Sans Oden, Blazers marketers tout 'team'
The latest setback for embattled Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden suggests that the franchise should continue its recent trend of touting the team’s collective talents, as opposed to one or two individual players.
So say sports marketing experts and business branding professionals who believe the Blazers face an uphill battle to engage fans after Oden’s season ended, due to the third serious knee injury he’s suffered since his 2007 Portland arrival.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2010/11/18/sans-oden-blazers-marketers-tout-team.html
In a 2 paragraph response (a minimum of 5 sentences for each paragraph), answer the following questions. In paragraph # 1, discuss what you feel is the fundamental lesson learned through the Trailblazer's marketing focus. Also, do you think it is worth the risk of focusing on a specific player versus the entire team or another specific theme? Why? Be specific with your thoughts. In paragraph # 2, do you think the approach could vary from sport to sport or from team to team? Explain your thoughts and why you feel the way you do. Be specific.
Please sign your name to the bottom of your blog entry.
With the Blazers number one player, Greg Oden, out with his 3rd knee injury, they need to focus more on looking out for other new players and building there team. Its not worth it wasting your time focusing on a specific player if he can't even do anything being injured. So rather than that, just focus on the entire team as a whole instead of a hurt individual.
ReplyDeleteThe approach would not really vary from team to team because usually theres only one star on a basketball team, so it doesn't matter. For football its a different story because there's many stars on one team and when usually someone gets hurts they can still do well unless its a quarterback or someone very important.
Jeremy Wagner
I believe the fundamental lesson learned through the Trailblazers marketing focus is not to only market certain players on a team, because there are a whole lot of players on a team. By focusing on a whole team it makes people like “the team” more instead of just following certain players. For instants if a person was a Lebron James fan and not a Cavaliers fan, when he went to the Miami Heat all of his fans probably switched teams too. If they were Cavalier’s fans then they would have most likely stayed loyal to the team.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely think that this approach could vary from team to team and sport to sport. This strategy is a very good marketing advance for any team that wants to up their fan base. The fact that accidents happen is a good reason to do this, because every team has their “Star Player” and once that player retires or accidently gets injured its good to have a strong team campaign so that fans don’t stop watching just because their favorite player is out of the game.
The Portland Trail Blazers are going to continue touting the teams collective talents. Unlike just one or a couple individual players. This could be good because it can possibly makes the team bigger and possibly better. Thus it will bring in more money for the team to put into the franchise and the cycle will keep going on and on. The player Greg Oden is out with a knee injury. They need to start looking for younger new players who can up and rise. Its pointless wasting their time focusing on a specific player they need to focus on the whole team. Normally a team has one star players who is the symbol of the team but they need to take this down a different path and focus on the whole team if they do this then they can possibly be an amzing team
ReplyDeleteJake Mallow
I think it is important to do both, focus on players and the team it self. If one player is really good obviously they will be in the spotlight. The team is also very important to promote because that player might not be there next year. Just like in the Blazers case they have a few good players that can not play because of an injury. This sets the team back both in winning and in sports marketing. The Blazers were trying to focus on individual players but now they are focusing on the team as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI think that the strategy is mostly the same for all sports. If there is a great player on the team showcase him but also get the team name and logo out there. We see it in basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer. When I think basketball I think Arenas when I think baseball I think Jeter when I think hockey I think Ovi when I think soccer I think Little Andy. These are all really good players from some teams that are good and so teams that are not doing so hot. So the strategy works. I know some players and the team name.
I think the trailblazer’s season is over. I think they need to focus more on looking out for other new players and rebuilding their team. It’s not worth it wasting your time focusing on a specific player if he can't even do anything being injured. Another good example is Albert Hanyesworth, so many money guaranteed to him that he’s not even putting an effort on making the team better. If the trailblazer want to succeed in the future they need to know who they sign and how much they want to offer that person. My first target would be the next year rookies. If you want the team to stay good in the long run you have to get a lot of youth in the organization.
ReplyDeleteI think depending on the sport is how well the player is going to do after his injury. In football after a injury can play like they use to be unless it’s a quarterback or runningback. For example, Brian Westbrook, at one point was leading the nfl rushing yards. Now he’s struggling to look for a starting job. Even big time athlete can go downhill in just one second.
