the-lance-armstrong-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/what-will-become-of-the-lance-armstrong-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"What Will Become Of The Lance Armstrong Brand?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sordid tale of\u00a0Lance Armstrong\u00a0is unfolding right before our eyes across the\u00a0web<\/a>, social media and of course TV in addition to pretty much every other channel known to man.<\/p>\n

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\"AUSTIN,<\/a><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Back in August of this year I wrote an\u00a0article about Penn State<\/a>\u00a0and if their brand had received the death penalty. While obviously different on many fronts, there are some similarities between Penn State and\u00a0Lance Armstrong\u00a0when it comes to branding and there’s a lesson for all\u00a0marketers<\/a>\u00a0and advertisers.<\/p>\n

The opening two paragraphs of the aforementioned Penn State article fit like a glove when overlaid onto the\u00a0Lance Armstrong\u00a0saga:\"\"<\/p>\n

“There are no shortage of definitions for the term \u201cbrand equity.\u201d You probably have your favorite. This is one of mine, especially in the context of the Penn State brand: \u201cA brand\u2019s power derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and higher profit margins against competing brands.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The reason I like this particular definition when it is applied to the brand of Penn State is because of words like \u201cgoodwill\u201d and \u201cname recognition\u201d and ‘earned over time.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Just replace “Lance Armstrong” for “Penn State” in the above sentences and there you go.<\/p>\n

Mr. Armstrong has \u00a0most assuredly achieved name recognition earned over time and he obviously has made himself and his brand a lot of money. He of course has also done a lot of good via his Livestrong Foundation.<\/p>\n

I happen to think Livestrong is a separate entity all to itself and will continue on in its fight against cancer. In an article on\u00a0CNN.com<\/a>\u00a0a cancer survivor put it perfectly:\u00a0“The effect he had on the foundation was huge, but they both should be able to stand on their own. The foundation should not be held accountable for his deception.”<\/p>\n

Separating The Person From The Foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n

But this is not about Livestrong, this is about\u00a0Lance Armstrong, the personal brand.<\/p>\n

Many have said that this whole incident is reminiscent of\u00a0Tiger Woods’ fall from grace of a few years back but according to branding expert\u00a0David Brier<\/a>, it’s more along the lines of a certain former vice-president.<\/p>\n

\u201cLance\u2019s drop from grace is different than\u00a0Tiger Woods\u2019. It is much more similar to Al Gore\u2019s recent\u00a0hypocritical act of\u00a0selling his viewer-starved Current TV cable network for $500 million\u00a0to Al Jazeera,” said\u00a0Brier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reason being, according to Brier, is “Lance professed a certain integrity that was part and parcel to \u2018his brand\u2019 as much as Al Gore, patriotism and environmental accountability seemed to be inseparable, until he sold his soul to Al Jazeera.”<\/p>\n

For his part Brier has an idea where Armstrong and Gore could potentially benefit from a partnership\u00a0\u201cA possible solution might be for Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Gore to create a new PR consultancy named ‘Strong, Arm and Gore’ with the slogan of ‘Lots of stamina, no matter how hot it gets’ which I think sums it up very nicely.”<\/p>\n

Then there is the issue of “clawbacks” whereby Lance would have to repay some of the millions of dollars he earned via sponsors now that he has admitted to using performance enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n

Jeff Kravitz, a partner in the law firm\u00a0Fox Rothschild LLP<\/a>, says essentially if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. “Why publicly open a wound unless the business is hurting? says Kravitz. “Let it lie, let it die.”<\/p>\n

Kravitz, who also\u00a0blogs<\/a>\u00a0about sports law, thinks Armstrong can recover from a branding perspective “through charity and clarity.” He also believes a mea culpa would certainly help “Weasel words do not work, and presenting himself to the public with more sincerity is necessary.”<\/p>\n

His advice to Armstrong, which would more than likely be contrary to what many lawyers would advise is to “keep\u00a0 it simple, honest and direct” adding that “the legalities will play out better if you tell the truth.”<\/p>\n

As for brands\u00a0who are considering establishing a partnership\/sponsorship with a professional athlete, Kravitz suggests that it’s best for brands to “know the person you are considering working with; check around before you sign someone and remember that long term relationships can work out when you stick with people.”<\/p>\n

The Future<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obviously this is all very fresh in our collective minds and the dust is far from settled. So trying to predict the future of the\u00a0Lance Armstrong\u00a0brand would be pointless.<\/p>\n

As Americans we are a very forgiving society. As Kravitz said to me “If\u00a0Michael Vick\u00a0can have a second act, so can Mr. Armstrong.”<\/p>\n

And while I agree with him to a degree, there are extenuating circumstances regarding\u00a0Lance Armstrong\u00a0most notably the fact that he was\/is an international star – not just in the US but across the world, people know\u00a0Lance Armstrong. Will those living in other parts of the world be as forgiving as Americans are more apt to be?<\/p>\n

Another thing to consider is the fact that Armstrong, in his defiant best, actually sued and won judgments against those who dared question the veracity of his claims. How will society in general look at such a what-we-now-know-to-be terrible act of power and greed?<\/p>\n

Will the\u00a0Lance Armstrong\u00a0personal brand survive?<\/p>\n

I don’t know anymore than you do.<\/p>\n

But I will be watching, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife<\/p>\n

Named one of the\u00a0Top 100 Influencers In Social Media<\/a>\u00a0(#41) by Social Technology Review and a\u00a0Top 50 Social Media Blogger<\/a>\u00a0by Kred,\u00a0Steve Olenski<\/a>\u00a0is a\u00a0senior content strategist at\u00a0Responsys<\/a>,\u00a0a leading global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sordid tale of\u00a0Lance Armstrong\u00a0is unfolding right before our eyes across the\u00a0web, social media and of course TV in addition to pretty much every other channel known to man. Back in August of this year I wrote an\u00a0article about Penn State\u00a0and if their brand had received the death penalty. While obviously different on many fronts, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,1383],"tags":[1567,1568,1569,1570,362,1719,1814,1815,1813,1817,1816,1702,1762,1653],"class_list":["post-4619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-steveolenski","tag-brand-management","tag-brand-managers","tag-brand-marketers","tag-brand-marketing","tag-branding","tag-david-brier","tag-fox-rothschild","tag-jeffrey-kravitz","tag-lance-armstrong","tag-michael-vick","tag-oprah-winfrey","tag-penn-state","tag-responsys","tag-steve-olenski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4620,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4619\/revisions\/4620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}