The Fan's Corner

with Greg Duff: 07/19/01

Braves marketers should give female fans more credit

No, I did not have a French epiphany. I was listening to a song with these lyrics the same day my wife received a Western Carolina University season football ticket application in the mail. It was almost spooky the way these lyrics described what I read in that brochure.

For a number of years, the athletic marketing directors of the Southern Conference held meetings to discuss common concerns and share ideas. Often times, one school's successful promotion would end up being tried on another campus as a result of these meetings. This athletic socialism caused many of us to observe there was no such thing as an original idea.

After reading Western's ticket brochure, I bet the WCU Athletic braintrust believe they have a great concept in the Catamount All-Access Pass. For $128, you get a reserved season football ticket and general admission passes for men's and women's basketball. I had the same idea in the mid-1990s, and I also thought it was a good one. Unfortunately, only 15 Catamount fans agreed with me.

This is one of the pitfalls of marketing athletics on a small scale. Professional teams and some major universities have the staff and resources to test market new ideas. Schools like Western don't have that luxury. For them, new ideas either work or don't work.

Fortunately, in this setting, the potential rewards outweigh the risks. Take the Catamount All-Access Pass as an example. If it works, WCU will gain the equivalent of three fans attending their marquis sports. These fans will most likely bring a friend or family member along, so the effect is multiplied. If the idea doesn't work, the only people who will know will be the internal staff adding up the number of passes actually sold.

The same thing cannot be said for themes because they convey a message to which the actual result can be compared. A positive result will impact the program in numerous ways; however, any failure to meet the expectations created by the theme will be a public spectacle. That is why they are a double-edged sword and the reason I stayed away from themes in the later years of my tenure at Western. The threat of creating unreasonable expectations outweighed the possibility of generating excitement with a new theme.

This is the danger WCU faces with its 2001 theme, "One Goal... To Be the Best." My first thought upon seeing this on their new billboards was, "Duh, I should hope they're not going for second best." My second thought was, "Wow. They really have put themselves on the line." If they are not the best, the failure will be multiplied by their public proclamation.

It appears that in least one respect, they are hedging their bets. One of my mentors once wrote, "a theme should be present in all functions of the marketing effort." WCU's marketing people clearly did not read his writings because this theme only appears on the billboard. You can't find it on the season ticket application or their web site. This makes me wonder how sold they really are on this idea. Is it really the theme for the whole program or merely a slogan they slapped on to last year's billboard design?

The commitment the university administration has made to the athletic program tells me they want to be the best. I just think they could have found a better way to tell the rest of us.

Back to Sports: 07/19/01.