Case  Study   The  Rise,  Fall,  and  Re-­‐Ascension  of  Brand  Beckham   The career of David Beckham, celebrity soccer player, has had its highs and lows. But through it all, one thing has remained constant, David Beckham has rarely ventured out of the media or the public eye. For a decade, from his 1995 debut for Manchester United, his career went from strength to strength, his on-field brilliance matched only by his soaring marketing appeal in a sport that massively commercialized in the 1990s (Cashmore & Parker, 2003). But as he hit his thirties, the Beckham star began to fade, and from 2006, his career has experienced turbulence. After resigning the England captaincy in the aftermath of England's disappointing exit at the quarterfinal stage of the 2006 World Cup, Beckham was subsequently dropped from the England national team squad in August 2006. In 2003 he moved from Manchester United to join famed Spanish soccer club, Real Madrid. By the end of 2006, he could not hold on to his first team place and it seemed that Beckham's fabled soccer career was declining (Wahl, 2007). As he fell from footballing (soccer) grace, Beckham's commercial celebrity appeal also eroded as he lost several lucrative endorsement contracts, most notably as the face man for Police sunglasses and the brand ambassador for Gillette (Leonard, 2006). However, just as everyone was writing him off, Beckham, not for the first time in his fabled career, reinvented himself. The soccer and entertainment world was stunned in January 2007, when he signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States, and the next phase of Brand Beckham was launched. It began in sensational style. In a sports world unfazed by gargantuan sports contracts, Beckham signed a contract that amazed even the most hardened of sports commentators. Worth an estimated $250 million over five years (Wahl, 2007), Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy contract was signed only after the passing of a new MLS rule, the "designated player rule" (subsequently dubbed the "Beckham rule"), which permitted MLS teams to pay above the salary cap for two players. The contract was stunning, but fully reflected Beckham's global soccer notoriety and his Hollywood good looks. Carefully crafted by Simon Fuller, the architect of American Idol and former manager of the Spice Girls, Beckham's MLS deal dwarfed that of marquee athletes in the traditionally mainstream American sports of football, baseball, and basketball. Beckham's contract was thought to be justified by his popular and global appeal. It enabled him to benefit financially from all his image rights, related sponsorships and endorsements, as well as sharing in team replica shirt and club ticket sales. In effect Beckham's contract made him a partner with the Los Angeles Galaxy's owners, the Anschultz Entertainment group, which had previously partnered with Beckham in developing his socc ...

1. Case
Study
The
Rise,
Fall,
and
Re-­‐Ascension
of
Brand
Beckham
The career of David Beckham, celebrity soccer player, has had
its highs and lows. But
through it all, one thing has remained constant, David Beckham
has rarely ventured out
of the media or the public eye. For a decade, from his 1995
debut for Manchester United,
his career went from strength to strength, his on-field brilliance
matched only by his
soaring marketing appeal in a sport that massively
commercialized in the 1990s
(Cashmore & Parker, 2003).
But as he hit his thirties, the Beckham star began to fade, and
from 2006, his career has
experienced turbulence. After resigning the England captaincy
in the aftermath of
England's disappointing exit at the quarterfinal stage of the
2006 World Cup, Beckham

2. was subsequently dropped from the England national team
squad in August 2006. In
2003 he moved from Manchester United to join famed Spanish
soccer club, Real Madrid.
By the end of 2006, he could not hold on to his first team place
and it seemed that
Beckham's fabled soccer career was declining (Wahl, 2007). As
he fell from footballing
(soccer) grace, Beckham's commercial celebrity appeal also
eroded as he lost several
lucrative endorsement contracts, most notably as the face man
for Police sunglasses and
the brand ambassador for Gillette (Leonard, 2006).
However, just as everyone was writing him off, Beckham, not
for the first time in his
fabled career, reinvented himself. The soccer and entertainment
world was stunned in
January 2007, when he signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy of
Major League Soccer
(MLS) in the United States, and the next phase of Brand
Beckham was launched. It began
in sensational style. In a sports world unfazed by gargantuan
sports contracts, Beckham
signed a contract that amazed even the most hardened of sports
commentators. Worth an
estimated $250 million over five years (Wahl, 2007), Beckham's
Los Angeles Galaxy
contract was signed only after the passing of a new MLS rule,
the "designated player
rule" (subsequently dubbed the "Beckham rule"), which
permitted MLS teams to pay
above the salary cap for two players. The contract was stunning,
but fully reflected
Beckham's global soccer notoriety and his Hollywood good
looks. Carefully crafted by

