SPORTS AT 3PM...

Ambush Marketing

I wanted to cover a couple of topics on the Olympic sponsorship and
ambush marketing lastnight. After a 2-hour exam and then
talking about the presentation next week, we ran out of time.
I felt it was more important to ensure that you're comfortable with
what's expected from your presentations than to spend time on a new
topic. I am glad that we have this medium for any unfinished businesses. 

I hope it's clear to you that the group discussion where I go around
each group and spend some time together is another major
part of our learning experience. By addressing your group-specific
questions and issues, I am hoping that you familiarize yourselves with how
an effective brainstorming takes shape and also practice applying the concepts
we learned in class to a real-life topic.

As I mentioned briefly in class, I care about your success beyond the classroom
boundaries and the constant application of classroom materials to real-world
situations will certainly contribute towards that goal, I believe.

I am attaching three files on this blog: (1) An overview of ambush marketing
(2) the legal perspective of it, and then (3) a real Coke ambush case that took place
last fall. The second article really provides an excellent
background picture of the Olympic marketing as well.

I've worked for two companies
that really share contrasting philosophies on the global sponsorship.
Coke is the epitome of "doing things by the book", if you will, paying
sponsorship dollars to become the official sponsor of the Olympics or the
FIFA World Cup, and to work creatively within the sponsor parameters. 

Nike, on the other hand, has long been a firm believer that spending
millions of dollars on sponsorship fees was a waste of money and that they could
outsmart and outdistance the competition by investing that money on
elite teams, athletes and ambush marketing. Phil Knight believes that
the sponsorship game is won and lost on the pitch - associating the Swoosh
with jaw-dropping performances and heart-moving stories of the athletes instead.
Nike's emphasis on the authenticity and respect for the game is probably
what drove its incredible growth in the early years. They managed to make
strong statements about their creativity through a number of ambush antics as well.
Surely, it also invites debates about their ethical orientation, but
the majority of its core target don't seem to care...

The last Powerpoint brings up an interesting ambush tactic by Pepsi in China.
In an attempt to weaken Coke's Olympic sponsorship in Beijing, Pepsi China
folks have come up with RED can packaging - which is as scandalous
and unthinkable in the beverage industry as Coke's tampering with its
traditional Red and White logo inside the stadiums.
The file will show you how Coke tries to counter this move
and in my opinion, it's a battle of "Dare vs. Red". "Daring" Chinese consumers
to participate in the new Red Movement is Pepsi's gig, while Coke
focuses NOT on the notion of "Daring" but on the authenticity of "Red"
in order to fend off Pepsi's ambush attack. It's an interesting chess-game
and the one that you will see in the real, marketing war-rooms
ALL THE TIME.

Please ensure that you download these files and take some time digesting
the contents. I would ask you to share your thoughts on these topics actively
on the blog before next week. Otherwise, we would have to do it in class
after all the presentations due next week which will be a physical challenge, I assure you :-)

Enjoy the topic. Thanks.

Download ambush_marketing.ppt

Download legal_aspect_of_ambush_marketing.pdf

Download dare_vs. Red.ppt

How did I name my daughter anyway??

It's no secret to my friends that In-Hye, my 5-year old daughter, is the biggest daddy's girl around.
I'm 100% responsible for it too, I know. She is "untouchable" to her little brothers and
frankly, I don't know what this is going to lead to in my and her lives.

So, here's an uncovering of one of the crazy Korean cultures or customs.
Many Korean people pay for a list of "auspicious" or "good luck" names
to one of these fortune-tellers when a child is born. We did it too
with my boys but with In-Hye, I did the reverse. I wanted to name her
myself (which isn't so special in the American tradition but definitely a rarity
in Korea) and asked this Swami dude if the name In-Hye had anything bad
attached to it. He said it was a great name and it'll strengthen my relationship
with her even more! (as if that was possible).

