Maria Sharapova: Marketing a Champion Essay Example

Maria Sharapova? I think the team’s general marketing strategy should be concentrated, first of all, on her successful career and only then on her beauty.

We can compare Maria to another famous Russian tennis player – A. Kournikova who became more popular for her beauty and modeling rather than her tennis career. It would be wise to make Sharapova give interviews from time to time to sport journals, magazines, appear on sport shows. So they media would picture her like a sport concentrated person rather than anything else. Of course, “team Sharapova” should try to make deals only with high quality brands to strengthen her image as a winner. Another important point is that Sharapova should win more competitions to attract more endorsement deals.

How would you describe the “brand” Sharapova? I think that “brand” Sharapova is a worldwide brand thanks to popularity of tennis. Sharapova “brand” is associated with high quality products, she had endorsement deals with: Nike, Tag Heuer (luxury watch brand), Porsche (luxury cars), Evian (high quality water), Canon (high quality cameras), Land Rover, Avon, Sony. We can see that all these brands are global, so is Sharapova. She has a story of a young girl who came to the US to follow her dream and she reached it.

People love when star athletes who have difficult stories about how they became what they are today, people fall for it. It creates a certain image of a fighter, who will overcome anything in order to reach her dreams. She is a fighter and a winner. She won many titles throughout her career and she proved that the Wimbledon success in 2004 was not a mistake.

Even though her reputation as an athlete was spoiled by the doping scandal, some brands like Nike and Head continued a partnership with her because they know that she is a very popular person in the world and they still can profit together.

Sharapova admitted the drug use by saying: “she did not know it was banned”. I guess it is her doctors mistake rather than hers. She is only 29 I believe she still can win some Grand Slams and people still believe in her. Her ban ends in April 2017 so she would be eligible for Roland Garros. I think if he wins something after her ban it would strengthen her image as a fighter. How would you describe IMG’s approach to selling athlete endorsements? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

How easy is it for competitors to replicate IMG’s model? No doubt that IMG is a very big company. Their previous successful partnerships made them who they are today – a leading agency in the world. I think their approach to selling athlete endorsements is successful. Their main strength is that they have different departments which specifically specializes on, for example, tennis or modeling. So they have very smart and talented people in one field and these people don’t have to do what they couldn’t do well.

Another strength is that they are in a strong financial position. I think it is not easy for other competitors to replicate IMG’s model. Simply because IMG is a truly global agency. It became so big that it had to split into multiple departments. IMG reputation is strong; it has many people who are one of the best

in their endeavor and an athlete would more likely to choose IMG over some other agency. IMG has representatives everywhere across the globe, they can secure deals with athletes faster than other agencies.