3. Simon Fuller, the architect of American Idol and former
manager of the Spice Girls,
Beckham's MLS deal dwarfed that of marquee athletes in the
traditionally mainstream
American sports of football, baseball, and basketball.
Beckham's contract was thought to
be justified by his popular and global appeal. It enabled him to
benefit financially from
all his image rights, related sponsorships and endorsements, as
well as sharing in team
replica shirt and club ticket sales. In effect Beckham's contract
made him a partner with
the Los Angeles Galaxy's owners, the Anschultz Entertainment
group, which had
previously partnered with Beckham in developing his soccer
academy in the Los Angeles
suburb of Carson, California, and Greenwich, close to
Beckham's birthplace in London
(Patrick, Weinbach, & Johnson, 2007).
The Beckham signing was deemed a watershed moment for U.S.
soccer. Don Garber, the
MLS Commissioner declared that "David Beckham is a global
sports icon who will
transcend the sport of soccer in America" ("Beckham to leave
Real Madrid for LA
Galaxy," 2007, n.p.). The combination of Beckham's persona,
English, tall, lean, good
looking, with glittering athletic skills, and a celebrity wife,
Victoria "Posh Spice"
Beckham, was tailor-made for Hollywood, Los Angeles, and the
MLS. It provided
Beckham with new opportunities to generate excitement in U.S.
soccer, reignite his

4. soccer career and also to ply his looks and commercial skills in
the world's most lucrative
marketplace--Hollywood.
Beckham: On the Pitch
Beckham's distinguished playing career has been spent mainly
with two of the most
recognizable professional soccer teams in the world, Manchester
United and Real
Madrid. He built his reputation playing for Manchester United
in the English Premier
League. During his 10 years at the club, Manchester United
dominated the English
Premier League, which both then and now is widely recognized
as one of the best and
most competitive soccer leagues in the world. During his tenure
with Manchester United,
Beckham won six English Premiership titles, and was a pivotal
member of the
Manchester United team that won a unique soccer treble in
1999, garnering the
Premiership, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions league in the same
season. Though a
midfielder, Beckham scored 86 goals for Manchester United
(Halpin, 2007). Beckham's
fame, though, was less from his goal-scoring prowess than his
ability to deliver pinpoint
crosses, strike 40-yard penetrating through balls with unerring
accuracy, and bend his
signature free kicks around and over defensive walls (Giardina,
2003).
Beckham's international career has been luminous. In March
2008, Beckham represented
the England national team for the 100th time, making him a

5. member of a very exclusive
club. Only four other Englishmen, Peter Shilton (125), Bobby
Moore (108), Bobby
Charlton (106), and Billy Wright (105) had reached this
milestone before Beckham
("David Beckham earns 100th cap for England," 2008).
Beckham's stellar international
career has included representing England in the 1998, 2002, and
2006 World Cup final
tournaments, and he holds the distinction of being the first-ever
English player to score in
three successive World Cups. He served his country as its
talismanic captain from 2000
through the 2006 World Cups. As captain, Beckham led his
England team through
example, including some at-times virtuoso performances such as
his last-minute bending
freekick goal against Greece that secured the England national
team's qualification for the
2002 World Cup Finals (Harris & Clayton, 2007).
Such performances for the national team endeared him to the
English public and
Beckham's right foot was even referred to as one of Britain's
"national treasures" by Hugh
Grant's character, in the 2003 film Love Actually. This and
other game-changing
performances propelled Beckham mania to unprecedented
levels, even prompting The
Sun newspaper to call for Beckham to be knighted (Harris &
Clayton, 2007). Popular
support was there, and in 2003, Beckham was awarded the
Order of the British Empire