In Korea, we always say and write our last names first, so for her, it
would look like this "Choi, In Hye". It all comes from the Chinese characters
that instills meaning to each of the three syllables.
For some reason, I felt like the sound
of it reminded me of those "classic, female,freedom fighter" names in Korea in the
1930's. The trend now in Korea with young parents is to name your kid with a name that is
phonically "compatible" with American names, such as "No-Ah", "Gi-O",
"Jo-Han"...etc. Me? I wanted my first child's name to be as Korean-sounding as
it gets, yet totally easy to pronounce. You see, I've had a history of having
my Korean name mis-pronounced by almost ALL of my past teachers and classmates
when I first came to the US and I promised myself never to let my child
experience the same thing, ever. Another reason I try hard to memorize my
students' names and keep mindful about pronouncing the names accurately!

It is hard to mis-pronounce her name, "In Hye", it's as straight forward as it gets,
but some people still do. I truly LOVE her name, not because I named it, but
because it sounds classy, independent, and smart. I sincerely hope she one day becomes
all of that.

A secret that even my wife doesn't know about my inspiration for this name?
Enter Ms. Ines de la Fressange - I don't know how many people remember her
as the top model for Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld in the 80's, but
when I was spending my junior year in college in Paris as an exchange student,
Ines was THE face of Chanel. Remember when we all had our first big crush
on celebs? Ines was it for me :-)

She too was one of those classic and sophisticated looking models who seemed like she could be well off not doing the modeling thing.
And she looked like someone you could find on the streets and not necessarily on the Paris catwalks.

I had at one point thought about giving my daughter Ines as her middle name too, but thought that was too corny for a Korean girl living in the States. Think about it - In-Hye Ines Choi?? What?!?!
Nah...too cheesy...
I instead opted for Alice as her middle name - another classic, simple, uncontroversial  name. She already has a Korean name that will stand out from all the American names in her classroom, so I went for efficiency, if you will, over glamor and glitz.

I hope In-Hye doesn't come back from school in the near future and complains about her friends making fun of her name. Kids will do that to you, I know, but once she grows out of it, she will one day thank daddy for making her name somewhat unique and different.

I gave her the name but it's In-Hye who will have to carry that name proudly. And she will...   

Sport Marketing Week 5 - Sponsorship

Here's the Powerpoint on Sponsorship.
This is the text-only file to reduce the size of it.
The content should not be any different from what I will
use in class. You know I've been the sponsorship guy
all my life, so please know this stuff by heart for the exam next week (wink, wink).
Download sport_sponsorship_ch_14.ppt

I used to require my students to buy the Stotlar textbook on Sponsorship as well,
but I thought this summary file would save you some dollars. If you're interested
in learning more about this topic, please search for this book on Amazon.com.
Thanks and have fun!

PS: I won't try to BS you on this one - I won't be able to have your Cialdini book report graded completely by this week. I've done some on the plane but I've got this big research article submission due this week on the Beijing Olympics that I need to finish and it's been taking longer than I had hoped for. We full-time (as opposed to adjunct or term) faculty at USF are expected to deliver top-quality teaching as well as  research, so it is a big thing for me. Sorry about the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding, but I will share the article with you on Week 6 (after the exam) and will have them all graded by that week, I promise :-)

Link to Amazon.com page on this book 

Most recent pix of the kids...

The pre-school they attend use this great marketing strategy to help
their bottom-line!!  Twice a year, they bring in professional photographer to
take free pix of the kids and let the parents pick the ones we would like to order.
Most parents end up ordering some pix (which are not inexpensive), but
feel (or hope) that they worth the price. A BIG reason why that we should all be
in kids-stuff businesses!! Parents will buy stuff for their kids more willingly than
they would for themselves - meaning that they become less rational buyers
when it comes to kids!!

Anyways, here are the boys..who I think spend the most of their awaken hours to
think of fun ways to mess up the house...(I truly do).

here's the biggest daddy's-girl ever and my first love...In Hye...

KU vs. Memphis...finally...

OK... the Final Four comes down to KU and Memphis (like I had predicted)...
Sorry to all my beloved Bruin fans (one of whom who actually blackberry'd me
from San Antonio minutes before the tip-off and threatened that I cheer for
Love & Co.), but Memphis just had too much motor on the defensive front, I thought,
along with a phenom PG named Rose...

