Maria Sharapova: Marketing a Champion

Maria Sharapova: Marketing a Champion

1. Should Max Eisenbud and the other members of “team Sharapova” engage in the Motorola partnership? Should they consider any of the other possibilities? Why?

I think they should. In 2004 Motorola was a strong global brand. In 2003 the company released a very popular and a stylish phone – “RAZR”. It would make a good reputation both to the phone and to Sharapova because these both brands are famous in the world but they have different “fans”, so they can make an exchange of fans.
I think they should also consider skin care treatment endorsements. Maria was a young beautiful girl with a good skin and a pretty face. I think she perfectly fits for this endorsement. She was 17 at that time, many of teenagers face serious skin and acne problems during this age. She would be the one who others would look up to. I think the majority of anti acne products are aimed at teenagers, so it would be a good deal.

Another endorsement that I would consider is a luxury goods event in China. White people are very popular among Chinese population because they rarely see them everyday. So when they would see a pretty girl attending an event or promoting goods it would definitely raise attention of public. It would strengthen Sharapova’s image as a person who likes only the best goods, clothes and phones (referring to Motorola). It would open opportunities for other high quality brands to consider Sharapova for future endorsements.

Maria has a contract with Nike since she was 11 years old. Her agent should approach Nike with creating a line of clothes under Sharapova’s name. Although due to intense calendar, it would be good if Maria wouldn’t be included much in designing clothes.

1. What should the team’s general marketing strategy be for 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.

1. 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.