Tour de France – a Brand has lost its Purpose
Talking about Human Kind these days, I’d like to mention something that is not related to advertising but is strongly related to our philosophy:
I used to be a Tour de France Fan. But this was years ago, when Jan Ulrich was climbing up the mountains and excited many German couch-potatoes like me. Since then, many doping affairs have contaminated the Tour as well the whole cycling sport.
The reason why I pick up this issue, are statements by some marketing people of the Tour organization. They are astonished at the decreased interest in the current Tour. I am not. I am instead astonished about these marketers, being not appreciative of the people who used to be Tour Fans.
If you look at the Tour de France as a Brand, it has lost its Brand Purpose. It existed to create human heroes, and about believers like me, who were thrilled about their tremendous efforts and passion. But since people can’t be sure anymore, that Tour heroes are human heroes, the Tour has lost its reason for being.
Image: nytimes.com
About The Author
Dirk Reinhardt
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Author's web sitehttp://culturalfuel.com
Dirk,
I know the marketing people and the Tour itself pretty well. I went on the event many times in the last years. I even brought P&G people with me so they can understand and leave the event. There’s always been a huge perception gap between what most of us think about this competition and the general public.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:22 amLe Tour de France is still gathering more than 10 millions people along the roads throughout the country. Studies conducted a couple of years ago shows that the general public is perfectly aware of what’s going on and what they consider the hypocrysys of the media. Yes there is huge dope problems, no one denies it. And yes the racers are still heroes because even if they do take some dope, what they accomplish is still amazing and not HUMAN. You have to take a bike and drive 150 Km in a day in the Alps and start again the next day to actually realize what there are going through and how much HUMAN values you should develop to be able to endure such efforts.