GOLFERS OFF COURSE SPELL TROUBLE ON THE PGA TOUR

McIlroy, Johnson, Woods, Allenby:  Golfers Off Course Spells Trouble on the PGA Tour

The PGA Tour must get out in front of a growing trend of troubling revelations about questionable behavior by prominent golfers or risk scrutiny of their policies and procedures that may cause further embarrassment and will prove difficult to maintain the honorable reputation of the sport.

Tiger Woods had his tooth knocked out by a videographer's camera earlier this week while in Italy watching girlfriend and World Cup ski champion Lindsey Vonn.  It's not the first time Woods' front teeth have gotten in the way of a blunt metal object.  He must have experienced flashbacks to the fateful early morning confrontation in 2009 when his wife at the time Elin Nordegren made a chip shot with a golf wedge into Tiger's mouth, chipping one of Tiger's front teeth after she confronted him about his extra-marital affairs.

And while on the subject of pro golfers' teeth, Rory McIlroy, currently the #1 golfer in the world, blamed a sore wisdom tooth when he abruptly quit playing on the ninth hole of the second round of the 2013 Honda Classic tournament while he was at 7 over par, walked to his car and left the course.  No disciplinary action was taken by the Tour.

More recently, pro golfer Dustin Johnson is scheduled to play golf again in February after taking himself out of golf last summer to seek professional help for 'personal challenges.'  It was widely reported at the time that Johnson, who has since married and had a child with Paulina Gretzky, was known to have slept with at least two other PGA players' wives and also had tested positive three times in the past five years for cocaine and marijuana use.  The PGA Tour stressed that Johnson was not suspended.  That curious statement raises more questions than it answers.

The most curious case of all involves PGA Tour Professional Robert Allenby, who stated that, after missing the cut at last week's Sony Open in Honolulu, he was kidnapped from a bar, drugged, robbed and assaulted by a group of men before they shoved him into the trunk of a car.  He awoke several hours later with no memory of any further details of the incident.

The response of the PGA Tour to the Dustin Johnson incident crystallizes the governing organization's inability to deal truthfully, fully and honestly with these situations.  The announcement of the Johnsons' newborn on the PGA website cites an AP story but strips the original content of any mention of Johnson's previous troubles.  Here is the original AP story about the birth.

It's no easy task for any organization to look internally and objectively analyze how current policies may be damaging to the goals and objectives of the business.  The NCAA is regularly maligned for the ineffectiveness and inconsistencies in it's dealing with member school infractions.  The problem with the PGA is different in that it is refusing to even acknowledge a rising tide of incidents that are proving damaging to the sport they are entrusted to protect.

A full, transparent and truly independent assessment of PGA Tour player discipline policies is required. When completed, all recommendations should be implemented and confirmed by another independent authority.  It's Jack Nicklaus' 75th birthday today -- who better to head up the evaluation than the most respected head-of-state of golf professionalism?

IF YOU WERE A STOCK WHICH WOULD YOU BE? MOTIF INVESTING MATCHES PERSONALITIES WITH STOCKS TO INVEST HAPPILY EVER AFTER

IF YOU WERE A STOCK WHICH WOULD YOU BE?  MOTIF INVESTING MATCHES PERSONALITIES WITH STOCKS TO INVEST HAPPILY EVER AFTER

48% of American adults don't participate in the stock market because of high profile deception...

intimidating middle-men...

and complicated legalese and limitations.

A new player, Motif Investing, eliminates many perceived negatives and ...

...creates personalized portfolios to simplify the investment process.

Investing in the stock market is a frightening proposition for many Americans.  Despite stock market indices reaching record highs, investment in the stock market is at a record low in the U.S. according to Gallup which has tracked this statistic since 1998.  Only 52% of American adults say that they or their spouse own any stocks either individually or as part of a fund.  The percentage of Americans owning stocks has declined steadily since the financial crisis.

Low participation in the stock market is due in part by fear of risk, coupled with long-standing perceptions among potential and active investors that the market is for a small club of wealthy people and self-serving brokers that feed off of and take advantage of neophyte investors with exorbitant fees, difficult legalese, non-sensical regulations and questionable guidance.

What the huge market of 48% of American adults are searching for is a way to simplify the investment process with a familiar platform, understandable fee structure and connection with their individual business and lifestyle preferences.

Enter Motif Investing, one of the Top  Five Disruptive Business Concepts in 2014.  Look at it as a combination of online dating and stock market investing.  Motif users select up to 30 stocks to create a unique 'motif' or choose from among hundreds of pre-made motifs.  Many pre-made motifs center around themes that strike a personal chord with potential investors including "Battling Cancer," "Repeal Obamacare, "Eating Out" and "Pet Passion."  The commission structure is straight-forward and competitive.

The site includes an assessment that claims to help determine your  "investing DNA," matching your interests with motifs to personalize the investing process.

Founded in 2010 by Hardeep Walia, an ex-Microsoft executive and backed by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, Motif Investing responds to a void in the market with a solid concept, experienced leadership, legitimate backing and elevated branding that, if plotted on a graph, would be trending on a steep uphill trajectory.

"AND THE 'HEAD IN THE SAND' OSCAR GOES TO..."

AND THE 'HEAD IN THE SAND' OSCAR GOES TO...

Awards marketing for Birdman with Michael Keaton...

exposes some antiquated Hollywood strategies...

that the fashion industry recognized and changed 20 years ago...

and Cary Grant pioneered in the 1950's.

In the early 1990's while directing marketing at Donna Karan Menswear, I began receiving requests from 'online media' for access to seasonal runway shows.  Initially skeptical because there was no body of work to judge their merit, we were among the first to recognize this growing contingency of influencers and validate their contribution with show invitations.  Today, popular bloggers and you- tubers dwarf their traditional media counterparts in audience, in influence and at that time, in immediacy of information dissemination.

As an industry that relies on setting trends, the fashion business is usually among the first to entertain new visual creative marketing concepts.  With marketing for film and fashion now strongly linked, I was intrigued to learn that a movie marketing practice that became obsolete years ago is still being employed.

One of the films with great Oscar buzz is Birdman, the art-imitates-life comedy starring Michael Keaton.   Sohpisticated lobbying campaigns have been underway for months by producers to get Birdman and other films selected as winners in the upcoming awards season.   And the stakes are high.  It is estimated that a Best Picture win at the Academy Awards translates into an additional $14 million jump in box office receipts, according to IBIS World.  The film began as a limited release in NY and LA on October 17.  Movies with themes thought to be challenging by their studios often start as limited releases prior to broader release at a later date.   Birdman was selected for limited release because it straddles two genres -- part comedy and part biopic -- that may create audience confusion.  It became available to the rest of the country on October 31.

This 'delayed discovery' strategy by studios harkens back to a day when audience feedback could be limited geographically and 'controlled' by Hollywood.  It's completely useless today because bootleg copies of DVDs sent to Academy members and social media make a mockery of any attempt by power-brokers to limit exposure.   The 'limited release' is counter-productive because in the two weeks from Birdman's initial release until its general release, the film became 'old news' to many potential movie-goers who must have felt they'd already seen it given the amount of information made available in the interim.

It's a relic of the old 'studio system' when Hollywood held their stars under ironclad contracts that broke down in part when the stars themselves, specifically Cary Grant, discovered that they, not their studios, were what the public craved.

Limited release?  Unlimited anachronism.  As discussed in Jeff Simon's review in the Buffalo News, it's time for this marketing relic's extinction.