Case analysis

The case which is being discussed talks about a sports celebrity Dwyane Wade who is promoting many products related to sports and the behind the endorsing companies are to try and make into an International Brand like David Beckham and Tiger Woods. They have several strategies in mind. We will be discussing the possible risks associated with several ideas.
While reading through the whole case, one thing is clear that Dwyane Wade is a famous basketball players who is being endorsed by brands like converse. Because of his fame, various sports brands like Nike and Converse are sponsoring him which in return is giving them sales. The whole point behind sponsoring a person is because of the recognition he or she has and that recognition helps them to sell their goods. It was also mentioned that when Dwyane Wade showed his skills during the 2005 playoffs, his converse contract was revised from $500, 000 to 10 million dollars. This shows that converse is mainly depending on his performance and based on his performance his popularity and fan following at large. The risk involved in this kind of partnership is the player performance. He cannot assure that he will keep on performing. Rather this factor can never be constant. There are ups and downs in sports. So once the performance level of Dwyane Wade falls, his fans will start decreasing and so will his popularity. This in return will affect the sales of all the products being promoted through him. This is the main risk factor associated with this case. However this issue cannot be stopped or avoided. The companies need to be careful before doing big investment related to him.
References:
1) BusinessWeek, (2007). Building a Megabrand Named Dwyane, The McGraw-Hill Companies.