6. (OBE) in the Queen's birthday honors list for services to
football (soccer) (Harris &
Clayton, 2007). His importance to the national team was
highlighted when a broken
metatarsal bone in his foot, two months before the 2002 World
Cup, bumped the death of
the Queen Mother from the front pages of several popular
newspapers. Prime Minister
Tony Blair publicly implored the nation to be optimistic and the
press, both English and
foreign, urged their readers to pray for his swift recovery so
that he could play for
England in the tournament. Beckham recovered in time to be
featured in the 2002 World
Cup Finals, and scored the winning goal against England's arch-
rival, Argentina, before
the team was eliminated by Brazil in the quarterfinals. In the
same year Beckham was
selected as the 33rd greatest Briton of all time by the BBC, the
highest position attained
by any sports figure (Harris & Clayton, 2007).
Although Beckham is perhaps the epitome of the successful
postmodern global sport
celebrity, his soccer career has had its downtimes, during which
he has endured much
hostility from England's soccer fans and severe criticism in the
press. Such occurred in
the 1998 World Cup finals, when, against arch-nemesis
Argentina, with the game
delicately poised, Beckham was given a red card and sent off
from the field of play for
retaliating against an Argentine player. This meant that England
was reduced to playing
with 10 men, and although the team held the 11 players
representing Argentina to a draw

7. in regulation time, they were eliminated by a penalty shoot-out.
This lapse of judgement
did not go unpunished. England's national pride had been
damaged and Beckham was
widely vilified in the media for England's premature elimination
from the 1998 Cup.
Typifying the negative newspaper accounts of Beckham's
sending-off, The Mirror's
(1998) headline read "ten heroic lions, one stupid boy" (as cited
in Harris & Clayton,
2007, p. 1). After enduring a season of terrace taunts from
opposing team fans, Beckham
gradually rebuilt his soccer reputation and popular appeal.
Indeed the season after, he
played a pivotal role in winning three trophies, the Premier
League, the F.A. Cup [The
Football Association Challenge Cup in English football
(soccer)], and the European
Champions League, aptly dubbed the treble, with Manchester
United in 1999. As his field
performances improved, so his image reached iconic status. It
peaked in April 1999 when
Time Out magazine went as far as to portray Beckham as a
pseudo-Christ-like figure and
featured him on the front cover in white trousers and see-
through shirt in a pose evocative
of Christ and the crucifixion. The caption read: "Easter
Exclusive: The Resurrection of
David Beckham" (Seenan, 2005).
In 2003, Beckham left Manchester United for Real Madrid.
They paid $41 million for his
services as their president, Florentino Perez, sought to build a
club of global soccer
superstars. Beckham joined a team that included the best-known
names in the sport,

8. including Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, Spain's Luis Figo, and
Brazil's Ronaldo. This
turned out to be an ill-fated strategy as despite their galaxy of
soccer super-heroes, Real
Madrid only won one trophy, Spain's La Liga title, during
Beckham's time at the club.
Commentators at the time, though, noted the club's upturn in
commercial appeal and
speculated that the true impetus for the transfer was more
Beckham's global celebrity and
iconic appeal rather than his playing ability. There is some truth
in this. Some
commercial synergies were evident with both Beckham and Real
Madrid having
sponsorship deals with Adidas and Pepsi. Both gained from
Beckham's Spanish presence.
Real Madrid's commercial revenue from club merchandise sales,
such as replica shirts,
increased 67% in Beckham's first season alone. The acquisition
of Beckham also helped
open up new markets in Asia and the United States with
exhibition matches and tours.
Such was his impact that it was claimed that the "Beckonomics"
of the transfer helped to
propel Real Madrid past Beckham's former club Manchester
United as the world's richest
club in 2006 (Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance,
2006).
Beckham has always had his critics, many of whom note that his
off-the-field persona
masks deficiencies in his on-field performances. Such critics
cite that Beckham is "less