I think that the fundamental lesson that the Trailblazers learned is to focus on your entire team, because players are only temporary. No, it isn’t worth the risk of only advertising one player on a team. Only so many fans will like that one single player, but all the Trailblazers fans like the team. Advertising anything other than your team will always be risky, some minor league teams have to advertise activities or other teams because they don’t believe their team is enough to bring in fans. Many times, these teams are right; nobody wants to see a boring team with no star players or amazing teamwork.
ReplyDeleteYes, the approach always varies in every sport, league, or even fan base. Fans from places like India or Barcelona enjoy different things then fans from the United States. An example of this could be major and minor league baseball teams, the way they advertise their games are so different you’d think it’s a whole other sport. Minor league teams don’t have the star players or amazing plays the majors have, so the minor leagues have to find new ways to advertise their games and teams.
Luke G
I think that the fundamental lesson here is to market your team and not just one player. If a team markets only one player than if he gets injured then how are you supposed to market your team after that. I think that now they should be looking for talented young athletes to sign on to the team. Because if this is Oden’s third knee injury he is not a reliable player. That is a fundamental lesson to market your team.
ReplyDeleteI think that this marketing strategy does vary from sport to sport. Because in basketball it’s easier to just market the start players. Where in football it’s harder to do that because different players do different things. In football you could have a start quarterback and a star safety. So because of this it’s a lot easier to market your team for football. For these reasons the marketing strategy varies between sports.
ABEL HENOK
The Blazers best player, Greg Oden is out again with his 3rd leg injury. Yet after this they are still focusing on marketing with him. Why spend so much time focusing on one player if he is injured and cant play. They should focus on the whole team at once.
ReplyDeleteThe approach would not vary from team to team. All games are set up differently. You have more players on football teams than other sports so they have more star players. Sports like soccer and basketball dont have as many star players at once. Doing this form of advertisement doesnt reach every sport each markets differently for different reasons.
ANDREW FOSTER
I think that the lesion that the trailblazers learned was not to market there entire team not just one player. Because they marketed one player and now he injured and likely not to return they have lost a lot of there fan base. If they had marketed the entire team the same thing would have happened but on a much small scale. Basketball is a team sport and that not one person alone can win a game. It is better to market their entire team because of this reason.
ReplyDeleteNo I think that is almost the same form sport to sport. The only difference I can think of is in football just marketing the offence or defense. But over all it would be better to just do the entire team so if one person gets injured the effect of that person getting injured would be less.
Tommy Sklopan
I think that the lesson learned in the story is that the marketing department of any team should market the entire team, not just one or two players. The reason is because if that player gets injured, then the advertising campaign of the team is garbage. You should not only market one player, but the entire team as a whole. I think that it is worth marketing one player because if that player is a superstar, then the advertisement will have more meaning. But if that team does not have a player that everybody recognizes, then it is better to market the whole team.
ReplyDeleteI think that the marketing approach varies from team to team. The Portland blazers are not going to have the same strategy as the Los Angeles Lakers. And the Miami Heat is not going to have the same advertisements as the Cleveland browns. Everything varies from team to team. For example, when Donovan McNabb was traded to the redskins, they focused entirely on Donovan only. You would see advertisements that say “r u in?” featuring McNabb in a redskins uniform.
Jaime Avila
The fundamental lesson learned by the Trail Blazers is that if you ride on one player’s achievements, you die on his failure. I think focusing on a specific player is probably the worst idea for any team who wants to a successful team. Only when Lebron was in Cleveland and when Kobe play in Los Angelas, after Shaq left and before Gasol came, then its ok to focus everything on a single player. Portland has so many young superstars that its obscured to waste all that money and end up focusing on a player who’s entering his 3rd season of the NBA but hasn’t played passed the All-Star break.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think the approach could vary from sport to sport. Every team is a group of players and its never a one man show. The risk that comes with just focusing everything on one player is just to big to take in an economy like this. You don’t want to put everything on a single player because if that player gets injured, then what do you do?
A whole team never gets injured.
