Tiger Woods' endorsements appear safe - for now

Until Friday morning, Tiger Woods was the Cadillac of sports marketing, a classic, timeless brand. Then he ran his Cadillac into a tree outside Orlando.

Now what?

So far, the companies that helped make Woods the first athlete to earn $1 billion in a career - including Nike, Gillette and Gatorade - have lined up to stick by their man.

That's good news for a guy estimated to have made more than $100 million in endorsements last year, easily surpassing his winnings on the golf course.

But his brand still could suffer in the weeks and months to come, given the uncertainty surrounding the incident and Woods' limited public response.

"All of a sudden, this raises suspicions; it's a tabloid field day," said Barry Berman, a professor of marketing at Hofstra University. "It's about reputation. It's a feeling. He's always been viewed as a square dealer, the guy next door. Now you're saying, what's happening? Is something hidden there?"

Steve Rosner, a cofounder of 16W Marketing in East Rutherford, N.J., drew a distinction between damage to Woods' reputation and to his endorsement portfolio.

"At the moment, I think his reputation has taken a little bit of a hit, not major, just because of all the rumors and innuendoes out there.

"But from what we know I don't think his endorsements will take a long-term hit. I reserve the right to revisit that if some other negative or illegal or immoral things come out. But for now, I think you have to give Tiger the benefit of the doubt."

Most marketing experts who have weighed in publicly agree Woods' brand will not suffer great harm based on current information, given how fans have forgiven far worse from their sports heroes.

Helped by his global reach, his endorsements are the most lucrative for any athlete alive, even after losing Buick when General Motors cut back on spending.

Two of his sponsors, Tag Heuer and Accenture, ran ads in major newspapers just Monday. The latter has a campaign in which Woods faces trouble on the course, with the tag line, "It's what you do next that counts."

Rosner and Berman criticized Woods' media strategy. Said Berman: "To what extent he is damaged goods, for lack of a better word, ultimately depends on what he says, how quickly he says it and to what extent he is believable. . . . Time is his biggest enemy."

Woods has built up enormous credibility with his A-list corporate partners. But all advertisers react eventually to public sentiment.

"What are his advertisers thinking?" Berman said. "At some point they will say, 'What the heck is going on here?' He needs a lot of damage control."