9. than the complete" soccer player, while claiming that he is too
one-dimensional in his
abilities to deliver the telling through ball, the in-swinging
corner, or the pinpoint crosses
and free kicks. They point to his lack of genuine pace, his
underdeveloped left-footed
play, his poor heading, and his dearth of one-on-one dribbling
skills. These deficiencies,
they note, despite his stellar offensive set-piece play, limit his
overall team contribution
at the highest levels of the game.
Brand it Like Beckham
Through his world-class soccer exploits and his multiple off-
field personas, Beckham has
not just become a brand, but a portfolio of brands. A brand is an
intangible "mental box"
or a creation or an association that exists in the mind of the
consumer that adds value to
products and services (Aaker, 1996). In Beckham's case his
global popularity and iconic
image has resulted in him adding significant brand value and
goodwill to the various
companies he is a spokesman for and the multitude of different
products and services that
he endorses. Together with his wife, Victoria, they actually
have their own dVb (David
and Victoria Beckham), brand label.
There are payoffs to global notoriety. It adds new audiences of
potential sponsors as
international corporations tap into the affinity and affection that
a large section of the
public have for global sport stars, like David Beckham. Their
hope is that sports

10. endorsements will cause fans to equate the image of the athlete
with their products and
services (Stone, Joseph, & Jones, 2003). Qualities such as the
athlete's global popular
appeal, recognition, credibility, overall fit, physical
attractiveness, trustworthiness,
expertise, personal characteristics, and cultural meaning
transfer are what companies look
for in athletes who endorse their products and services (Till &
Busler, 2000). Their hope
is that a Beckham endorsement will add significant value to
their products and services.
Beckham, though, is unique as his iconic image extends far
beyond the sports arena into
multiple areas, with each representing a profit center for
exploitation. He is, in effect, not
one brand, but an entire portfolio of brands, each representing a
part of the chameleon-
brand that is David Beckham.
The Celebrity Crossover Star: Multiple Brand Personality
Beckham
In the commercial world, the Beckham brand has taken on
"multiple personalities" or
identities. Brand Beckham's multiple personalities or identities
are what makes him
unique and valuable and can add value to many different
products and services. His brand
has transcended the monolithic pure athlete persona and this
point was articulated by
Harris and Clayton (2007) when they stated:
Beckham is without doubt one of the most significant athletes

11. of (post)modern times. He
transcends boundaries in a way that few (if any) other English
athletes have ever done and
(together with his wife) has become a truly global brand. (p.
219)
Beckham bends more than soccer balls. While the phrase "bend
it like Beckham" refers to
his almost unique ability to curve a free kick around a defensive
wall and into a corner of
the goal, in the media he also bends societal norms in a
commercially appealing way. In
this way the Beckham persona is truly multidimensional. On the
field and through his
soccer achievements, he is the epitome of the masculine sports
male, quintessentially
English, from a working class background, and immensely
talented.
Off the field, his marketing image broadens to embrace other
brand identities and
personalities. He appeals to aspiring youth as a "working-class-
boy-made-good." To
families he is portrayed as a loving father and adoring husband.
To popular music fans he
is the proud husband of Posh Spice. Behaviorally, his non-
conformist tendencies appeal
to youth's individualism. In the world of high fashion, his
clothes, and metro-sexual
appeal attract the attention of "fashionistas" worldwide
(Cashmore & Parker, 2003).
Celebrity Beckham's appeal is in the eye of the beholder--a
commercial chameleon or
floating signifier, whose appeal depends on " ... the role and
audience he seeks to

12. address" (Cashmore & Parker, 2003, p. 214).
Beckham's uniqueness then is that while individual celebrities
epitomize one of these
elements, David Beckham embraces a number of them. The
interactions among his
various persona and images have given him enormous synergies
in the media. His
presence at an event always gives the media multiple reporting
angles. There is always
something to write about.
Originally football (soccer) was Beckham's entrance to stardom.
But the turning point
and the key to his multiple brand personality was almost
certainly his high-profile
marriage to former Spice Girl and celebrity socialite, Victoria
"Posh Spice" Adams, who
became famous in the late 1990s as a member of the Spice
Girls, a pop music group
formed by Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment. Their antics and
celebrity lifestyles made
tabloid headlines wherever they went, as did their highly
publicized friendships with
movie and popular music stars (Yu, 2005).
Individually, they were icons. Together, they became an
overpowering commercial force
that attracted more than twice the attention. Victoria Beckham
receives as much interest
from the media paparazzi as her husband and is known for her
fashion sense and
glamour. "Posh and Becks" as they are affectionately known