As for the Carolina "blues", I knew it was over when I saw Roy Williams'
tie had all those funky colors instead of his proud school color he always
seem to wear for the big games...Why did he choose that tie??
Did he not want to make an emphatic statement to his old KU pals that
he is NOW as Carolina Blue as one can get?? No matter how you cut it,
that game must have been a bigger distraction for Williams than to Self.
No doubt...

For the Monday night finale, my heart is with KU but my mind is going with
Memphis. Oddly enough, had it not been for the USF's offer at the 11th hour
in the spring of 2006, I would have gone to teach at either of these two
schools as my first teaching gig. USF had been my first choice all along, but
it just took damn long for me to wait to hear from them. Meanwhile,
KU gave me the first job interview
in the academia and was equally swift in giving me the first offer in January, 2006.
I absolutely LOVED the people at KU! They were class acts all the way.
It is an impossibility for any organization to put the job offer on the table and
wait for more than a month until the candidate makes the decision.
KU let me do that and eventually lost me to USF...
The Department Chair at KU, Dr. Bob Frederick, was a patient, persistent, and honest man.
And I probably would have gone to KU if USF took another week to decide on the offer.
Dr.Frederick was THAT impressive of a human being.

Not until last week did I discover that Bob was a key figure on Roy Williams' decision to
bolt for Carolina. Turns out that Dr.Frederick had been one of the longest-tenured
and successful AD's at KU outside the legendary "Phog" Allen. Dr. Frederick chaired the NCAA
Tournament Selection Committee at one point and was the guy
who hired then relatively less-know UNC Assistant Roy Williams
to replace Larry Brown. When Bob decided to resign from
the post and it was accepted by KU, Roy knew that he had one less reason to
stay at  KU - Read about Frederick and Williams on ESPN...

Here's an interesting email from Dr. Frederick earlier in the week and how he felt about
the KU-UNC match-up. I am sure Williams' sentiment could not have been so
different from Bob's...

"Hi Andrew,
It was great to hear from you. I have thought about you many times, particularly when I'm preparing for my Sport Marketing class. I have the practical experience and a lot of stories but I definitely could use your theoretical marketing expertise.
I hope you and your family are doing well and enjoying San Francisco. SF is my favorite city and when we left Stanford to come back to Kansas it was hard to leave the City by the Bay.
I am not going to the Final Four this year and with the match-up of KU and UNC I'm glad I won't be there. Coach Williams' family and the Frederick family are close yet I've been involved with KU for 38 of the last 50 years so it seems as if KU loses I'm going to feel terribly but happy for Roy and vice-versa. I wish they weren't playing each other.
I am happy you got your green cards and that you will be able to visit your families in Korea this summer. Have a great time!
One marketing question: Are you familiar with the 3rd Edition of Mullin, Hardy and Sutton's Sport Marketing? If not, check it out and let me know what you think. I'm using it this semester and think it's really good.
Thanks for contacting me. I will stay in touch. If you see my friend on your faculty, Chris Thompson, please give him my best.
Respectfully,
Bob"

(Dr.Bob Frederick's Bio )

Frankly, I was pulling for KU big-time last night...Actually, I was pulling for the good people at KU. By beating the hottest team in Davidson, I knew they had sustained the "near-death situation" and that could be an invaluable experience during a short-term tournament like this one. Also, I've been glad that the media was revering so much of Tyler Hansbrough for the last 2-3 weeks as the next White Basketball Messiah that I knew KU must have felt they had little to lose...(Personally, Hansbrough's game is so monotone that he will have no chance at the next level - David Lee at best in my opinion. I will give him the competitive fire but competitive fire of an undersized big man won't stop the Duncan's, Garnett's, and  Amare's of the world.) The value of KU's "near-death experience" was evident in the 2nd half last night when the Heels made that improbable comeback to cut the lead to 5 points. That was it though. KU was able to withstand the pounding, get the 2nd wind of sort, and pull away for the victory.
I felt good for Bill Self and Dr. Frederick...good people don't have to finish second all the time...

