On the surface, LeBron coming home is an amazing tale— a Hollywood type of feel good story of redemption, forgiveness, and going back to your roots. I get it. And I love it. As a fan of sports, this is amazing. No doubt about it. But I truly believe this is much more than just being back home in Northern Ohio for LeBron and why the man behind the brand is going to really benefit.
Apparently, LeBron spends his summer at his home in Akron with his family. An NBA athlete is not really home much anyway, you are on the road for about six to eight months. The NBA is a very long season with training camp starting in October and ending in June for championship teams—not if you play for Milwaukee or Philadelphia though, those seasons will end in April. But I am digressing. And with LeBron’s wealth, if he really wanted to be home with his family, he technically could still make Akron his home base and fly in and out to Miami—I don’t think he needs to use miles.
My point is, I don’t completely buy the whole “I am coming home” campaign as about doing it solely for Northern Ohio. That could be part of the reason, and a noble one indeed. However, I really believe LeBron is getting good advice that his personal brand is going to win big by coming home.
When LeBron left Cleveland, he did not do so with grace. And the media destroyed him rightfully so—including myself. I am considering myself part of the media—thank you to all of my six blog followers for being so loyal and faithful to me. But back to my point. LeBron became perceived as part villain in the media—a kid who left his loyal fans for greener pastures and turned his back on his hometown. And I believe his brand image was really damaged and although he won championships, he potentially lost millions in endorsement deals. And you might say, hold on, his endorsement earnings went up each year even after he went to Miami (from Forbes: http://onforb.es/1nebAUC). I still believe that LeBron is clearly more marketable by being in Cleveland. How many LeBron ads did you see in the NBA Finals? There was a lot more of “Cliff Paul”. If you were running a brand, who would you rather back, the hometown kid from Akron or the South Beach star? How many more endorsement deals is LeBron going to get by going home?
I have no way of proving this right now, this is just based on common sense. I don’t have any big data analytics to use and I barely remember how to perform regression analysis from my stats class in my MBA program. But I truly believe, LeBron is going to take his brand image to a whole new level. LeBron is now the good guy again, beloved by his hometown, and a hero in Cleveland. And if I am marketer, I would be willing to bank on that.
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