13. have been labeled as the
people's royalty. Their _2.5 million (or approximately $5
million U.S.) home in
Hertfordshire has been dubbed Beckingham Palace. Piers
Morgan, the former editor of
The Mirror newspaper revealed " ... on a slow news day we used
to lead the paper on the
royals, now we go for Queen Posh and King David" (Morton,
2000, p. 19).
Dissecting the Multiple Brand Personalities
Beckham's potent combination of sporting prowess, physical
attractiveness, sex appeal,
celebrity marriage, working class roots, capacity for hard work,
and multifaceted
masculinity make him a model endorsement prospect for many
global companies (Yu,
2005). His image as a wholesome, clean-living, devoted family
man juxtaposed with his
penchant for bending conventional rules maximizes his appeal
to multiple demographic
segments (Giardina, 2003). His masculine identity is firmly
rooted in his athleticism. But
a large part of Beckham's appeal can be traced to his non-
conformity and contradictions
or his androgynous blends of opposites. As Cashmore (2006)
put it,
Beckham reverberated with inclusiveness. White, but with
Black tastes; straight, but adored by
gay men; male, but with a penchant for nail varnish, body-
waxing, and androgynous attire. (p.
233)

14. Beckham's fashion sense has resulted in extraordinary appeal
among the Black
community. He sports chunky jewelry. He uses fashion to exude
confidence and sex
appeal (Givhan, 2003). His hairstyles, clothes, and body
ornamentation have developed
into an important part of the Brand Beckham iconic image.
Unlike most men, he changes
hairstyles, and when he does it makes news. When he met
Nelson Mandela, South
Africa's first Black president, he wore Caribbean braids. During
the 2002 World Cup, he
had a Mohican cut. His body is adorned with tattoos including a
winged crossed tattoo on
the back of his neck. Under normal (i.e., non-Beckham)
circumstances, such adornments
would contradict his working class roots, soccer prowess, and
strong family image. But in
the media he is anchored with a strong hetero-masculine image.
This occurs in spite of
his constant infringements of traditional working class football
(soccer) culture that
emphasizes the strong masculine image and which normally
vilifies any hint of
effeminacy.
Such characteristics unveil Beckham as being the style icon,
who embraces the values of
metro-sexual man. This image presents Beckham as well
groomed and manicured,
someone who moisturizes regularly, and who with his wife
endorses a line of fragrance
brands. The Beckham body, hard and toned, is aligned with his
metro-sexual tendencies
and that also makes him a popular figure in the gay community.
Far from discouraging

15. this androgynous image, Beckham chooses to reinforce this "bi-
sexual persona" through
his choice of fashions as well as appearances in gay magazines.
This image peaked in
2002, when in an issue of the men's magazine GQ, Beckham
posed for photographs in
what was promoted as "his most outrageous shoot." Beckham
was photographed
complete with facial makeup, baby oil on his uncovered chest,
wearing a white silk scarf,
and nail varnish. The shoot was reported under the headline
"Camp David" in The Mirror
(Harris & Clayton, 2007). This was an obvious blurring of male-
female images. It
worked because, as Rahman (2004) suggests, Beckham " ... sells
precisely because he is
constructed and represented with reassuring and dissonant
elements of masculinity" (p.
231).
Beckham's family-man image is similarly so robust that not only
did his reported affair in
2004, with personal assistant Rebecca Loos, fail to substantially
undermine his
wholesome family image; his commercial appeal not only did
not falter, it was actually
enhanced in some regards (Cashmore, 2006). It transpired that
his alleged affair seemed
to reinforce his heterosexual credibility and his appeal as the
working class hegemonic
man (Clayton & Harris, 2004). It also provided a counter-
narrative to the notion that
Beckham represented a kind of new age man emasculated by his

