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Re: Is it true that Sabine Meyer uses....?

Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2005-12-09 15:13

The whole issue of endorsements revolves around influencing buyers; otherwise there is no reason to do it. As to morality, I don't know. On one hand I'd like to think that a professional person has enough integrity to only endorse products they actually use but the reality is that the dollar speaks louder. This is particularly true in the sports industry where nothing surprises me.

The promotional techniques used by many of the companies are pretty creative. I know of at least one that pays educators when they mention their products in seminars and master classes. One endorsement deal I saw specified only that a person couldn’t be photographed with a competing brand or be quoted that they used another brand, other than that no restrictions on what they used. Free instruments, travel allowances, sponsored clinics are just some of the bennies that get offered. But compared to sports, it’s chicken feed. I’d bet that Nike’s promotional budget exceeds the gross revenues of the top four instrument manufacturers.

For a number of years I was a US Track and Field and NCAA Official and at the bigger televised meets a particular sports clothing company (swoosh) would provide uniforms for officials. I have really wide feet and I have never found a pair of shoes that this company makes that will fit me so at one meet a factory rep saw me walking around in another brand of shoes and threw a fit because I was going to be the head official in an event that was expected to get a lot of TV time. After proving to this guy that I couldn’t get my feet into the provided shoes, they used a tape logo to cover the logo on my shoes. The fact that they had these stick on logos proved they had run into this before but it was obvious on TV when you saw it and one of the commentators even commented on it.

So, endorsements, I’d say take them with a grain of salt.

Best
Rick

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