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Everything is Marketing – It’s Tebow Time!

Tebow

Lessons from a failing quarterback on how to differentiate your brand.

By Luke Sklar and Amber Hudson

Have you heard of Tim Tebow, quarterback of the Denver Broncos?  If you haven’t, stick with me.   If you have, your reaction to the name is likely either wow!  Or whoa….. 

Wow! as in: he may possibly be the greatest college football player of his time!  He’s a first round draft pick beast of a quarterback!  He’s incredibly devout! 

Whoa…. as in:  duuuuude, what’s with the pathetic performance in his first NFL season?! And what is up with Tebowing?!?!

To the uninitiated, Tebowing is the posture he makes on the field, bowing to the lord at every moment of  truth  throughout a game.  (there’s even a website: http://www.tebowing.com/).  While considered the second coming by many football fans, Tebow is quite possibly the most polarizing figure in football today. Sure, he’s doing what he believes in.  He’s taking a stance and his fans can’t get enough of him.  But Tim is pissing a lot of people off.   And it’s not because he’s praying.  Many players, fingers pointed to the sky, pray.  It’s because he does it but can’t back it up with the goods.

Here’s the thing:  it’s okay to be hated…

As marketers we know the kiss of death is to be ignored, not talked about, lost in the fray, to be….gasp…vanilla.  You must take a stand and aggressively differentiate from your competition; even if it leads some to curse you to fail.  But you’ve GOT…TO…DELIVER.

Take an example from NyQuill.  They were told you can’t advertise that it will knock you out for the night…that will alienate people!!!  But they went ahead and did it anyway and business tripled.  They realized they can’t please everyone.

Oh, and here’s one more thing:  never let the consumer dictate your strategy

Great brands create their own future and never apologize.  They don’t suck up to their customers.  And they know their destination.  It’s safe to say Tebow shouldn’t be playing pro-football.  Not right now anyway.  He’s not ready.  But his fans screamed and hollered and bullied the coach into starting him.  And because the coach listened the kid is set up to fail.  Look at what the Gap did.  They changed their logo, consumers flipped out, and the Gap caved.  Come on, stick to what you believe is right.

Can I get an amen!

 

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Luke Sklar Published November 2, 2011 by Luke Sklar This entry was posted in Blog, Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Resource Centre and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Tasmanrichardson

    “never let the consumer dictate your strategy” – it worked for Apple but then they took it to far a la Microsoft or Sony. nobody likes a bully. Then again, who cares what the lowest common denominator (majority) wants? They don’t even know.

  • Amber

    It’s true, they don’t know!   Yes, understand them, learn from them.  But at the end of the day, it’s up to you (i.e. the brand) to make the final decision on what’s right for the brand.  As for Apple, wish they would listen once in a while, I want a damn keyboard to come with my iPad!  Maybe if I started Tebowing it will happen ; )

  • Kent Crutchfield

    Tebow is a great football player and was one of the greatest college QBs of all time. But maybe he is better suited to playing HB in the NFL.

    (I just Tebowed due to the awesomeness of this comment.)  :)

  • Jennifer Smith

    Amen to that Amber and Luke

  • Marc

    Imagine the danger to society…a man praying.

    You drive downtown a guy flips you off and it is just another Monday. A 5 w 1 L superior athlete prays and my gosh you’d think the guy was burning the Koran or something.

    Go Tebow!