-Abdullah Gardezi
I believe that the Portland Trailblazers have learned that it is wiser to think about your team’s future rather than present. If you think about spending all your money on the current players, and they get injured like Greg Oden, then your team may not have a chance to survive in the future. The Blazers learned that if you spend all of your money on individual players and think that this will make your team amazing and everybody will love you, then you are wrong. Just like in the article we had to read and then respond to. Dream Team’s do not work out because it is just individual players who are very talented. A great team does not only have great players, but also great teamwork. This is why the Blazers have decided to think about their entire team rather than just individual players. I believe that it is better to focus on the entire team rather than just an individual player. For one thing, this will improve the team chemistry and the team will become overall better. Also, if you focus just on individual players, this might aggravate the other players because they are not being paid as much. This is my opinion on these certain topics.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the approach could vary both from sport to sport and from team to team. Focusing on the entire team rather than just a few individual players is a great idea because it improves the team chemistry. All sports should use this type of approach, because it makes teams much better. For instance, this is what the Redskins could really use. They keep buying all these outstanding players, but still do poorly. This is because the team chemistry is awful. Also, it should vary from team to team because this way all of the teams in that league have a great team rather than just great players. If all the teams had great team chemistry, then players like LeBron James would not stick out as much. He would just be a great player that doesn’t work with his team.
I don’t think that they have learned much at all. The star players that they were so focused on have gone and lost their chance at any ballgame in the near future. It’s not their fault, they just gambled and lost everything. That’s it. If there is a lesson to be learned, the Trailblazers’ owners should learn not to put all their eggs in two baskets. Oden and Roy are the baskets, all their hopes and money are the eggs. They need to learn from Oden when he says that you need to focus the team, not the players. Now Oden pushed himself and is now down for the count of 2 basketball season approximately. You have to have a basket for each player, and an egg in each basket, like a hope that they will rise to the occasion. Now all their eggs are broken and they will have to start again.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don’t think that other sports can feel this way. Not soccer, not football, not baseball, only in basketball where every man can be worth as much as another. It might translate to another team, but only one with as much bad luck as the Trailblazers. Most teams will just market one player to the max, and leave the others like backup singers. That’s it. No other sport can do this, even the sport that it is in will not have too much of a chance. Most teams are just too selfish. BOOM.
Danny Marcinek!
I think that the fundamental of the trailblazers should focus on the whole team to make them better as one. They shouldn’t just focus on one player just because they are good. They need to play as a team. I don’t think that it is worth the other players time if they don’t get any time to shine or show what they have. By them doing this it may spread from team to team and sport to sport. I think that this will happen because some players are not play up to their potential. Also it is partly the coach’s fault because they could have told that one player not to pass the ball or to not shoot. Other coaches may be watching and they might start to put out there start player more and more.
ReplyDelete-Daniel smith
The fundamental lesson learned from the Trailblazers’ experiences with losing players, is this: When you focus on the team as a whole, versus relying on an individual player, you can pull through tough times. If a team focuses on one player, (the ‘star’ of their team) and builds their marketing campaign around him/her, anything that happens to the player becomes disastrous for the team. If the ‘star’ becomes unable to play due to injury or something more serious, then the whole team is sunk. Everything has to be reworked. Let alone the fact that this type of focus makes the other players feel worthless. They feel like they’re not valued as much as the star, and on a successful team, this shouldn’t happen. By focusing on the team as a whole, instead of focusing on Greg Oden and some others, the Trailblazers managed to keep moving forward even with Oden unable to play. No, it is absolutely not worth the risk to focus on one player alone for the previously stated reasons.
ReplyDeleteI think the focus could vary a little bit depending on the sport. For example, tennis players play by themselves so they are supposed to be focused on. But in a sport like football, every player is necessary. Without a linebacker or a fullback, a running back would be smeared every time. Without a cornerbacks and others guarding receivers on defense, the opposing offense could just air it out every time. There it is.
DIL AMERKHAIL
Due to the issues of injury of the two star players Greg Oden and Brandon Roy the Portland Trailblazers are having trouble selling tickets. Greg Oden believes that they should tout other players to gain back fan support. The team is in desperate need of some sort of innovation to bring back fans and make more money. Greg Oden is absolutely right on that.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this approach could vary from sport to sport because it is such a great idea. For every sport at a certain point injuries become a problem. To avoid major loss of fans it is a good idea to market players that perform well but are not always in the spotlight. This is key for any sport. Touting other players is a smart way to go when you are desperate.