As for Memphis, here's another school that I could have gone to worked for and I love the Beale Street
in downtown Memphis ("The Flying Saucers" is one of the livelier and fun bars there!! :-)
Again, I have a lot of good friends and colleagues teaching at the Memphis Sport Management, but
I didn't need all that personal ties to get going for this team. I think Calipari is due
for a ring and Derrick Rose will get that ring for him. Rose seems like the real deal -
probably the most impressive young college PG I've seen since maybe Magic or Dwayne "Pearl"
Washington. (Call me crazy but Pat Riley had better pick this guy over the Beasley beast in the draft.)
This group is so collectively athletic on both ends of the floor!! KU will probably match up better than most with this team, but Rose will find a way to win, I think...

I'll be more than elated if KU wins on Monday and I will cheer hard for them, but will be real surprised if they do... Memphis will be the next National Champs!!!

My first guest-lecturer for Marketing class...

I know some of my students have expressed desire to have an experienced figure from the industry
come in and give them a guest-lecture on the current state-of-business as well as
other wonderful insights... Personally, I love having guest-lecturers...Hell, it reduces my lecture preparation
time and saves my voice. The only problem has been that we only meet 8 times and I have
a ton of stuff to cover... I want to ensure MY TIME first and foremost. Even so, we don't get to cover
as many marketing topics as some of my students would like.

Well, here's your chance to sit in at a guest-lecture...via video...outside MY CLASS TIME...

It's a must-see stuff, people...especially after this week's lecture on branding...
Please invest 25 minutes of your life to hear a perspective from one of the best in business...
Kevin Oberts, the CEO of Satchi & Satchi (a global ad agency) echoes a lot of what we
talked about in class this week...

The topics include:
his inspiration for inventing the "lovemark" concept, Nike & MJ,  Pepsi, P&G,
the powershift from the manufacturers to giant retailers to what he sees as to consumers now...

"If you want to know hell of a lot about the lions, you'd better go to the jungle and not to the zoo..." - I LOVE THIS COMMENT!!

Also, notice what makes this interview moving effectively...see how much research or "pre-search"
the interviewer has done on Kevin... I've had a distinct pleasure of interviewing
more than 50-60 elite Korean athletes or "super stars" back when I was running a website
in the late 90's and my MANTRA or ("maxim") was to learn as much about your interviewee
as humanly possible by digging up EVERY little detail about that person... That will impress them and
instantly build your credibility as an interviewer. Why? EMOTIONAL CONNECTION...
Whether it's in marketing, recruiting, or sales, it's all about making that connection.
At the end of the day, we're dealing with people, not with robots or animals.
All humans, or the majority of them, are alike to an extent. What makes me unhappy
will probably make others unhappy as well. Do your homework before approaching
any interview. You go unprepared and you're toast - a waste of your time.

Please enjoy this guest-lecture of sort.

PS: About P&G? Kevin is absolutely right about P&G "never" bringing in
outside managers to run the business. That's probably what makes
them such a successful and loyal bunch. For P&G, it's all about bringing
your talents from bottom-up, sort of like the farm system.
No wonder P&G has been called "the Westpoint of Marketers" - their training
is second to none.

WATCH THE GUEST-LECTURE NOW... 

A promise...

I just came to a realization that my wife, Jackie, and I no longer take any pictures...
Ever since the kids came into our lives, it's been all about the kids and little about us...
I cannot find a single recent photo of Jackie and me that I can hang on the wall...
We probably have over a thousand pix of the kids, but not ONE of us...
What happened to our lives..?? Do other parents experience the same thing??

When I go back to Korea this summer, I pledge to take Jackie to a nice photo studio
and to get some pictures taken by a professional...this is getting ridiculous...
Kids should never be THE reason or THE excuse, but neither Jackie nor I could ever fathom the idea of
stepping in before the kids and do something fun for us... Maybe that should change...
By the time they grow old enough to be independent, we'll be old enough to apply
for retirement pension...Crap, that's depressing...

I PLEDGE TO MAKE JACKIE THE HAPPIEST GIRL ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH FOR
AT LEAST ONE DAY THIS SUMMER...just like she was on that day earlier in our lives...she deserves it...being a stay-home mom of three little kids is beyond stressful...I gotta let her out...

There you have it...Stay tuned...

Trend Watching Briefing: April 2008

is now available at this link CLICK HERE...

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