'King of Clay' Nadal a marketing prodigy:
He has a rebel quality and a French Open title, but experts are split on whether he can reign
beyond Spain
by Jennifer Campbell
June 7, 2005
He's hunky and young, he has great teeth and he just won the French
Open, with a long list of firsts behind the win. Then, the newly
dubbed "King of Clay" received congratulations from Juan Carlos, the
King of Spain.
Even Rafael Nadal's opponent, Mariano Puerta, said nice things about
him, lauding him as someone who would "write a page in the history of
tennis" and comparing him to Andre Agassi.
Nadal seems to have all the ingredients to be the next big thing in
sport, but can the teenage Grand Slam champion become a darling
outside of his home country, where he is clearly now a national hero?
James Chung, president of Reach Advisors, a U.S. firm that
specializes in sports marketing and strategy research, certainly
thinks so.
"Simply a good player alone doesn't carry a sport," Chung said
yesterday. "You need people that inject excitement. This guy plays
with passion, and he's opening up eyes to the sport and getting
people excited. And, he's a total stud.
"The photo of him flexing his arms.... This guy has got the biggest
biceps on the planet, and it's something you wouldn't expect to see
on a tennis player."
Chung is certain that Nadal the next big thing, saying he has the
potential to reach Agassi's star status, though he may not make it as
far as golfer Tiger Woods who "transcends his sport to the point
where he's a single-name commodity."
Nadal has a rebel quality that's attractive, Chung said: He came out
of the blue, trains differently than everyone else and seems to have
a great relationship with his family. His capri pants and long hair
don't hurt, either.
"This guy is the next big thing, and I think people realize they're
going to be seeing a lot of him," Chung said.
He'd also advise Nadal should not cut his hair, saying Boston Red Sox
outfielder Johnny Damon has proven that "a hideously long mane gets
some women wanting to throw pebbles at Rapunzel's window."
Two other experts say it's a little soon to be sure about Nadal's
marketability. They claim his success in that field will depend on
two things: how he handles himself off the court, and how he fares on
it.
"Being a good tennis player is not a recipe for success," said
Gurprit Kindra, a marketing professor at the University of Ottawa,
pointing to Anna Kournikova as an example of a player whose
sponsorship success hasn't depended on performance. "It's not
necessarily about how well (Nadal) does in the game, it's also about
how he handles himself off the court, or maybe, more accurately, how
his handlers handle him."
Kindra thinks it's interesting that Nike wants Nadal to wear capri
pants on the court, something he thinks is an effort to market him to
the metro-sexual demographic.
"Success depends on all kinds of things: everything from what he eats
to whom he dates," Kindra said. "You can have a very good product,
but, unless you have it in attractive packaging, no one will buy it."
Abraham Nadkour, executive editor of SportsBusiness Journal, an
industry trade magazine based in North Carolina, says Nadal has to
win more tennis events before he becomes a marketing sensation.
"He's a very magnetic and charismatic, but I think he's more
marketable in Spain," Nadkour said. "I heard more people talk about
capri pants on a tennis player than I've ever heard tennis talked
about on sports radio in the U.S., so, he's obviously getting
noticed, which is the first step.
"If he has continued success on the court, you may see more companies
look to him as a spokesperson for their brand, but, right now, I
think it's just a little too early to say he'd catapult himself into
the (status) of Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi or Michael Jordan."
Copyright 2005, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN.
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