-Nick Booker
This is a good lesson of the team they can’t be focusing on one player because .it’s not good to live the team behind ,and just focus on one player if their player is injured or cannot play they need to get other good players. It’s not worth it because they might be losing because they are not focusing on the team so they shouldn’t do that they need to advertise the whole team. If got good player sometimes they should have a talk with him so he can lead the team and communicate with his players.
ReplyDeleteIt’s the same in every sport I know that in soccer they have their own player that is on the front of everything that dose with the team I think it is a good thing in soccer because I been following soccer scenes I was little I don’t know about baseball, football and basketball so it might be good to focus on one player on the other sports.
dagmawe teklu
I think that the lesson the Portland Trailblazers learned was that, it takes more than one person to market a team. It takes an entire cast of players to really push the focus of the team forward and out to the fans. The reason you need more than one person to promote a team is because, that one player could become injured or get involved in some type of legal trouble. I think that risking the loyalty of the fans and the number of promoters that the Trailblazers have, is not worth putting it all on one specific player. It should be focused on the entire team; this gives more of a chance for the league to succeed and a chance to bring in new fans.
ReplyDeleteI think that this method is seen in a lot of sports and in some of them it works very well. In sports like Hockey or Soccer, where one player is beloved by the entire city and does well every year. But with other sports like football or baseball, you need more than one player to successfully promote a team. I think that it should be a method that select teams can use, but it should be a method used only when you really have to. Because if the player you are focused on falls through or doesn’t work out, it could mean the end for that marketing resource.
-Brandon Smith
I feel the fundamental lesson learned through the Trailblazer’s marketing focus is that they should find a good player that is in better conditions. With Greg Oden being injured three times, it makes the team look bad. They make it seem that the Trailblazer’s are only focused on Oden instead of in the team. It doesn’t make sense that they be focusing on only one player, when they could be looking for another player and making the team much better. It is not worth the risk focusing on one player that can’t do anything being injured, because it could be making the team get hurt.
ReplyDeleteI think that the approach could vary from team to team and sport to sport. Every sports team has a “star” player and without them, fans would feel that their team is going to lose, but when they know the team has a back-up, that is good, but not better than the star player, then that’s when fans can “relax” and see if their team wins or loses with the back-up player. For example, in soccer there is always a star player, but when that player gets injured there are always substitutions that could change the game. A “star” player, like Lionel Messi, getting injured in a soccer game is a big problem, but there is always a sub that replaces him until he gets better. The sub might not be as good as Messi, but he helps out the team but playing in his position.
Anna Vallejo
I think the trailblazers should aim for a single player marketing strategy rather than a whole team idea, especially with their star player now out for his 3rd straight season. They need fans and upcoming players to look up to someone, someone they can revere and be happy they are playing for them. This will also effect the money gained and peoples idea of the team will change for the better.
ReplyDeleteI think the marketing strategy does change sport to sport or team to team. For example someone who plays for a dream team such as an olympic team, it would be better to advertise them as a team and how much talent is on the team in a whole rather than 1 or 2 players.
Andrew Frawley
There needs to be a team aspect to your marketing strategy. You can’t count on one player to bring in revenue. In their case they learned quickly s Greg Oden injured his knee again for the third strait season. You never know when a player is going to get injured or have a bad year. This is why you must market around the entire team and not just one player. It is obviously not worth it to risk marketing one player rather than a team because as is shown in the Trailblazers case it can come back to bite you in the butt.
ReplyDeleteI feel that this marketing strategy could change from team to team. When you have an incredible franchise player like Kobe Bryant or Lebron James you can focus your marketing strategy on them. These are experienced athletes who have shown that they can make it through the course of the regular season. I feel that the NBA and NHL are the only leagues that can get away with marketing one player. Players such as Alex Ovechkin and Crosby can also be marketable for the team. There is too much risk for injury in other sports.
Matt Ganskopp
the trailblazers should not count on one player to market there is more than just one player on a team. also if you only market one player and he gets hurt than you have no one to market. thats why you should market the whole team and just not one player its not worth it. You also will probably make more money that way. In less you are kobe Bryant or a lebron James.
ReplyDeletei think it can vary from sports or teams if you have players like a sidney Crosby you can market just that player his jerseys are in a high demand. Also i think in the nfl you can market one player like desean jackson or a peyton manning cause they are great players to markt due to what the do on the field. Your probably not going to market a offesive line man like matt light they dont really have a demand on this stuff. So i think it depends on the player or the team.
Keith krause