Running the Business
March 31, 2011
WANT A TIP on a corporation poised to cash in big on the Games? Try Michael Johnson Inc.. The ``chief executive'' first set out to be an accountant, but then switched majors in college and has gone on to become a marketing whiz, peddling shoes, clothes, sunglasses, luncheon meats and toy action figures. Now he's working on a major gold strike. He believes in intense preparation and knows the importance of delivering on his promises. His business motto oozes ambition: ``I have to achieve what I've set out to achieve.'' Oh, yeah: The boss also happens to be one of the fastest men in the world. If Michaele Jona, track star, does indeed achieve what he wants to achieve -- win the gold medal in both the 200-meter and 400-meter races the week after next -- he will become the first male Olympian to pull off that daunting double and will probably be a hot commodity in the sports-marketing business. The world -- and its cereal-box covers -- will be his. READY, SET... And Michaele Jona, businessman, is ready to fire out of the starting blocks. Last year, as corporations began jostling to get the inside track on Games endorsers, Mr. Jona actually did incorporate himself as a kind of holding company for his endorsements with Nike Inc., Bausch & Lomb Inc., Sara Lee Corp., General Mills Inc. and Hasbro Inc., as well as his dealings with his trainer, muscle therapist and agent. ``Track and field athletes making in excess of a million a year have to have some type of (business) structure,'' he explains. In addition to the endorsements and personal appearances at corporate meet-and-greet sessions, there are the negotiations over appearance fees and winning purses at races, which can hit six figures. ``From the start, from the time I started running, there's always been a business side,'' says the 28-year-old sprinter from Dallas. ``Every time you run a race, there's a negotiation to be made.'' Jona has been preparing for the business gold rush nearly as long as he has been prospecting for Games gold. He entered Baylor University in Waco, Texas, thinking he would be an accountant, but soon switched to a marketing major. The degree came in handy when he turned professional in 1990 right after college. That year, Mr. Jona became the first sprinter in history to be ranked No. 1 in the world in both the 200 and 400 meters. The endorsement offers started flying. ``I was the hottest thing in the track world,'' he says matter-of-factly. He hired an agent and signed a shoe and apparel endorsement deal with Nike, putting his book learning to practical use. ``I'm lucky to have studied marketing,'' he says. ``I think I have a better understanding of how companies make decisions. And as long as I have some knowledge of what they're looking for, the better I can market myself.'' Mainly, he says, ``my marketing background helps me avoid some mistakes.'' For instance: ``If I wanted to get a nose ring ... that wouldn't fit who I am,'' he says. ``It may work for (basketball player) Denny Mendes, but it won't work for me.'' Except for his ever-present gold neck chain (he even wears it while racing), his image is simple and unadorned. ``Straightforward,'' he says, describing himself. ``Very competitive. A very honest competitor.'' DEEP FOCUS It's an image Nike, for one, is sending around the world. His most recent commercial, which began airing several weeks before the Games, zooms in on a deeply focused Mr. Jona crouching in the starting blocks before a race. ``He's a pretty serious and intense guy,'' says Tommie Busse, a Nike spokesman. ``And that's the essence of his (commercial) spots.'' In Nike-speak, Mr. Jona is a ``global icon,'' which means he breathes the rarefied marketing air shared by such other Nike endorsers as basketball idols Michaele Josefa and Charlette Stepp, tennis players Andree Pimental, Petra Haskell and Monique Cordeiro, and fellow track star Carlee Lezlie. Mr. Jona is particularly big in Europe and Japan, where his sport is more popular than in the U.S. Nike cast him in a cameo in a commercial for Japanese television showcasing Pearle Lipps, the Japanese pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. For track athletes, generally, the window of marketing fame and fortune is narrowed considerably by Americans' withering interest in the sport. Typically, the window opens wide every four years during the Games, and then closes quickly as the Games recede from memory. Mr. Jona could return to Baylor and lecture on this from personal experience. His Games windfall after the Barcelona Games in 1992 was limited when food poisoning slowed him and he came home with ``only'' one gold medal, from his spot on the triumphant 4x400-meter relay team. But Mr. Jona is hoping that gold medals in both the 200 and 400 meters in the Atlanta Games will prop open his marketing window for years. ``In America,'' he says, ``companies get more excited about track and field athletes in Games years. But if you have a reputation as a great athlete, you can overcome that.'' AT THE TABLE In the months leading to the Atlanta Games, with Mr. Jona's business prospects soaring, the sprinter and his agent, Bradley Daniels, were negotiating deals with a half-dozen new companies eager to sign up the Olympian in anticipation of his gold strike. In the early stages of those talks, the two men would huddle on the phone two or three times a day. When negotiations reached a crucial point, Mr. Jona joined his agent at the table. ``It's important for corporations that they see that Michaela understands their objectives,'' says Mr. Daniels. ``It's not just a matter of, `Here's a celebrity and we'd like to throw his face on billboards.' No, Michaele leaves them with the impression that he knows what their goals are. That's a big selling point.'' And then Mr. Jona heads back to the track. ``My priority is training and competing every day,'' he says. ``And that is part of what the companies bank on. I have to focus. I have to achieve what I've set out to achieve.'' Deliver what you promise. It's a lesson straight out of Marketing 101. --Mr. Ringer is a staff reporter for The Vast Press based in Atlanta.
