March madness – a marketer’s dream

I grew up playing any sport involving a ball or a bat. Physical contact made sports even more desirable to play.

I also loved watching sports as did my parents, siblings and friends. One thing I realized early on was that watching sports can be like reading books or going to the movies. To be good they need to be action-packed and they can’t be too long.  In my early years baseball was fun to watch. But today I ask, do they really need to play 162 regular season games? Pro basketball and hockey are great sports, too, but their seasons can feel a bit too long, also. If you’re looking for excitement just tune in during playoffs. And the idea of watching hockey in May never did it for me. Winter sports should be over once the snow is gone.

But then, when I was about 19, I discovered college basketball and more importantly, March Madness. It had what I was looking for. What’s more, being 19, only a short attention span was needed – one month of really exciting competition – It was perfect! The players so passionate. The college fans intoxicated with school spirit. Every game mattered!

When I got out of college I thought long and hard about what profession I wanted to get into. I was drawn to Marketing. It fascinated me then (still does.) At that moment I realized that no wonder I loved March Madness basketball! It had everything I loved about marketing all packaged into the month of March.

• Each team has its own unique brand identity (they’re defined as talented, dirty, underdogs and so on)
• There are marketable assets within the brand – the players/stars.
• Branding opportunities galore (jerseys, mascots, cheerleaders, even water bottles – all branded)
• Brand heroes and brand losers: If you win, you are a cool franchise, and if lose you are a commodity scraping and scrapping next season to win back your higher cache, brand status.
• Big stakes brand strategy: Management (coaches and trainers). If they don’t get the most out of their assets and succeed, they get fired.
• The March Madness teams are broken out by regions just like businesses. Businesses who compete to own their marketplace… until they perform at a high enough level to move to the national marketplace. That’s what happens with the brackets that make up March Madness. Brands win their division and then play other division market winners, and so on.
• There is marketing segmentation. How to sell each game through the sweet sixteen, to the final four to the national championship. It’s packaged brilliantly.

The branding and strategy is never ending; how to customize the message to each audience demographic, psychographic, school enthusiasts. Plus the leveraging of any possible distraction to players and teams alike, especially controversial ones. It all helps sell the product. And sell they do. March Madness is madness; lots of money, hype, winners, losers, stars and villains, too. It’s the best of the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the fascination and beauty of youth and the glory of becoming the undisputed national Champion in a 64-game, rapid-fire showdown.