Lance Armstrong's life has been defined by his against all odds cancer battle and his seven consecutive Tour De France wins that boosted his profile not only as one of the greatest athletes of all time, but as the most identifiable person in the world in cancer's fight, both symbolically and financially.
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http://www.cnbc.com/id/36822988
After reading the article, in a 2 paragraph response (a minimum of 5 sentences for each paragraph), answer the following questions. In paragraph # 1, discuss your thoughts about the article and how Lance Armstrong is marketing himself professionally. In paragraph # 2, provide your thoughts about endorsement deals in general. Are they are good thing? A bad thing? Who benefits the most? Be specific with your thoughts.
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Lance Armstrong is making an interesting marketing decision by chosing to pick a little known small company rather than an energy bar giant such as Cliff or PowerBar. Because of his position he says he is able to do this. To Lance Armstrong it is not about money anymore, but rather beliefs. He is using his image and success to market himself. His athlete/survivor image reflects the products he markets. Lance Armstrong is chosing the company that he believes in, which is respectable.
ReplyDeleteI think endorsements benefit the company. The company rides the fame of the athlete. People who admire the athlete or the person getting endorsed will want to buy that product. Endorsements are risky though because if the athlete does not keep a high standard of character on and off the field he could get in trouble and make the company endorsing him look bad. A company has to be careful when chosing an athlete to endorse.
In my opinion Lance Armstrong is doing a good job. I'd rather see a big athelete like Armstrong endorse a little mom and pop type of company and product then a huge multi-million dollar company like Nike. All atheletes have huge endorsements with Nike and its not original. Lance Armstrong is like a breath of fresh air. He supporting a HEALTHY small company. It will only do good for him (his reputation) and the company. Having a big name like Armstrong will get people who idolize him to start eating what hes eating, so that small company will have better profits and get bigger.
ReplyDeleteI think that some endorsement deals are okay. I believe the athele or celbity should endorse a product that is realated to them and what they do. An example would be like Miley Cirus endorsing alcohal. She is an underage minor who shouldnt be drinking or supporting drinking at her age. Little girls look up to her, but luckly shes smarter then that. Also I think the celbirty benefits the most in some cases. Its just a another reason to get their name out there and get people to notice. But in some cases like the Lance Armstrong supporting Honey Stinger it will benefit the company. They are a small company supported by a huge athelete. Honey Stinger's profit and revenue will only go up because of Armstrong.
Although the article was pretty long, I thought it was pretty interesting. Lance Armstrong has decided to endorse a small time company with only 8 full time employees. He talks about how the “marketing textbooks” say to never endorse something below IBM, but he disagrees. He says that he doesn’t care about how big a company is because when it comes down to it, all he needs is a product he believes in and people that he agrees with.
ReplyDeleteI think endorsement deals are a great idea, especially for smaller companies. I feel like although a company can be very small, it is those companies that need endorsements the most. Most larger companies are the ones that fight for the biggest endorsers. For example companies, before his “indiscretions”, competed for Tiger Woods or even more popular, Reggie Bush. The larger companies just like to get a leg up on their competition but to be honest, I feel as though the smaller companies could benefit from them much more.
Lance Armstrong is the man. He is battling cancer and wining that battle and also wining tour de frances. He is a real hero to little kids. An intresting fact is he has one testicle. Anyways he is a real good man and he lets his charasmatic features proove it.
ReplyDeleteHe is areal marketable person. He is the only athlethe that has done it right without cheating and all that. He has also still kept his image as a good person. He hasnt slept with like 30 girls( Chettah wooods).So yes i think he is a good thing. and the people who benfit the most is the canacer foundations and people
In my opinion, I think it is great that Lance Armstrong is reaching out to the smaller businesses. Instead of doing the stereotypical athlete move which is to only endorse big time companies says a lot about his character. Armstrong’s high –profile image will help these smaller companies substantially, whether it varies from bringing in more revenue or just advertising and promoting their brand to a larger audience. Lance Armstrong is marketing himself professionally, because unlike some athletes he thinks before he acts. It is evident that Armstrong is not supporting these companies just to boost his appearance and to get in the limelight, which makes him seem authentic which he genuinely is. It takes a lot for an athlete to take a risk financially and to go out and support these smaller businesses which may or may not fail and I commend him for his actions.
