In this day and age, many new businesses are on the rise, in ways that we would once never imagine. As times are changing, new entrepreneurs must adapt in order to keep up with the competition and make it in a cutthroat world. With that being said, learning from a teenage blogger may not seem very effective. However, this article highlights one of the world’s most successful money-making organizations and uses it as a scale for reference.
Giving you a very general overview of a few marketing methods can be hard to follow. Just by reading about a few broad, vague techniques, it is difficult to replicate the outcomes. However, by seeing how these strategies are implemented within one of the world’s largest industries, you can visualize an avenue that allows you to incorporate the same methods in a way that works for you. With the following strategies, you can follow in the footsteps of a league that generates an average of $7.92B USD per season, while taking a personalized approach in order to optimize your entrepreneurial success. Without further ado, here are a couple of marketing strategies through the eyes of the NBA.
Scheduling Events
The NBA is highly intelligent when it comes to scheduling games and events. Not only does the league do a great job of commercializing events such as All-Star Weekend, but everything is planned and thought out down to every last matchup. Sure, it is a great idea in terms of accumulating hype to hold games throughout Christmas Day. But going beyond that, the teams that they select and the order of the games has a huge impact on the overall success of Christmas Day viewership. The league considers the history of the teams to orchestrate blockbuster matchups – an example of this would be scheduling NBA Finals rematches or [putting] two heated rivals against each other. By analyzing the teams’ playing style, position in the league standings, star players and their history/relationship with opposing teams and players, the NBA can design several matchups that attract fans and draw them in like moths to a flame. The league does this on many occasions, such as opening night.
In the real world, cleverly scheduled events can really have a positive impact. As an entrepreneur, you can use this to draw attention and increase consumer interest and activity.
Keeping Your Options Open
In the NBA, free agency policies are relatively elastic. There is much more player movement in comparison to leagues such as the NHL. It is easy and common for players to switch teams, and this culture leads to frequent blockbuster trades. This ties back to the idea of improved viewership. When star players join forces and form ‘superteams’, their games are very fun to watch, which is another factor that attracts fans. Think about the current Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers – when Kevin Durant+Kyrie Irving+James Harden and LeBron James+Anthony Davis+Russell Westbrook teamed up on the Nets and Lakers respectively, an insane amount of hype was created. This goes beyond viewership, as well. For example, when Kawhi Leonard signed with the Los Angeles Clippers, all of the Kawhi Leonard Toronto Raptors merchandise became outdated, therefore forcing people to buy his Clippers merchandise. This connects to the economic concepts of conspicuous consumption and planned obsolescence, which will be explained in terms of the real world below. In terms of the NBA, when merchandise becomes outdated, or even the possibility to purchase newer products is presented, the societal norms and behaviour of the general fan population can instill an internal obligation for people to buy the newer products. All of a sudden, due to the policies that allow player movement and general league changes, the NBA generates a ton of revenue.
In the real world, planned obsolescence is a business strategy through which products are designed and crafted to lose value quickly. Similar to the NBA merchandise, if your products are designed in such a way, consumers will need to purchase more of the product and enter a continuous cycle. Put simply, conspicuous consumption occurs when people purchase certain goods for the purpose of displaying wealth and achieving a high social status. If you are able to produce such goods that consumers are willing to pay solely for that purpose, then this method is another effective way that utilizes the idea of creating new products to attract customers.
All in all, countless entrepreneurs will spend hours examining companies and businesses of their type. While this can be helpful, learning from unique types of organizations, such as the NBA, can provide a new perspective that can give you an advantage that other people do not possess. By innovating and thinking outside of the box when you implement existing strategies in a personalized way, you just might be able to become a dark horse in the business world.