16. allegedly dominant ex-
Spice Girl ("girl-powered") wife who reportedly chooses his
clothes and fashion
accessories.
Beckham's global appeal is evidenced by the high percentage of
people in Asia who
recognize him. Over three years, he appeared in 150 countries
in Gillette shaver
advertisements. The Japanese Meiji Seika chocolate and
confectionary company made a
three-meter high chocolate statue figure of Beckham as part of
his endorsement of their
confectionary before the 2002 World Cup finals. Beyond that,
Monks at a Buddhist
shrine in Thailand even molded a gold-plated Beckham that
people can worship (Yu,
2005).
As Cashmore (2006) stated, Beckham is a "moving
advertisement" (p. 9). What is evident
is that Brand Beckham has undergone a metamorphosis from the
early days when his
appeal was predicated on his soccer playing ability and his
credibility as a world-class
professional soccer player to a more complex multifaceted
brand. This change has been
carefully crafted by his management agency, 19 Entertainment,
and been broadly based
on his global fashion icon and jetsetter appeal (Yu, 2005). He
has endorsed sports cars,
airlines, chocolates, and electronic durable products, and has
represented Motorola,
Gillette, Pepsi, Upper Deck, Vodafone, Castrol, Marks &
Spencer, and Coty (Rines,
2004). Beckham's sporting endorsement contracts includes the

17. Adidas predator pulse
thumbprint shoe that he wore in the 2006 World Cup, which
incorporated an image of his
thumb print into the shoe design. Beckham is also contracted to
wear his branded Adidas
predator shoes and an Adidas uniform while playing for the Los
Angeles Galaxy.
Beckham the Brand Portfolio
Beckham's multi-faceted persona has, perhaps uniquely in the
sporting world, made him
not just a brand, but a portfolio of brands. Brand portfolios are
collections of related
brands that are marketed as separate entities to appeal to
different segments within a
given market (Barwise & Robertson 1992). David Beckham is
not just a brand with a
distinct personality; he is a portfolio of brands, each emanating
from the different roles he
plays in life--soccer player, father, husband to Posh,
fashionista, sexual icon, and so on.
We all play multiple roles in life--a man may be a father,
husband, employee, and soccer
coach for example. Each is a role that often requires different
personalities to implement
successfully. In Beckham's case, each of his roles, through
media scrutiny and marketing
magnification, has become a separate brand--each different, but
all managed from
Beckham Brand Central, his marketing group. Each brand is
similar, but has its own
personality (Aaker 1996). In Beckham's case, each persona is a

18. distinct segment, and
from a business perspective, each is a profit center.
Beckham's Brand Equity
Aaker (1996) defined brand equity as "a set of assets and
liabilities linked to a brand, its
name and symbol, that add to or subtract from the value
provided by a product or service
to a firm and/or that firm's customers" (p. 10). That is, brand
equity is the value of the
brand to the owner. The two main components of brand equity
are the creation of
awareness and image. In terms of brand awareness, Beckham is
one of the world's most
recognizable athletes with the media paparazzi following his
every move. Additionally,
Beckham's endorsements have very high levels of public
awareness (Rines, 2004). The
other component of brand equity is image. This refers to the
cumulative effect of all the
associations' people have with Beckham's multi-dimensional
appeal. Brand Beckham's
image is predicated on his multi-brand personalities. The
benefits of Beckham's multi-
dimensional global appeal and loyal fan following are that it
enables his management
agency to generate a portfolio of separate endorsements held
together by the Beckham
persona. This gives him significant brand equity. In 2005, the
sum total of Beckham's
brand portfolio value was estimated to be approaching $400
million (Yu, 2005).
I Love LA

19. David Beckham's decision to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy
was monumental for the
league, the club, and the player. For the MLS, it was a
significant coup to attract a player
of Beckham's stature. Shortly after signing him, Don Garber,
the commissioner of MLS,
was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, "Having David
play in the most
commercially robust market in the world clearly is going to
generate significant income
for both the Galaxy and the league" (Patrick et. al., 2007, p.
B2). But even this
necessitated an MLS rule change to modify the designated
player rule, which now states
that each franchise can sign two players who can be paid more
than the league maximum
salary of $400,000. From the league's perspective, Ivan Gazidis,
MLS Deputy
Commissioner, justified the MLS's strategic investment in
Beckham by claiming that he
would deliver value to MLS broadcast partners and sponsors
and also increase the value
of all MLS teams. The signing also came at a critical time in the
league's development. In
2007, the MLS, which was created in the aftermath of the
United States hosting the 1994
World Cup, negotiated its first compensated TV deal with
ESPN, Univision, and Fox
Soccer Channel. The deal is worth $20 million a year. The
league is also in the throes of
expansion, adding Toronto F.C. and San Jose in 2007 and 2008,
respectively. The league
also has plans to add two other franchises in Portland and

