Review by Brian Barlow in KIN 501 The article I am going to review is Athletes Brady, RGIII Buck Nike's NFL Sponsorship (in Practice). This article discusses the current issue with players in the NFL being sponsored by other companies than the sponsor of the league itself (Nike). Last spring, Nike took over as the new equipment and apparel sponsor of the NFL. An issue that will always arise is when players are sponsored by other companies; in this case it is Tom Brady who is sponsored by Under Armour and Robert Griffin III who is sponsored by Adidas. The article explains how the first issue with sponsorship this season was when Robert Griffin III wrote the word “Heart” over the Nike swoosh on his warm up shirt during the pregame of his bout against the New Orleans Saints. The article reveals that the NFL contacted Griffin about the cover up and how he hasn’t tried to do it again since. The other incident the article describes is with Tom Brady. After practice one day at a press conference, Tom Brady put a piece of tape of the Nike swoosh on his shirt for the interview. Tom was never contacted by the league about this action, because “Policy only pertains to game day.” The article ends with quotes from the former Creative Director of Nike, Ernest Lupinacci. Lupinacci is quoted saying that the fact that these players are worried about covering up logos and such is “diminishing” to the players’ reputation.
In my opinion, I don’t see anything wrong with doing these things on practice days like Tom did. I can somewhat agree with Lupinacci about doing this on a game day when one should be totally focused on the game and not focused about covering up logos and such. I found it interesting that covering up the logos ironically brought more attention to Nike because it turned into a public issue through the media and such.
The article explored the use of a Website and its influence as being a factor to build an allegiance to a brand new sports franchise. The researchers explored the concepts of promotion types, the attachment theory and how it affects sports fan, as well as the Psychological Continuum Model, and the concepts of an effective website and examined the Tallahassee Titans. When examining the types of promotions, they did know that these encouraged fans to be allegiant and promote a fan from a possibly attracted fan to an allegiant fan. The researchers did take note that these promotions could be used for a sports franchise that is just starting and trying to build a fan base. The article goes on talk about attachment theory and how it attributes to creating an allegiant fan. Mostly, the attachment theory examined how a team would need to create an experience that fans value, both emotionally and psychologically. The psychological continuum model picks from there explaining the stages that are involved for allegiance to occur. Allegiance can only become a reality when a person has recognized the team, favors a team, and perceives the value of the team. Once those steps have occurred, an allegiant fan is a possibility.
As a reminder, the research wanted to discover the influence a website had on developing this allegiance. Each one of the aspects needs to be involved in creating a webpage that enhances the experience of the team, and creates the allegiance. McClung et al (2012) examined the experience of the Tallahassee Titans, a former member of the American Indoor Football League. The Tallahassee Titans had an allegiant fan base before the players even stepped onto the field. They were able to do this by understanding the concepts of successful promotions, the attachment theory, the psychological continuum model and the important aspects of a website.
McClung (2012) concluded that the Tallahassee Titans website was effective in implementing and recognizing the process of creating an allegiant fan. Their marketing strategies were spot on and 58% of their attendees at the first game had already visited the website and could claim some sort of allegiance to the team.
I enjoyed reading this article especially when they were able to use a specific example of how it is possible to create an allegiant fan base. This will be extremely helpful to implement other marketing strategies that may come my way in my career. There were several other factors that the researchers may have neglected that could have influenced the strong fan base for the Titans, but they do mention that flaw in their discussion. It would be interesting to know if this could be possible if it were to happen now after the influx of social media, and if so, would it result in even higher numbers of allegiant fans.
Review by Mike Freas in KIN 332 (section 1)Design to Move is a collaboration of over 70 groups that are beginning a marketing campaign to promote physical activity in America’s youth. The one company that is leading the charge is Nike. According to a recent study, children today are to have a five-year less life expectancy compared to their parents.
The results are alarming. The study found out that children between the ages of 9 to 5 become 75% less active in the United States. In addition, in the last 44 years physical activity is down 34% in the United States. Even more alarming is the fact that they predict this number to grow to 46% in 2030. The study also went into the financial impact of this growing problem. The study found that the direct cost of the inactivity would be a 113% increase in health care costs by 2030.
Nike and the other organizations involved are trying to create a program and a marketing approach to curtail the problem and promote physical activity in America’s youth. They believe that technology is not to blame but should encourage physical activity.
I believe this article relates to marketing in numerous ways. The article talks about the beginning stages of marketing plan to promote physical activity. They have now formed and organized the organizations involved to help promote it. They have done the research and are now setting goals to try to fix the problem. They are in the beginning stages of creating a marketing plan to do achieve this. They have begun to use many big organizations and well known brands to lead the charge. They have even begun to collect athlete and celebrity endorsements.
