Gatorade Pulls Its Tiger Connection

Pepsi, the owner of Gatorade, has decided to drop a drink named after Tiger Woods. The timing is curious. Gatorade said it was decided before the whole "Tigergate" incident; many think the timing is more than coincidental.

The truth is likely somewhere in between. Gatorade is a product that is in trouble. It had a good market position and then, like the other Pepsi brands, was rebranded last year. Gatorade became "G", I would imagine to give it "street cred". The ads are harder-edged which supports my contention. Somehow, Pepsi decided it had to make the product more current and hip. The results have not been good. Reports have indicated that "G" has lost market share. This comes on the heels of Tropicana, another Pepsi brand, which had to reintroduce its old packaging after customers strongly objected to the new package design. The logo for the Pepsi product, which changes depending on the product, was criticized for being curiously similar to the Obama campaign logo--Pepsi said it was pure coincidence.

This has been a terrible year for Pepsi brand management. It did not have to be so. In the new world, Pepsi could have co-created the package designs with customers and gotten strong customer buy-in. Pepsi, instead, acted like it was pre-Internet days and did its branding in secret between the chief marketing officer and an outside branding agency.

Companies are not in control anymore. Brands are shared and are part of customer experience. They always have been but now customers can act on their likes and dislikes more aggressively. Pepsi needs to wake up to the new world. It claims to be the brand for a "new generation" but acts like it is managed by the old one.

Back to the question of whether or not the dropping of the Tiger brand was preplanned or is in reaction to his marital infidelities. As noted, I think the truth lies somewhere in between. Gatorade is in trouble and is looking for ways to reconnect with its original customer base which it is loosing. Tiger is an expensive endorsement and likely too expensive for a brand in trouble. The problems Tiger has had likely pushed the decision to the front burner.