Athletic Marketing Is At This Point A Bigger Business Than The Events Themselves
Growing up in New York, I never thought about marketing in athletic. Everybody there was either a Yankees supporter or a Mets devotee. You always loved one and loathed the other, and so did your entire family. It was more of a tribal allegiance than a decision. The truth that, beyond the sports events, there was another competition going on not ever happened to me. I never thought about the fact that the teams were not only fighting for victory, but also fighting for followers. Until I fell in to a sports marketer position, I was pretty much unaware of how much capital changes hands behind the scenes. Pro sports marketing is a multi billion dollar niche, and it is growing every year. Most sports teams, in point of fact, make more money off of selling sports clothing than off of tickets!
Finding myself in an athletic marketing firm was a pretty odd development for me. In a number of ways, I don't fit in there at all. Although I majored in niche marketing and advertising, I have not ever been a big sports fan. This placed me at odds with a corporation filled with athletic fanatics. Nonetheless, I have done my job pretty well. At first, I was not up to date on the various teams. This made my sports merchandising job tough, since I didn't know the niche! People expect you to be able to talk athletic with them if you're going to promote their teams. Even if you are an effective marketer. If you cannot talk shop and socialize with fluidity, it's difficult to keep your position.
Fundamentally, I approached athletic merchandising like I approached school. I sat down and studied for weeks at a time. Soon, I knew more about sports statistics than many of the most die-hard enthusiasts in the company. After them, it was a breeze. Good athletic teams sell them-selves, so it is just a matter of playing on existing brand faithfulness. As for the lower ranking athletic teams, you could always play off of the underdog factor. There are a number of individuals who just love to root for a team that loses year after year. Merchandising athletic to these types of enthusiasts is a smaller business, But what they lack in numbers than make up for in brand loyalty. They are the most committed enthusiasts in the business. The only time when sports marketing is a tough sell is when a good team starts to slide. Suddenly, no one wants anything to do with them. The rest of the time, however, the job is pretty much a breeze.
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