Jordan Likely to Keep Courting Consumers

When Michael Jordan’s new television pitch for Gatorade was shot in November in Southern California, the company hoped to introduce the advertisement the way it always has: during a commercial break in the annual NBA All Star Game telecast.

Given the NBA’s post-strike decision to play a truncated season, Gatorade USA President Sue Wellington doesn’t know when the completed commercial will run. But she has no qualms about using a retiree to market a sports drink aimed squarely at the eternally young. And Wellington hopes to showcase Jordan at least through 2001, when his 10-year contract with the Quaker Oats subsidiary expires.

“Michael Jordan represents an attitude that’s about competition, about sweating hard; he represents a solid work ethic that he isn’t going to lose in retirement,” Wellington said. “It’s hard for me--probably hard for anyone--to imagine Michael Jordan not in motion.”

Just as Jordan redefined how the NBA game is played on the court, he rewrote the rules of sports marketing. Jordan’s commercial career took him where no other athlete--black or white--had ever gone. And he helped carry his sport to unprecedented popularity both at home and overseas. And, marketers say, there’s no reason why No. 23’s endorsement career won’t continue in high gear after retirement.

“We’ve already dealt with one Michael Jordan retirement,” quipped Gatorade spokeswoman P.J. Sinopoli, referring to an earlier decision by Jordan to leave the game. “We continued working with Michael after that one, and we’ll continue working with him after this one.”

In recent years, the NBA has gradually been shifting its powerful media spotlight to potential Jordan heirs, including Laker stars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. But even the NBA acknowledges that no player has the combination of media skills, charisma and--thanks to Jordan’s Chicago Bulls--winning record needed to make a serious challenge.

By almost any measure, Jordan stands head and shoulders above other athletes. He’s the only NBA player on the Harris Poll’s list of favorite athletes and has been No. 1 every year since 1993. Jordan has been on 17 Wheaties cereal box covers--more than any other athlete. And he’s helped corporate sponsors generate billions of dollars, including an estimated $2.6 billion in sales of merchandise for Nike Inc.

His retirement will probably fan interest in a pair of books about Jordan’s career with the Chicago Bulls. “For the Love of the Game: My Story,” a lavish coffee-table book being sold for about $55 by Random House’s Crown Publishing division, had 700,000 copies in its first printing in October. “We will be printing more as needed, no doubt about it,” Crown Vice President and Associate Publisher Andrew Martin said Tuesday.

“Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made,” by journalist David Halberstam, will be out next month, and the author will begin pitching the biography on television talk shows and in newspaper interviews.

Just as aging golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus continue to pitch products, Jordan will still use his considerable personality to market selected lines such as telecommunications giant MCI WorldCom and Nike’s new Jumpman brand apparel and accessories, said Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports Celebrity Service in Chicago.

Nike, a company synonymous with Jordan, declined to comment Tuesday about its plans involving him. But Wall Street weighed in with a determination of sorts, pushing Nike stock down $2.38 to $42. Shares of Quaker Oats fell 75 cents to close at $59.19.

Jordan’s on-the-court opponents might sigh in relief at the prospect of a season and playoff in which the outcome isn’t all but preordained. But, as one of the biggest beneficiaries of “brand Jordan,” the troubled league will have to scramble to adjust to life without him.

NBA Properties President Rick Welts has acknowledged the debt the league and its corporate sponsors owe Jordan, who, along with predecessors Larry Byrd and Magic Johnson, fueled the league’s meteoric rise.

“The players are the game,” Welts said. “If the fans don’t like the players, then it doesn’t matter how good a marketer we are, because it won’t matter. If fans don’t gravitate toward our players out of admiration or because they’re entertaining, then we don’t have the power, simply because of our logo . . . to have a great game.”

Yet, given fans’ grumbling about greedy players, player agents and owners, the NBA and its athletes have their work cut out.

“You don’t see any players or teams taking over the mantle of authority the way Jordan and the Bulls did,” said Bob Dorfman, a sports analyst for Foote Cone & Belding in San Francisco. “It’s like, for NBA Commissioner David Stern, the air has gone out of the basketball.”

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ARE THEY LIKE MIKE?

There are few candidates to take Michael Jordan’s place in marketing the The National Basketball Assn., says sports marketing experts Foote Cone & Belding in San Francisco. Their list:-

Shaquille O’Neal: The hot Los Angeles Laker center plays in a big media market and has had some notable marketing affiliations. But he recently parted company with Reebok and has yet to lead his team to a championship.

Kobe Bryant: A young, classy player, but still maturing. The Los Angeles Laker plays in a big market, and both youth and marketing executives find him approachable.

Grant Hill: A player with talent, charm and the right attitude. But the upstanding citizen is saddled with playing for the Detroit Pistons in a small market.

Others in the Running

Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz player.

Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs

Keith Van Horn of the New Jersey Nets

Gary Payton of the Seattle SuperSonics