The relationship between Hero Motorcorp boss Pawan Munjal and golfer Tiger Woods goes back a long way. Hero is sponsoring a celebrity-studded charity golf tournament in Woods’s home course in Orlando, currently underway. Munjal paid Woods a lot of money to play a round of golf with him at the Delhi Golf Club back in October. Now, the ace golfer has signed up to endorse Hero’s two-wheelers for a reported R250 crore. Munjal says he wants to make Hero a global brand, but questions remain.
Woods had an endorsement deal with Buick, which is a good fit, but for someone who has never ridden a motorbike, is he the right choice for Hero? Munjal is a golf addict so it may be natural to think of Woods, but golf is seen as an elite sport and golfers the world over are an affluent class, hardly the types who would be in the market for two-wheelers. Woods’s audience largely consists of high-income middle-aged men, so for Hero it does seem like a mismatch in endorsement terms. Just having a celebrity for the sake of it doesn’t always work. Look at Tata. For their 2014 Land Rover edition, they have tied up with Bear Grylls, the tough, go-anywhere action-man, a familiar on Indian television. He is hardly in the same league as Woods. It is just that he is a better fit, a rugged man for a rugged car. Woods on a two-wheeler could be an expensive gamble.
