Wrap It Up

Prior to this sports marketing blog, I had never blogged before in my life. Unless, of course, you count xanga, but that was a completely different type of "blog." Throughout blogging, I've learned a lot about how sports relate to marketing. I've learned that every situation that arises in sports has a marketing effect, whether it be positive or negative. For example, say a baseball player is caught using performance enhancing drugs. That typically has a negative effect on that player's brand. On the other hand, refer to the blog about the Detroit Tigers acquiring Johnny Damon. This provided the Tigers with numerous positive marketing oppportunities. I've also learned that not only is blogging a great way for people to share their thoughts, it's also a great way to stay updated on currents news, whether it be in sports or any other topic. Because I subscribed to so many various other blogs and news feeds, I was constantly fed the latest information about sports and marketing. In some cases, I even received news updates on the same story four times in one day. Overall, I've learned that blogging is not only a great way to share stories about other people's brands and how they are being managed, but it is also a great way for people to shape and form their own brand. I would consider using blogs or some other form of social media in the future.

The following is the link to my Google Reader account: http://www.google.com/reader/view/?hl=en&tab=wy#overview-page
Also, the news feeds I have been following are listed on the right column of this page. I hope you've enjoyed blogging with me. :)

The Scoop on the Tigers

As many of us know, the 2010 MLB season kicked off this week. That being said, journalists and bloggers everywhere are analyzing their favorite team's first few games in hopes of predicting the season ahead of them. Recently, I read an article at MLive.com that simply gave some numbers about various aspects of the 2010 Detroit Tigers season-opening roster. These numbers led me to some interesting ideas from a marketing standpoint.

First, the article claimed there are nine players total who have either not been on an opening day roster before or who were not active with the team in 2009. These 9 players are capable of drawing in new fans for the Tigers. It would be beneficial for the Tigers to capitalize on the novelty these players possess and do extra promotions featuring these players, or aim some of their marketing campaigns towards the new players. Also, one key new player on the team is Johnny Damon. Clearly, his clout will draw in many observers. These observers could be Damon fans, or they could be skeptics that want to see how Damon performs in a Tiger uniform. Regardless, the Tigers will want to market Damon heavily because he is such a well-known player. Finally, the opening-day roster has eight players on it who have been All Stars before. These players are obviously more well known than several other players on the team; therefore, the Tigers may also want to gear some promotions and campaigns towards those players to draw in the fans that admire their All Stars so much. Whichever way you look at it, the Tigers have a lot of options for marketing that will draw a crowd in the upcoming 2010 season.

To read the original article, please follow this link:
http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2010/04/tigers_roster_by_the_numbers.html

MLB's Kanye West

I recently read at article at ESPN.com, which talked about Milton Bradley and his role as the "bad guy" of MLB. Spoken by Bradley himself, he claims that he is the one player the fans can point out as the "bad guy." Probably as a result of his "bad guy" persona, Bradley has played for eight different teams throughout his eleven-season professional baseball career. Some might wonder as to why Bradley would not only publicize the fact that he is a so-called bad boy, but he almost seems proud of this fact. At first glance, some would assume that teams wouldn't want to hire a player with a persona that has negative qualities attached to it, especially since he rarely lasts more than a year with any given team. However, there could be some advantages to acquiring a player like Bradley. For instance, he clearly has a lot of star power attached to his name. Even though he has been made popular for his boisterous ways, he still has become popular. This somewhat follows the concept of "Any publicity is good publicity." Additionally, if he is, in fact, the one player that most fans characterize as "THE bad guy," this gives Bradley and whatever team he plays on a competitive advantage in terms of luring in crowds. If Bradley is the one player in all of baseball who has the greatest "bad boy" persona, this is a quality that no other teams can possess. Therefore, if fans really do want to go see the bad guy of baseball in hopes of a rowdy game or possibly an ejection, they will go to the games where Milton Bradley is playing. While the idea does seem slightly far fetched, you have to give it to Milton Bradley for marketing his image so cleverly.

To read the original article at ESPN.com, please follow this link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5025391&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Laird Shares His Observations

In an article from the Detroit Tigers website, Tigers catcher Gerald Laird talked about the transformation he has noticed over the past few years in the way major league baseball is played. The way he sees it, the game has shifted from being a "slug fest" to focusing more on small ball and the speed required to play it. This shift was quite obviously a result of recent drug testing in the MLB. It's more difficult for players to use performance-enhancing drugs; therefore, they're forced to resort to small ball tactics. Ultimately, what Laird discussed was a transformation in the entire brand of major league baseball. In fact, some might call it a re-transformation. The first shift in the baseball brand occurred when drugs became popular and players started playing with more power. Then, baseball was seen as a sport where slugging was the name of the game, and to be good, you had to have power. The newest shift, however, focuses on speed, bunting, and base stealing. Now, baseball will be seen more as a sport that requires agility, speed, and probably more skill than when players simply relied on drugs to get the job done.

To read the original article from DetroitTigers.com, please follow this link:
http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2010/03/tigers_gerald_laird_teams_emph.html

Iverson's Issues

According to an article posted at ESPN.com, Allen Iverson is facing some difficult time as a result of gambling and alcohol abuse. The article went into detail about the causes and extent of Iverson's abuse problems, mainly addressing his daughter's undisclosed illness and his recent divorce from his wife, Tawana. While this is a clearly unfortunate situation for Iverson to have to deal with personally, it also has a big effect on his career. The fact that Iverson is having so much difficulty controlling his alcohol and gambling habits has a negative effect on his image. Some say "any publicity is good publicity," but this is not true if that publicity results in no team wanting to sign him because of various negative associations with his name. The first of which being that Iverson will no longer be seen as a role model for the children who once idolized him. Originally, teams would've wanted a player like Iverson because he fulfilled the team's need for a star player who kids could look up to. Now, teams really wouldn't want Iverson to fulfill that star-player role because his image is not one that is admired. Also, teams probably will not be very eager to sign a player who is unreliable and could possibly leave in the middle of the season, as he has proven to do before. Looking forward, Iverson really needs to get his act together to preserve his image and, ultimately, his career. If Iverson plans on furthering himself in the NBA, he needs to clean up his act and his image.

