Muhammad Ali, who passed away two weeks ago, was known worldwide by two simple words – The Greatest. He was undoubtedly the greatest boxer of our age. But he was also, amongst sportsmen and athletes, the greatest marketer, the greatest self-promoter, and the greatest talker. He knew how to win a fight in the ring, and he also knew how to make his words dance and sing. In this column, we mourn his death with a tribute to his marketing genius.

Ali knew how to talk, and make his words so memorable that they have stuck in our minds forever. That is, of course, the instinctive genius of any great marketer. Some of his quotes are timeless, and worthy of any great advertising agency. Here is a brief walk through a few of his simple, catchy and timeless phrases, which would have certainly won the top copywriting awards at Cannes, had he taken the trouble to apply.

“Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”

“He will be mine, in Round 9. If he makes me sore, I’ll cut it to four.”

“Don’t count the days. Make the days count.”

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

“Go to college, stay in school. If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, then they can sure make something out of you.”

“A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

“Liston will fall in eight, to prove that I am great.”

In 1967, when Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted into the US military for the Vietnam War, his explanation of why he took this defiant stance was equally short and memorable : “I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Cong … No Viet Cong ever called me nigger.” Notice how he used evocative examples such as butterflies and bees, or earthy phrases, or even simple rhymes, to catch the imagination of his audience. I would venture to say that Ali provided marketers and mediapersons one of the earliest illustrations of powerful sound bytes that resonate in our minds.

Muhammad Ali also knew that to gain awareness and salience in the minds of his audience, he had to be loud, bold, strong and fearless. This was, after all, what the world expected from a champion boxer who could knock his opponents out cold in the ring. He was a great self-promoter, unshakeably confident in everything that he said, and not terribly concerned about being politically correct. But he was always true to who he really was, what he felt and what he stood for. This included his views, often controversial but always candid, on religion, race and justice. There is a large segment of consumers who love such direct, authentic, fearless brands that do not fear to speak with courage and walk on the edge.

He also knew, perhaps instinctively, the big lesson that matters most to all marketers – the need to always be true to the core proposition of your brand. Brand Muhammad Ali had a simple core proposition: “I am the greatest”. Everything that he said to the media, or, more importantly, did in the boxing ring, revolved around it. How he cleverly defended the use of this boastful position was even more interesting. Here’s what he famously said: “Bragging is when a person says something and cannot do it. I do what I say.”

He was, of course, the greatest because he won a stupendous 56 fights in his fabulous career, losing just five. He was also the greatest because he introduced into the boxing ring a rare agility and speed that had never been seen in the heavyweight arena earlier, and, I would venture to add, has not been seen since. By floating like a butterfly, and by tap dancing his way around his opponents, he opened up entirely new possibilities for heavyweight champions – much like Sachin Tendulkar did for batsmen in cricket, many years later.

He also demonstrated that he was the greatest not just in victory, but also in absorbing punishment, which is a harsh reality of the boxing ring. One of the examples I remember best is Ali’s first fight with Joe Frazier, in 1971, where Frazier knocked him down with a deadly left hook, in the 15th round. Ali, his jaw swollen and completely disfigured, got back on his feet amazingly quickly, and resumed the fight. Ray Mancini, another boxing champion, has been quoted as saying in awe: “How could a guy get up from a shot like that?”. Joe Frazier went on to win this fight, but Muhammad Ali distinguished himself by how well he could withstand punishment, in an encounter which has been described as the “fight of the century”. Iconic brands demonstrate their greatness, both in good and bad times.

Yet another interesting aspect to Muhammad Ali’s genius as a marketer was the manner in which he created memorable titles for his fights. His third and final boxing match with Joe Frazier, held in Manila in 1975, was branded “Thrilla from Manila”. Ali won this encounter for the Heavyweight Championship of the world. Similarly, his 1974 boxing match with the unbeaten George Foreman, held in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa, was evocatively branded “Rumble in the Jungle”. Ali won this encounter too. You will agree that exciting brand names such as these, for specific championship fights, are far more interesting and evocative than the staid descriptions which are generally used for similar sporting events, such as “Finals of the World Cup”.

In my school days in the 1970s, Muhammad Ali was not merely a champion to my friends and to me, he had assumed invincible God-like proportions. His fights were larger than life, and some of us carefully preserved his photographs and quotes in our scrapbooks. All these memories came back to me as I listened to Bill Clinton’s beautiful eulogy to Ali at his funeral last week. Clinton said of Ali: “I think he decided very young, to write his own life story. I think he decided that he would not ever be disempowered.” Muhammad Ali taught us that each of us can empower ourselves, that we can market ourselves, that we can be the greatest masters of our own boxing rings.

Master of your boxing ring

Be the greatest fighter of your life,

The master of your boxing ring.

There will be day, and there will be night,

And there will be those that always sing.

Sometimes the closest thing to death

Is also the strongest call to fight.

Will you punch, hook, or dance the rope

Will your instinct tell you what is right?

Ignore the clutter, and taunt the noise,

If that helps you be a stronger mind.

Throw out the ropes, and expand your skies

Till you search, and search, and search … and find.

To win your fights, you have to be both

A floating fly, and a stinging bee.

You have to find your phantom punch

For each knockout that you want to see.

When your hooks are tight, and your eyes are wide

Then you trample your fears, to fight with glee.

Three times champion, fighter, king

You inspired the world, Mohammed Ali.

HARISH BHAT, MEMBER, GROUP EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, TATA SONS

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