In all honesty,when Tamar said marketing lives around us and that marketing is where we dont expect it, i had to think twice about that but ended up agreeing.
After Tamar said that, i started noticing things around me that involve marketing that i would never associate the term marketing with.
Let’s take sports for instance,
it wouldn’t be wrong to say that many sports attract people because of its nature , but it would hurt to say that sports, whether professional or not, involves all kinds of marketing.
Lets look at one in specific, hockey .
First, and most obvious. Marketing hockey to attract more fans.
In a city of Vancouver,especially during the season, it is quite hard to get through a day without seeing anything “canucks”. Whether you see a commercial, hear an ad, see an ad on a website, or have you friend tweet on their latest thoughts of a certain player, that is all marketing! With the growing social media, it benefits the marketers of the sport because they need to put in less effort for more results! Lets say facebook, the Vancouer Canucks page only needs to write one status and within 10 mins, more than 3000 facebook users has either liked the post or re-directed it to his/her own profile page. And just like that, this sport is getting marketed directly and indirectly.
Not only does marketing for hockey happen through social media, but we see it everyday. From the jerseys to the caps, Canucks pride lives around the city. This not only shows someone’s interest to the association, but it also causes others to notice the team and the sport more! What a smart way of marketing!
Second, oral marketing which rises the level of attention of hockey
this point can be easily seen come playoff time. Not only do hockey commercials start to fill the TV, even people talk about it more often. The more you hear about it, the more you notice it. When one hardcore fan starts telling his/her friends (who are not as into hockey) that the Canucks has gotten through to the next round in the playoffs, the other friends might be drawn into it more compared to the regular season. Hence, more people will become “attached” and marketing is easily completed through this way. Another term arises when playoff season draws more people and these “fans”, though they might not know one single player on the team, start attending bars to watch the game: bandwagoners. : )
Lastly, Hockey indeed requires alot of self marketing
Whether you are a player, a coach, or even the general manager, you constantly need to self market yourself
If you are a player, you are trying hard every night to prove coaches that you can take on bigger roles during games, or you may just be trying to fight for a spot on a team. Without self-marketing, no one will know you can even play the game! In the situation of a coach, you have got to learn and know how to train up your players to their best potentials or the consequences will hit you and shows you that you have not self marketed yourself well enough
In a job like hockey, you are constantly required to prove yourself to being “fit” into any kinds of situation. Once your self-marketing slows down, it means your chances of staying with your job decreases also.
Although i’m sure there are more marketing involved with hockey, these were the first three that came up to my head while i was watching the Canucks’ first pre-season game.
Go Canucks Go! : )