20. Philadelphia in 2010 (Bell,
2007).
For the LA Galaxy, signing Beckham was the lynchpin to the
club's marketing strategy,
where his global appeal is being used to great marketing effect.
Initial marketing and
promotion efforts have included creating a new team logo, a
shirt sponsorship deal, and
the provision of a post-season team tour of Asia. Tim Leiweke,
the president and CEO of
Anschultz Entertainment Group, which owns the Galaxy,
claimed that within three
months of signing, Beckham had already "paid for himself." He
noted that since
Beckham's arrival at the Galaxy, the club had sold-out their
luxury suites, attracted
11,000 season ticket holders, inked a groundbreaking shirt
sponsorship deal worth an
estimated $20 million with Herbalife, and had increased
merchandise sales by 700% for
the Galaxy and by 300% for the league ("Beckham already
having a commercial impact
on U.S.," 2007; Wahl, 2007). Clearly, in its early stages, the
Beckham deal was paying
off.
For Beckham, too, the deal is working. Clifford Boxham of
Octagon, a United Kingdom
sports management agency believes that the move also helps
Beckham finish his career
as an impact player, which he has always been throughout his
career. This was a shrewd
move. It would have been difficult for Beckham to have
maintained his status in the
hyper competitive European leagues, outside a star-studded

21. team such as Manchester
United. Then, too, there is also his crossover appeal, tailor-
made for the laissez-faire
lifestyles of the Hollywood market, which would be less
pronounced in Europe than in
the United States (Patrick et. al., 2007).
A number of question marks remain, however. Although the
Bend It like Beckham movie
created curiosity, David Beckham, the worldwide soccer
celebrity, is not as famous in the
United States as he is in many other parts the world where
soccer is the preeminent sport
and his soccer skills are widely acknowledged and appreciated.
He will also be trying to
make an impact in a market where soccer is still positioned
behind the traditional
powerhouse sports of football, basketball, and baseball. But
there is hope, as the
Beckham persona has faced and overcome this challenge before.
His ability to rise above
his sport and make an impact can be seen by his popularity in
Japan, a nation where sumo
wrestling and baseball are more popular than soccer. Michael
Levine, an experienced
publicist, concluded that Beckham's move to Los Angeles is a "
... tremendous
opportunity. LA is the world's best celebrity platform location.
This is a great brand
extension opportunity for him, and soccer is largely irrelevant"
("Beckham to leave Real
Madrid for LA Galaxy," 2007).
Is the Grass Greener on the Other Side?
Beckham's debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy against the

22. English Premier League team,
Chelsea, occurred in front of a packed Home Depot Stadium and
was broadcast live by
ESPN. However, the Beckham star was dimmed as he arrived in
Los Angeles with an
injury and this limited his appearances for the Galaxy. It also
hindered the impact he was
able to make playing for the Galaxy in his first season. In
addition he joined a struggling
Galaxy team in mid-season, which failed to qualify for the post-
season play-offs, and
resulted in a change of coaching staff. Although there were high
points in Beckham's
second season for the Galaxy, including his scoring from his
own half in a game against
the Kansas City Wizards, the team struggled to find peak
consistency to win games.
Midway through the season, with the team languishing in a mid-
table position the club's
historic coaching problems continued when the head coach
Ruud Gullit left the club by
mutual consent, and the general manager, Alexi Lalas, was
fired. However, Beckham's
own form for the Galaxy in his second season with the club was
good and his England
international career was revived by new England manager
Franco Capello.
However, off the field, brand Beckham made an impressive
debut in the United States.
Since their arrival in Los Angeles in the late summer of 2007,
the Beckham duo has
garnered significant publicity and media attention. Beckham

