Sports branding in a crowded marketplace
The Denver Business Journal - June 30, 2006
by Dave Smrek

Living in one of the current hotbeds of the sports industry, it can be difficult to remember when Denver was only a two-team town -- when, as recently as 1993, the Broncos and Nuggets were Denver's only major league sports teams.

The arrival of the Colorado Rockies that year vaulted Denver into a loftier category as a sports city, and when the Avalanche relocated to the Mile High City in 1995, the hockey franchise made Denver one of only 13 cities in the country with teams in all four major league sports -- often called the "Grand Slam" in sports business.

But the Denver sports market today goes far beyond just the four major league franchises, with professional sports teams calling the metro area home, including the Colorado Rapids (MLS), Colorado Crush (AFL), Colorado Mammoth (NLL), Denver Outlaws (MLL) and more.

When you also factor in history-rich Division I collegiate athletic programs and world-class events like the International at Castle Pines and the Grand Prix of Denver, even casual observers can see what numerous sports business analysts have been reporting: Denver is one of the most vibrant sports marketplaces in the country, but also one of the most crowded.

In a marketplace as crowded as Denver, every sports organization must compete aggressively for customers and for visibility, but the task is particularly challenging for smaller sports organizations. How can organizations vying for finite sports and entertainment dollars differentiate themselves and gain fan loyalties? The art and science of branding has become a key competitive advantage for organizations addressing these challenges.

Effective branding enables sports organizations to create strong and memorable brands that build and sustain public awareness and customer interest in the organization regardless of the size of the team or league and -- most importantly -- regardless of the ups and downs of wins and losses.

Here are some key principles that smaller sports organizations can incorporate into their branding strategy:

• Build your brand around the sports experience rather than wins and losses -- This principle holds true for small organizations as well as elite franchises.

A recent campaign by the Colorado Rockies offers lessons in how to conduct a branding campaign that emphasizes themes other than wins and losses. Since 2005, the Rockies have celebrated the youthful promise of their newest team members with the innovative "Gen R" campaign. This campaign shrewdly does not pledge wins for a team turning over a new roster, but instead offers fans the chance to witness the emergence of the team's next generation of contributors.

This message skillfully moves the Rockies past some less-than-stellar recent seasons and states that a plan is in place for long-term success.

And as with any successful branding campaign, the integration of "Gen R" into team communications is hard to miss. It's prevalent at the ballpark, on the team's broadcasts and in all advertising.

By building recognition for the team and its non-household-name players, this Rockies campaign offers a compelling model for branding campaigns by smaller organizations that face the same uphill battle to establish broader recognition for their team in spite of factors such as a low winning percentage.

• Understand your organization's brand the way your customers do -- Every branding campaign should start with an inside-out approach that evaluates all aspects of current brand attributes and assesses how those real-world perceptions match up or do not match up with your brand objectives. This critical first step is often overlooked, leading to missed opportunities to truly understand an organization's audiences and its branding challenges and opportunities.

An example of a team whose forward-looking branding strategy is based on a very sound understanding of its current brand attributes is the Colorado Avalanche, which has established a brand based upon professionalism, consistency and most of all, winning.

Calling upon its historical success, the team employed a campaign this past season centered simply on their 10th anniversary. This simple but effective approach successfully extends their current brand attributes to highlight longevity and stability as a complementary theme to existing perceptions of the team.

The Colorado Crush is another example of a team that has a solid understanding of how its brand is perceived by the public and that has made smart decisions about how to build on that foundation.

This franchise provides a compelling example of a team brand that is an extension of the personal brand of a key member of its organization, in this case owner John Elway. The Crush brand stands on its own, but it echoes the qualities of its founder in an effective way. By understanding those inherent brand attributes and building upon them, the Crush has been able to establish a strong brand very rapidly.

• Reinforce your brand through every interaction with the public -- Many sports branding efforts fail for a simple reason: They never get truly integrated across an organization.

This requires a great deal of discipline because teams and sporting events interact with the community in a greater variety of ways than most companies. This includes media relations, community relations, marketing and the players/coaches interaction. A brand develops most effectively when all these parties are working in unison to articulate the shared message.

This kind of integrated branding is even more critical for smaller sports organizations which have fewer opportunities to communicate with the public than the Big Four franchises. Every customer interaction from arena signage to how the reception desk answers the phone must support the overall brand strategy.

The final piece of the puzzle is commitment. Because a brand is essentially a belief system, this can take teams and events a long period to establish. It is therefore important that an organization remain diligent in its branding direction, typically over a number of seasons. Taglines can change, rosters can turn over and even coaches can be replaced, but a team's brand requires long-term discipline.