ReplyDeleteEndorsement deals tend to be good for both the athlete and the company endorsing then. But, if profits don’t seem to be increasing after endorsing a high-profile athlete then the athlete won in this case because they already have the money. I think that endorsements can be abused by athletes especially if they continuously endorse many products which they don’t truly support or care about. All in all I generally think that endorsements are good because both the athlete and the company keep publicity and possibly more fans. For example, in the article the company Honey Stinger and FRS Energy will have a positive return due to the fact that Armstrong is helping them out. This goes to show, how influential a person can be especially if they have a good image and fan following such as Lance Armstrong.
-Courtney Chesley
Lance Armstrong is one of the most inspiring athlete we have today. He can be marketable very well for the cancer research or cancer help. In recent years, the livestrong band have been very popular for teens and i have seen everyone wear one once so thats a profit for cancer research. He's also in some gatorade commercials that talk about never giving up and what not.
ReplyDeleteHis endorsement deals are important to him because he is a retired athelte in most part of his events know. His endorsement to gatorade is imporant because it talks about inspiration on fans that used to watch him. His other endorsmenrs benefit him more because they are smaller companies. Also the reason for him to have small company endorsement because he makes a bigger profit.
Lance Armstrong is a marketing genius. He uses a negative aspect in his life and reverses that and turns it into a positive. An example of this is the livestrong band's that he developed with Nike. This took his cancer diagnosis and used that to market him instead of being a complete negative in his life. He uses the fact that he had cancer to market himself instead of lingering on the fact.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, endorsement deals are both good and bad. Endorsement deals benefit the athlete and the brand which endorses them. They also benefit the consumer who wants to know and be able to accquire the product which their favorite player wears. Endorsement deals, however, do not benefit the teams because they are trying to establish a team concept while their is one individual whose doing their own thing. Endorsement deals have a positive benefit that outweighs the negative.
Lance Armstrong is a great athlete and if he market himself it would be great for him to do that. If Lance put himself out there, people would love him. Lance Armstrong's life has been defined by his against all odds cancer battle and his seven consecutive Tour De France. Since he had that tour he gotten better. It would be great for him to market himself professionally.
ReplyDeleteEndorsement deals are great because you can get more money and you can wear their equipments. Its a good thing to have an endorsement deal. Tiger Woods has Nike and you see him wear their accessories. It would be great for Lance to have an endorsement deal. He would be out there and people would like to see him.
Lance Armstrong is a wonderful person. He is a well rounded person I like to think he is professional and well manner. He is marketing himself by getting all these endorsement. But don’t forget how he sold 70 million live strong bands by him self. He also helps a little sport drink up coming company start up.
ReplyDeleteI thin the endorsement is all good things because he is getting money no matter witch way it goes. Like Nike Their not a single person in the world who would not want to be sponsored by Nike. But if you don’t sell your product with your face on it it would make you lest interesting. But for the most part sponsoring is a good thing that’s the only bad thing I can see.
The article talks a lot about Lance and how he’s using his face to market small companies of his choice. He’s smart though because taking small companies and when they rise in success Lance also rises in success, which is an unusual but smart move. He’s also with Nike which is the most popular brand in the world and sold 70 million yellow bands. As the face of biking Lance Armstrong uses his popularity to sell products. The strong marketing move has worked in the past and now trying it now it will work because the small brand becomes popular.
ReplyDeleteEndorsement deals are important to people and to the companies. People can’t use their fame to promote a product and the companies can’t have a face behind the product without endorsement deals. The benefits would be that the people receive money from putting their face or name on the product. The companies make money because the face or name promotes the product in a positive way and more consumer buy the product, making the companies rise in stock.
Alex Seitz
I think that Lance Armstrong is a great guy and I understand what he's doing. He's a good businessman and he understands thee importance of good value. He's helping himself by, following along with a smaller company and helping them grow with the population. Once they grow then he still will be apart of it and he'll get his share of the money, even if he's not doing it for the money. It also just makes his image look even better by helping the needed to get up on their feet and help their company grow.
ReplyDeleteI believe that endorsement deals are great for both the person and the company too. I think the only bad thing that can happen is it just completely flops. But even if it doesn’t become a big company, they could also just become a local hit product. The company would probably make more money then the person one because the person might leave the company when they become big. Or, the person might not even want the money just want to do good for the company itself.
Maurice P.