23. was featured on the front
cover of Sports Illustrated and launched his own weekly
television show David
Beckham's Soccer USA on the Fox Soccer Channel and
MLSnet.com. Victoria also
starred in her own one-off television show Victoria Beckham:
Coming to America.
Evidence of Beckham's continuing appeal is exemplified by his
appearance in an Armani
advertisement in tight white y-fronts (briefs) in December,
2007. The advertisement
helped increased sales of the y-fronts by 260%, ("Beckham's ad
is not pants," 2008). In
collaboration with Coty, the world's largest fragrance house, the
duo launched the
Intimately Beckham line of "his" and "hers" fragrances. In
addition through their newly
created dVb (David and Victoria Beckham) brand label they
launched a range of
sunglasses and a denim collection. In 2007, the dVb brand
opened its first concession in
the famous Harrods department store in the west end of
London's famed shopping
district. From a global perspective, too, their West Coast
location has enabled the
Beckhams to expand their global notoriety across the Pacific. In
conjunction with
Japanese design label Samantha Thavassa, Victoria Beckham
has developed her own line
of handbags and a jewelry collection available in Japan
(dVbstyle.com, 2008). In
September 2008 Victoria Beckham's showcased her first dVb
line of dresses in New
York Fashion Week. She designed the dresses herself and
received positive reviews. The
early indications then suggest that the Beckham brand has

24. benefited greatly from their
move to Hollywood.
In 2009, it is anticipated that David and Victoria Beckham will
continue to develop their
family, fashion, and entertainment brand identities through their
joint dVb label as well
as continuing to lend endorsements to other global brands.
However, doubts remain as to
whether brand Beckham will be able to overcome soccer's
second-class status in the
United States. Furthermore, skeptics question whether the
popular appeal of the duo will
withstand Beckham's inevitable decline as a world class soccer
player. They claim that
much of Beckham's brand identity is still predicated on his
physicality and athletic
prowess as a world-class soccer player and that his other brand
appeals will erode in
tandem with his declining soccer status. Similarly, Victoria's
singing career, which is
what made her famous originally, has been in decline for many
years. Although she
reunited with the Spice Girls for their worldwide reunion tour in
2007, her recent solo
efforts have not been commercially successful. Set against the
declining status of both
their original careers, only time will tell whether the Beckham
brand will continue to
prosper.
From a branding perspective, though, David Beckham presents a
unique case study of

25. how a sportsman can transcend his sport by crossing over into
the realms of
entertainment and fashion. Initially famous as a soccer player,
his marriage to Victoria
Adams, of the Spice Girls, provided him with a platform and
with the necessary
connections to crossover into the celebrity world of
entertainment and fashion. As one of
the world's most recognizable athletes, Beckham has been able
to leverage his sports
fame as few have ever done. In part, much credit is due to his
manager, Simon Fuller,
who skillfully crafted his contradictory multiple brand
personalities or identities into
multiple markets. Each appeals to different market segments,
and each works because
each personality is, as Cashmore and Parker (2003) noted,
separated by time, space, and
media. For example, if you do not read gay magazines, you are
only vaguely aware that
he has a cult status among that group. Similarly, the typical
soccer fan may only rarely
read fashion magazines. Beckham the marketing chameleon is
whatever his fans want to
see in him, whether it is the gay icon, the family man, the
sportsman, the dedicated
fashionista with metrosexual tendencies, the working class lad
made good, or the
Hollywood celebrity. Now for successful exploitation each role
or persona must be
addressed through different marketing or branding strategies
and leveraged in distinctive
ways to appeal to different market segments. But together they
increase brand value.
Beckham's multiple iconic images have become a portfolio of
brands able to add value or

26. generate brand equity for multiple products and services. This is
Beckham's uniqueness
and what made him so attractive to MLS, which is hoping that
Beckham's global brand
value and enduring appeal will provide the league with greater
recognition and improve
its image. It is why they were prepared, in effect, to partner
with him in a contract that is
potentially twice as lucrative as the contract that baseball player
Alex Rodriguez signed
with the New York Yankees. Whether the benefits from
improved recognition and image
can be sustained in the long run by MLS remains open to
question.
Although there are obvious lessons for other elite sports stars
that desire to crossover into
other arenas, it should be acknowledged that Beckham is thus
far unique in the sports
world in the way his brand personalities are leveraged in so
many distinct ways.
Manchester United fans used to chant from the terraces "there's
only one David
Beckham." Today, while still true, it has been the successful
leveraging of his multiple
brand personalities that have made him into a true global sports
brand. In essence,
Beckham is perhaps the ultimate in how good marketing can
make the brand.