From The New York Times
Review by Jacob Harris in SRM 334
Augusta National Golf Club is one of the most historic golf courses and is currently the only home to the most popular major in golf, The Masters. A lot of sports fans didn’t realize exactly how huge of an event occurred in the golfing and sporting world this past fall with the first two women to ever become members of this prestigious club. With a lot of scrutiny and controversy over the pasted 80 years, the moment finally came with the introduction of Condolezza Rice and Darla Moore as the first and only two members of Augusta National at this point in time.
This past spring through fall wasn’t the first time that these issues and discussion have come up. It wasn’t till 1990 and after the club was almost 60 years old until the first African American gained membership. Martha Burk also fought hard and led a campaign to gain women membership in 2002. At that time the Augusta chairman, William Johnson, said that maybe one day the club might invite a female to join, but seeing that they are a private club, they can go about business the way they please. To gain membership into Augusta, one has to be invited by a small committee, there is no such thing as applying for membership like other golf courses. The spot of chairman changed hands in 2006 and talks began to stir up again this past spring. Finally the announcement came in August that the club hit a new milestone with its new female memberships.
As far as the media, this was nationally covered and it was a big deal to the public relations team at Augusta. Their beloved tournament was coming up when these talks began to arise and questions were starting to be asked. They also had to develop a plan on how to keep things calm because as mentioned before they are a private club and do things their own way, which didn’t really please the media. Instead of getting answers, the media got a lot of “no comment” responses which usually frustrates most fans and the media. Everything did end up turning out well and Augusta National even issued a news release for the announcement of the women members which is not something they usually do. Augusta is a very private club and is all about doing business their own way, but with this new addition, they may be opening up to the media more often. ---
Review by Ryan Dunn in SRM 334
Augusta National Country Club is well known for its privacy as well as its all-male membership. But as of August 2012 Augusta National has agreed to allow two women to join the club. Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore were formally invited to become members and will be the first two female members of this historic golf club.
Augusta National is well known as the host of The Masters golf tournament. It is an 80 year old club. Augusta added its first African American member in 1990. The membership to Augusta is closed meaning a person cannot apply for membership but has to be invited by a membership committee to join. They have had many prevalent members including former president Dwight Eisenhower.
The decision to add women members was one that many people had been waiting for, for a long time. In 2002, Martha Burke started a campaign in which she tried to convince Augusta National to add women members to its role. It took 10 more years for it to happen. Nancy Lopez who is in golfs Hall of Fame was quoted saying “This is a big steppingstone for women in golf and for women in general because of what Augusta stands for.” Ms. Lopez was right.
Augusta has always gone about their business by their own accord and this situation was no different. Augusta National has been publicly scrutinized by the media as well as such figures as President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. This did not make Augusta cave though as they waited until for a time when no one expected it to happen to announce the invitation to both Rice and Moore.
The media jumped all over this story when it came out. It seemed that every news station across the nation had a story about this. The question of when Augusta National would invite a woman to join was one that no one knew the answer to. So when Augusta decided to invite two it became national news and everyone jumped on it.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
"State Farm benefiting from 'Discount' ads"
From ESPN.com
Review by Peter Brosnan in KIN 332 (section 2)
This article focused mainly on Aaron Rodgers and his role as a spokesperson for State Farm Insurance. Everyone has seen the commercials and nearly everybody knows about Rodgers’ signature touchdown celebration, but what does it all mean? ‘Discount Double Check’ actually refers to a program where State Farm gives discounts to customers for various reasons such as safe driving and combining home and auto insurance. Whether or not people know what this term actually means, the important thing is that people are talking about it. Social media tracking company Bluefin Labs said that there were 6,400 comments about the ‘Discount Double Check’ during and three hours after the Sunday Night Football game between the Packers and Texans. This was due to Rodgers, as well as some taunting opponents, performing his famous touchdown dance numerous times, but most importantly it was due to the fact that almost everyone has seen these commercials.
State Farm succeeded in their initial goal, which is to get people to see their commercials and get everyone talking about it. However, what I believe they need to do next is to explain what in the world the ‘Discount Double Check’ actually is! I believe there is no point in advertising a product or program when it is not even understood by the consumers. I tried to search online for what purpose the ‘DDC’ actually serves its’ customers, and all I found were articles about Rodgers and video clips for the commercials. Rodgers is a great spokesperson; intelligent, funny, talented, exciting, etc. However, there comes a point when State Farm needs to stop going for entertainment value and instead explain how they have a step up on their competition. Don’t get me wrong, the first step in their marketing plan has succeeded immensely, but before long most people are going to start getting sick of the same commercial over and over again.
