Growing up in New York, I not ever thought about merchandising in athletic. Everyone there was either a Yankees follower or a Mets fan. You always loved one and loathed the other, and so did your whole family. It was more of a tribal loyalty than a decision. The truth that, beyond the sports events, there was another competition going on never happened to me. I not ever thought about the fact that the teams were not only fighting for victory, but also fighting for enthusiasts. Til I fell in to a sports marketer position, I was pretty much unaware of how much capital changes hands behind the scenes. Pro athletic marketing is a multi billion dollar niche, and it is growing every year. Most athletic teams, in point of fact, earn more money off of selling sports clothing than off of tickets!
Finding myself in a sports marketing firm was a pretty odd development for me. In many ways, I do not fit in there at all. Although I majored in
niche merchandising and advertising, I have not ever been a big sports devotee. This placed me at odds with a corporation filled with athletic fanatics. Nonetheless, I have done my job pretty well. At first, I was not up to date on the various teams. This made my sports marketing job tough, since I did not know the niche! People expect you to be able to talk athletic with them if you're going to promote their teams. Even if you're an effective marketer. If you can not talk shop and socialize with fluidity, it's difficult to keep your position.
Essentially, I approached athletic merchandising like I approached school. I sat down and crammed for weeks at a time. Soon, I knew more about athletic statistics than many of the most die-hard followers in the company. After them, it was simple. Good sports teams sell themselves, so it is just a matter of playing on existing brand faithfulness. As for the lower ranking sports teams, you could always play off of the underdog factor. There are some people who just love to root for a team that loses year after year. Marketing sports to these versions of enthusiasts is a smaller business, But what they don't have in numbers than make up for in brand loyalty. They are the most dedicated enthusiasts in the business. The only time when sports merchandising is a tough sell is when a great team starts to slide. Abruptly, no one wants anything to do with them. The rest of the time, however, the job is pretty much a breeze.
