Media Matters – SFU Business Professors in the News

How SFU Business fared in the news for the week of January 16, 2009

The Canadian Press did a story on the Nortel bankruptcy that quoted Peter Tingling, assistant prof in SFU Business. He said Nortel would not likely pull out of sponsorships of the 2010 Winter Olympics here and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. But the Olympic committees might seek a way out:
“This isn’t the kind of thing that’s going to reflect well on the Olympic brand. You can’t talk about competing and winning and be talking about bankruptcy in the same sentence.”
We saw the story in and on more than 20 media outlets.
The Globe and Mail did its own story on Nortel’s Olympic role. It quoted marketing prof Lindsay Meredith, who also said the bankruptcy could tarnish the Olympic brand. “Whenever you get into sponsorships, it’s a marriage. It’s the old-fashioned thing: You don’t want to marry down. Your reputation is affected by the partner you’re married to.”

Marketing prof Lindsay Meredith was in the Surrey-North Delta Leader saying the signs of people dialing down purchases are becoming more evident. He pointed to a decrease in car sales and a slump in high-end Christmas retail spending.
“If consumers stick their hands in their pockets, nothing’s going to happen. They’re the demand engine that drives everything. . . . The question is when are consumers going to stick their heads out of the gopher hole and say ‘I might not get shot on sight. Life will go on.”
The story led to an editorial in the Leader urging: “While not suggesting everyone should spend their last dime, or worse, increase debt, neither should people panic and stop all discretionary spending.”
The Langley Times also ran the story, and the Tri-City News ran a short version of the editorial.