"Exploring saturation levels for sponsorship logos on professional sports shirts: a cross-cultural study"
The article, “Exploring saturation levels for sponsorship logos on professional sports shirts: A cross-cultural study” analyzed the effectiveness of sponsor logos on professional hockey jerseys and their effect on the brand itself. The researchers were testing to see whether increased amounts of sponsor logos on the jerseys themselves had an effect on brand identity, affiliation, and effectiveness.
The researchers categorized jerseys into three categories: the logo-free (clean) approach used by the NHL (only the team logo present), the restrained approach used by the American Hockey League and Russian Kontinental League (up to two sponsor logos present), and the unrestrained approach (characterized by unlimited amounts of sponsor logos on the jersey). They then created three hypothetical “alternate” jerseys for various hockey teams with varying amounts of sponsor logos and surveyed hockey fans to gauge their reactions to the shirts. The study measured the intensity of the shirt advertising on the fans’ attitude toward the team, intention to purchase team merchandise/apparel, and sponsor brand recall rate among the three different shirts.
The results followed the researchers’ proposed hypotheses. In terms of the sponsors’ interests, there was an abrupt drop-off in brand recall when more than two logos were present on the jerseys. In terms of the managers of the team/franchise, it appeared that attitude towards the team and purchase intentions did not significantly drop when there were two or fewer logos on the jersey, but the presence of more logos resulted in more negative attitudes. In general, the more logos that were present lead to more negative attitudes towards the team and jersey.
I feel like this study is important and practical in several ways. As a leader in this industry, we may one day be forced to make a decision regarding issues similar to this. How we balance the financial gain and benefit that sponsorship presents with retaining a loyal fan base willing to purchase our merchandise is an extremely important discussion to be prepared for. According to the results of this study, team identity and fans’ purchase intentions do not significantly decrease with two or fewer logos; therefore, one can reasonably assume that selling two sponsorships will generate revenue while retaining desired fan behaviors and attitudes. It is also an insightful study into the benefits that sponsors receive from choosing a specific team or organization to partner with. Sponsorships should be a win-win deal for both sides, but this study shows that, at least in terms of these jersey sponsorship logos, the product will be diluted and the recall will be less significant with the presence of other sponsor logos on the same product. This creates a less effective sponsorship and could lead to certain companies severing their deals with the team. It obviously also affects the organization itself, as it has a direct influence on merchandise sales and perhaps more importantly on team affiliation and positive attitudes about the franchise.
I also think that this study is relevant because it can be expanded to include other sports and other leagues. The NBA is currently discussing adding sponsor logos on their jerseys for the first time, and this can serve as a relevant blueprint for the NBA and other leagues to follow to maintain their apparel sales and fan loyalty. It also is a telling fact that those surveyed in this study were college student-aged individuals, which is a high-priority demographic market for most sport leagues. They want to touch this demographic in order to build long-term fans, as fans who are affiliated with a team for a longer time may be more inclined to purchase that team’s merchandise.
An interesting extension of this study would be to expand it to more popular sports in the United States (NFL, NBA, and MLB) and also to analyze the effect that these logos have in professional soccer, where on-shirt advertising is already popular. A future study could also include a more broad demographic, rather than focusing almost solely on college students. I like the idea of a survey of the fans, and I think that could be especially useful (and good PR) if they are involved in a similar survey in order to choose a new alternate jersey for the team. This gets them involved, makes them feel like they have a voice with their team, and allows for the team to create a jersey that they know is popular with fans and will therefore hopefully sell well. By judging the purchase intentions and attitudes reflected onto the team by their fans, team managers can then pursue the appropriate amount and type of sponsors for on-shirt advertising while not diluting their product or the sponsor’s gain by a significant amount.
This study is interesting and applicable for our class in that it deals directly with marketing and shows the potential pitfalls of oversaturation. While we talk about the importance of lining up sponsorships and generating those revenue streams, this is a good example of how thin of a line it is at times to balance each interest (revenue and maintaining fan interest). The study is a good read for an aspiring leader of a sports organization and was an interesting discussion with the trend of on-shirt advertising becoming more popular on the professional level.
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