To read the original article at ESPN.com, please follow this link: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4975922&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Damon Dons Tigers Uniform

In addition to hearing about it on ESPN and various radio shows, I read an article from Yahoo! Sports talking about the latest Detroit Tigers deal with outfielder Johnny Damon. Not only will Damon be filling the role of a well-needed outfielder, he will also be filling the empty spot as lead-off hitter now that Curtis Granderson has been traded to the Yankees. Having spent $8 million on Damon, it is certain that the Tigers will be milking their newest big name for all he is worth. Because this is so, I would say we can expect to see a lot of marketing moves geared towards Damon this upcoming spring and summer. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Detroit jerseys with Damon on the back of them, various memorabilia promoting Damon’s presence on the team, and maybe even Johhny Damon bobble heads someday. Additionally, I expect that Detroit will do promotional events focused on Damon. For example, the Tigers may hold on the field clinics where kids can learn from Damon before games and other promotional events that would extensively involve Damon’s presence. Overall, I think it is safe to say that the Tigers’ promotions will be shifting towards focusing on Damon, in order to make sure the $8 million spent on him will be well worth it.

To read the full article at Yahoo! Sports, please visit the following link: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-tigers-damon&prov=ap&type=lgns

Tiger Speaks Up

I recently read an article from ESPN.com that informed me that Tiger Woods plans to hold a very small press conference this Friday, addressing the recent revelation of his extramarital affairs. This press conference will only be for a small group of friends, colleagues, close associates, and three wire services. Also, Tiger will not be answering questions afterwards. In my eyes, after a major sex scandal is uncovered from one of the most beloved heroes in sports, that hero needs to take some form of action in order to protect his or her brand and image. And that is exactly what Tiger is doing. While Tiger's personal brand has already been tarnished, I think this attempt to address the media is Tiger's way of maintaining the best brand he possibly can at this point. It has been said that he will apologize for his actions, which shows he wants to continue being seen as a respectable, honorable man. Also, he is not allowing any questions, which show me he wants to have control over every last detail of what is talked about. Therefore, he can more easily manipulate how people are viewing him. Clearly, having gone through a major scandal such as Tiger's, he will most likely be changing his personal brand from this point forward. While he might preserve his credibility for being hard working, strong, courageous, etc., he will undoubtedly have to figure out how we wants the world to see him, now that he has lost a great deal of respect, honor, and adoration.

To read the full article at ESPN.com, please follow this link: http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=4921899&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Super Bowl Ads Shake Down

For those of us who have difficulty watching four to five straight hours of football, we watch the Super Bowl largely for the 30 second advertisements that cost millions of dollars. An article from Mashable.com showed the results of two sources that each followed social media sources and tracked how often various commercials/companies were mentioned before they even aired during the Super Bowl. They ranked the companies in terms of a) how frequently they were talked about and b) how favorably they were talked about. I found it interesting that the companies that people seemed to favor the most were cheap, instantly-consumed items, such as Anheuser Busch, Doritos, and Pepsi. On the other hand, the companies that were the least favored were those that cost the public more money, such as Honda, Motorola, and Universal Studios. It makes me wonder if possibly, in this economic hardship, people's opinions of advertisements are subliminally affected by their looming budget constraints and stresses about the economy.

One aspect of the ads worth mentioning is that I found many of them to be less entertaining than in previous years. It seemed as though some of the advertisements were from companies I had rarely heard of, rather than the big name companies I would expect. My guess is that the reason for this has to do with the belief that many companies truly are shying away from spending the big bucks on cable television advertisements. Instead, they're using those funds to advertise via social media. This seems to be the current trend, and I think it'll be interesting to see if this continues and if one day, people will no longer watch the Super Bowl for the amazing, overly-anticpated commercials.

To read the full article at Mashable.com, follow this link: http://mashable.com/2010/02/08/super-bowl-advertisers-results/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Who I Am and Why I'm Here

Hey, my name is Amanda and I'm a senior at Grand Valley, studying Marketing. This is my last semester in the business school, so I will be graduating this May! Some of the feeds I'll be following are a mix of sports blogs and some marketing/social media blogs. The sports blogs I'll be following are Detroit Tigers, ESPN.com, Jalen Rose, MLB, and Yahoo! Sports. As you may have noticed, a couple of the blogs I'll follow are focused on baseball, more specifically the Detroit Tigers. I am a girl who loves her fair share of sports, but baseball is admittedly my favorite, and I must say that I am mildly obsessed with the Detroit Tigers. I'll follow ESPN.com because ESPN is one of my favorite TV channels. I prefer to wake up in the morning and watch Sportscenter as I eat my cereal and drink my coffee. I'll be following Yahoo! Sports basically because I love sports in general and I like being informed of the current news in sports. Also, I'll follow Jalen Rose so that I can get someone's personal opinion on the latest happenings in the wonderful world of sports.

In terms of marketing blogs, I'll be following Mashable and The Social Media Marketing Blog. I find both blogs to be really interesting because obviously I am interested in various aspects of marketing, but additionally because I grew up when I did, social media is a huge part of my everyday life. Therefore, blogs that relate the two to each other and give me the latest news in that field is fascinating to me. So that is what I'll be blogging about for the duration of this blog... Hope you enjoy!