How To Market Lovable Losers

December 8th, 2009 by Fred

If you have to leverage a tiny budget to market a parity product, you may think your job is tough. Think again. Things could be worse. What if your customers learned your product had failed again, every time they glanced at the TV, radio, online or print news?

If you’re marketing a second- (or third-, or eighth-) best car or soft drink or printer, you can always:
•    Claim to be the price leader.
•    Or preempt competition by emphasizing some feature that’s actually common to all brands in the category.
•    Or get a few satisfied customers to provide testimonials.
But if your “product” is a sports property:
•    Your losing record is headline news almost every day.
•    And that’s just the beginning, as professional commentators and fans expend thousands of words a week talking about your failures.

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One way to take on this tough marketing job is to distract people’s attention:
•    The classic example happened when Bill Veeck sent up 3 foot 7 inch Eddie Gaedel, uniform number 1/8, to pinch hit for the last-place major league baseball St. Louis Browns in 1951.
•    Minor league baseball teams carry on this tradition today, with promotions like the last place Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Salute to Cows with mooing contest, cow tipping and more, and the second to last place Fresno Grizzlies As Seen On TV Night with the Snuggie ShamWow LifeAlert relay race.
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Make lemonade
But borrowed interest is the easy way out; some sports marketers intentionally embrace their losing record.

•    In Japan, thoroughbred horse Haruurara became famous by losing 113 races, backed by fans wearing Haruurara-themed T-shirts, key rings, hats and more.haru_urara_is_my_hero_tshirt-p235875723377456176qn7m_400

•    Ski jumper “Eddie The Eagle” Edwards became famous by failing at the 1988 Winter Olympics. He turned that failure into a career as a one man marketing machine.
•    The Jamaican Bobsled Team also debuted at the 1988 Winter Olympics. They crashed; people laughed. The team laughed all the way to the bank, as they went on to inspire a successful movie and to finish ahead of the United States, Russia, France and Italy in the 1994 Olympics. You can still buy an official Jamaican Bobsled Team T-shirt.
•    The 2009 NBA season started with the New Jersey Nets losing game after game. So at game 10 they ran a “10 Is Enough” promotion, with $10 tickets.

Of course, when it comes to the marketing of wait-till-next-year sports properties, we’re right here in Chicago, where the motto of so many of our teams is “We Never Fail….To Disappoint.” And none is quite so disappointing as the Cubs, who have not won a World Series since 1908, and have not played in one since 1945. Legend says that this is because in the 1945 series, the team ejected a ticket-holding goat owned by saloonkeeper Billy Sianis, who then cursed the team. So in 1994 the Cubs invited a goat to Wrigley Field. And in 1997 the Cubs held a curse-removing press conference at the Sianis family’s tavern.

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It didn’t work; the Cubs still haven’t made the World Series. But attendance at Wrigley Field continues to be near capacity, with an average 2009 ticket price close to $50. So at least the marketing works.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Fred Petrick, promotion, sports/event marketing. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.