Brand endorsements come at a price – as has been seen in the case of Mr Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods was a larger-than-life icon who was roped in to endorse many organizations, right from Nike to Gillette and Accenture. Accenture was so closely associated with Tiger Woods that people came close to seeing Accenture when they saw Tiger Woods. Accenture signed up with Tiger Woods in 2003 and has been noted for its “High Performance” campaign that featured the golfer.

For a company that has been so closely involved with Mr Woods, it would definitely have been rather uncomfortable to be dealing with a Brand Ambassador who got involved in, and confessed to, a series of infidelities. And it is understandable that Accenture wouldn’t want to be mocked at for continuing to be associated with a man who had confessed of wrong doing and had also decided to take time off his professional golfing to spend time with family. What would a family man be doing with endorsing a multinational Business Process Outsourcing company anyway? Accenture is learnt to be removing all traces of Tiger Woods from its walls, hoardings, web pages and interiors in a hurry.

Well, call it the price of brand endorsements by a one-man army. But then, is dissociating oneself from someone in trouble a mark of fidelity? If it were a matter of a few advertisements, it would be fine if they were stopped from going on air. But the association with Tiger Woods has been seen as being much more than just that for Accenture – Tiger Woods has been the public face for Accenture for years now. So, is the decision to drop him overnight justified? Does it convey the right message to the target market about the concept of being with business partners in times of trouble?

What Mr Woods is going through is a rough patch that is purely his personal problem. That Tiger Woods is a public figure does not mean that he is above humans – and humans do make mistakes. If Accenture is a professional organisation, it should be dealing with the professional life of Mr Woods. Accenture’s spokesperson is learnt to have said that the company’s motto is High Performance and Tiger Woods is no longer a High Performer. That doesn’t seem to be what Nike is thinking, however, which has not withdrawn its endorsements from Tiger Woods.

The speed at which Accenture has decided to dump Tiger Woods is more likely to leave the wrong impressions in the consumers’ minds. Rather, Accenture should have used it as an opportunity to state that it would stay with its partners in difficult times and wait for Mr Tiger to be back on his professional high. For Accenture, this is not high performance, by any standard.