The price of paid endorsement vs. the cost of lost credibility

September 28, 2007 · Posted in Choices, Entrepreneurship, Golf, Management, Shoulder Rehab, The Law of Attraction

Does an endorsement motivate you to purchase a product? Does it matter if that endorsement has been purchased?

Endorsements are big business.

Many professional athletes make as much or more money by endorsing products as they do participating in their respective sports. Athletic shoes, sporting goods / equipment and clothing lines are huge money-makers for athletes and celebrities alike who are willing to attach their names to these products.

But:

does the attachment of a famous name mean that the product does what is claimed?
does a paid endorsement make the product better?
does a purchased endorsement increase the likelihood that YOU will buy a product?

The Rotater

My business partner and I have recently brought a unique product to several markets. This process was initiated in response to a motorcycle wreck which resulted in Scott’s (my business partner) third shoulder surgery.

During Scott’s rehabilitation, he became frustrated at the length of time that the rehab process was taking. So, he asked his therapists if there was some product that he could purchase to use at home that would supplement his prescribed physical therapy. Scott was told that nothing existed other than what he already had.

Rejecting “no”

Not one to take “no” for an answer, Scott set out to design a piece of equipment that he could use at home that would produce the same sensations that he felt during his physical therapy visits. His homemade prototype was the original Rotater.

Eureka!

It became apparent to his physical therapists that Scott was making remarkable progress. When they questioned him about what he was doing, Scott produced his homemade Rotater.

After demonstrating the Rotater to his therapists and allowing them to try it for themselves, Scott’s physical therapists encouraged him to get a patent.

Joint Mechanix, LLC

This initial desire to accelerate his rehabilitation has resulted in the formation of our company, Joint Mechanix, LLC. We immediately began promoting the Rotater to physical therapists. This was a no-brainer to us because we already knew that the Rotater would work for this market.

Along the way, we have received a number of testimonials from both physical therapists and physical therapy patients who have used the Rotater and achieved excellent results.

Athletes feel the stretch

Although not our initial market, athletes have discovered the unique self-stretching properties of the Rotater. This has opened a huge market for us. In fact, we went to the PGA expo in Las Vegas, earlier this month for the sole purpose of getting the Rotater into the hands of serious golfers to get their take on it. We were staggered by the number of teaching professionals who wanted to take a Rotater home with them.

As the Law of Attraction would have it, while we were at the PGA show, we were approached by a professional baseball player in the minor leagues. He asked about the Rotater, tried it and promptly purchased one.

Follow up

Usually, a couple of weeks after a show, either Scott or I or both of us try to contact as many people who received the Rotater as possible in order to see how it is working out for them. And this is how the issue of paid endorsements came up.

I spoke with a teaching pro who had purchased a Rotater from us and I inquired as to how he was liking it. Well, he raved about how good it was, about how much shoulder flexibility he had regained and how much better his shoulders felt.

When he stopped speaking, I asked him if he would like to provide us with a testimonial. I could tell that he was immediately uncomfortable and I quickly found out why.

He told me that his agent had advised him not to provide an unpaid testimonial. Now, I do see his point. As a professional athlete, HE is his product and he has every right to expect to be paid to endorse a product.

It’s a credibility issue for us

However, I don’t believe it is in the best interest of Joint Mechanix to pay someone to say that the Rotater is a great product. To me, it seems to be a conflict of interest as well as a sacrifice of credibility for us. It just doesn’t feel right.

So, if you read our testimonials, you may not see any famous names – but you will know that our testimonials were motivated by results and not a byproduct of financial remuneration.

Tags: the+Rotater, testimonials, credibility

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Comments

4 Responses to “The price of paid endorsement vs. the cost of lost credibility”

Stephen Hopson on September 29th, 2007 3:07 pm

That was a very, very interesting and intriguing article. Very thought provoking because as a professional speaker, I also need testomonials. For the most part, as far as I know, getting testomonials are a vital part of convincing others to hire speakers, especially if they are well known or respected business people.

When I was in the process of overhauling my professional speaking website (www.sjhopson.com), I had to think about who to approach. I’m not 100 percent sure of this but some of the more famous people do charge for testomonials. It’s hard to tell whether paid speaker endorsements are effective or not but I agree with you that endorsements should not cost anything. It’s an integrity thing.

Having said that, I did manage to get at least two respected and highly visible people to provide me a testomonial from a former CEO of Southwest Airlines and a best-selling author to do a video testomony for me. I believe their testimonies are directly responsible for a good handful of engagements that came through my website alone.

Great article! I enjoyed it. Thanks.
Chris Melton on September 30th, 2007 9:41 am

I’d take a free testimonial over a paid endorsement, anyday!!! Thanks for the support.
Derek Highley on October 17th, 2007 12:31 pm

Hi Chris,

Pretty timely post … I’m not sure if you have seen this already, but here is some recent news from the Golf world regarding paid endorsements.

http://1stopforgolf.typepad.com/blog/2007/10/new-tiger-swill.html
Chris Melton on October 18th, 2007 4:56 am

Hi Derek - thanks for your comment. I will be stopping by for a look at that article. You guys have several great web sites for golf, golf courses, golf products and more, by the way.