Post #12 - Forbes Article: Marketing Endorsers (Free Post)

For my free post this week, I read an article that focused on certain olympians who were expected to be useful endorsers from their success at the Sochi olympic games this year. Bob Dorfman, an Executive Creator Director of Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco believes that Mikaela Shiffrin's success as a skier will be worth $1 million a year. He describes her as the Winter Olympics "It Girl" and can potentially be a marketing force for upcoming olympic games. Not only is Shiffrin an 18-year-old gold medalist, but Dorfman describes her as "immensely talented, pleasantly attractive and surprisingly poised". 

After reading this description, I think to myself as a marketing major: What a perfect, young, successful candidate for an up-and-coming endorser! To me, as the reader, this article proves how the success of athletes/music artists/actors correlate with working marketing tactics. In the marketing world, any successful athlete who is "talented, attractive and poised," would have no problem in having an impact on endorsements and consumption. Sometimes, as consumers, we don't realize that people like Mikaela are the leading cause of why we go out and purchase many of the products that we own. Whether it's in a television commercial, an advertisement in a magazine, or the back of a cereal box, these athletes and artists are major influences in the effective number of products being sold within the market. 

Work Cited:
Riper, Tom Van. "Sochi Wrapup: Breakout Marketing Stars Few And Far Between." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 24 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.