Boys Among Men: How To Compete

When thinking about basketball there are certain teams that automatically come into mind. Besides the home team, one cannot help but to think about the Lakers, Heat, Bulls, Celtics and a few of the other large franchise teams. Unless a smaller team is a playoff contender, it is not usually getting much press. So how do these teams gain momentum and amp up their fan base? How when you are the Kings or Warriors, playing in the same state as the LA teams (Clippers and Lakers), do you compete?

The seemingly obvious answer would be to acquire an all-star caliber player, but when you are a smaller franchise that is not always financially feasible. So many move to idea of a new arena: adding technology and creating architecture that will draw in a crowd. The problem with these ideas is that they bring people in for the wrong reason. Let’s say a team uses a large sum of their salary to bring in a star player and that player gets hurt or gets traded, now what? The team is in the same boat in which they started because people were not coming to see the team; they were coming to see the star. It’s the same scenario with the arena. There are all kind of natural and unnatural causes that could destroy an arena. If you bring people in for that reason, they go when the arena goes. By using these tactics, the team is creating a fan base for a player or for an arena. So how does the team create a fan base for itself?

While large teams look to marketing, for the smaller teams this is not enough. All NBA teams have a marketing department, but these people are mainly there to sell tickets and sell ads. These smaller teams need to open their eyes to creativity beyond basic marketing. They need something to draw people in and keep them there. They need to invest in a brand story. People invest in things with which they feel a connection and a brand story would give them that connection. Sarah Doody said it best, "If you want your product to be heard by consumers, it must be rooted in a story that consumers emotionally can connect with." A brand story would create a meaning behind the team and create affiliation with its current fans while recruiting its fans of the future. The proper story could create a cult like following for these small teams and keep them relevant for years to come.

Briana Scales