A friend told me that after the Cubs went down meekly in Game 2 of the NLDS, he peeked into the bedroom of his 11 year old son and his kid’s eyes were red from crying. I can only imagine how that child feels right now. After this season of promise. After so much expectation. After investing so much emotional capital.
This one really hurts.
That’s the thing about sports. People care so damn deeply. And that’s why it’s such an effective tool to use in marketing.
There’s politics and there’s religion, each of which engenders some pretty strong beliefs and adherence. But I’d bet you that other than folks who work day to day to get their guy elected, there are very few people who suffer through sleepless nights after their candidate loses. And that’s when the decision affect four years! We get another chance next year to try to win again. Then again, us Cubs fans have been saying that for…well, 100 years now.
And religion? Many would tell you that the Cubs/Celtics/Red Wings/Redskins/Arsenal IS their religion.
The emotions involved in sports are wonderful and magical and horrible. So when you can harness those emotions and leverage an insight into them, you can create something powerful.
If I were a marketer right now, I’d think about using Manny Ramirez. I know he has his shtick. But he’s on top of the world, for now.
The Cubs sure could have used him.
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Cubs fans:
Here's a theory. And as those of us in the south remind our peers and students, a theory is a conceptualization of a system supported by a preponderance of data.
Baseball and statistics...hand in hand. Statistically, given the cubs' history, their great and near great players, the sheer number of games and opportunities they've had, in terms of baseball-related statistics, the probability of not winning a pennant before the Rays, Marlins, etc., would be somewhere in the tenth or 11th standard deviation. Essentially, if we use baseball statistics to govern our assessment of their chances, there is no way that by this time they could not have won something of value. Because we believe they are a baseball team, and because baseball statistics cannot explain their consistent and abject failure, something other than baseball related activity must be affecting their consistent futility. I submit, if we cannot explain their futility using baseball-related stats (and we can't) the remaining option is that they are either not a baseball team or they are doomed by something like Zeus hurling thunderbolts....something that exists but cannot be explained given our primitive powers of observation. That is, until next year of course.
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