brand trainwrecks
Posted by Abe Sauer on December 14, 2009 01:01 PM
Tiger Woods' most recent relationship disaster is his six-year endorsement deal with consulting firm Accenture. Unsurprisingly, the Accenture brand is taking a beating in the wake of the recent scandal, especially for its slew of now-hilarious ads drawing comparisons between Woods' golfing talents and the consulting brand's consulting abilities -- such as crisis management.
Unfortunate Accenture is in no way responsible for Woods' actions, but, despite the negative association, does this situation have a silver lining for one of the world's largest consultanting firms?
"It's one of those companies you don't know," said Kelly Ripa regarding the Accenture news on ABC's Regis and Kelly Show. And the pixie hostess is right. While many golf fans may be accustomed to seeing Woods' image near the Accenture logo, how many knew -- or learned -- anything about the company? It wasn't until the recent scandal broke that the public's attention has turned its focus on Accenture. So is this one of those "there's no such thing as bad publicity" situations for Accenture?
In reality, probably not.
Accenture leveraged its relationship with Woods to increase brand awareness among golf fans who are also decision-makers at large to medium-large corporations -- the only entities that would require expensive management consulting services. The recent developements, however, have most likely undermined Accenture's attempts to successfully capture this demographic. The New York Times
writes:
"About 11 percent of those viewers who recalled a brand with ties to Mr. Woods said they had a negative opinion of the brand, Nielsen IAG reported..."
However, Accenture's current debacle is ironic given the brand's near-miss with scandal less than a decade ago. Before being rebranded Accenture in January 2001, the consultancy was known as Andersen Consulting, owing to the firm's origin as the consulting arm of Arthur Andersen. Just months after jettisoning the Andersen name, the Enron scandal hit, making Arthur Andersen a household name as the firm that cooked Enron's books.
| Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | FAQ 
