Tough task ahead
Stern and company have to win back fans
Posted: Monday February 01, 1999 05:58 PM
| |
Stern (left) will need multiple players to fill in the space left blank by Jordan
AP |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- The NBA's reputation as the savviest marketing operation in sports is about to be severely tested. Commissioner David Stern and his deputies must devise a strategy for getting the beleaguered league back on its feet after its ugly labor dispute. And they must do it without the help of their favorite go-to guy: Michael Jordan.
"Anyone who thinks they can compensate for the loss of MJ ought to be looking for something else to do," said Rick Welts, chief marketing officer for the NBA. "The question that we have is what do we do to continue that kind of popularity that the NBA's been able to achieve while he's been in the league. I think we've got some answers. Time will tell if we're right."
Peter Kaplan, co-chief executive officer for National Media Group, believes the league will have to work together in order to get fans back in arena seats.
"It's really got to be a joint effort between the teams, the league, the players to let the fans know that they're important," said Kaplan. "Without the fans there's no game."
Turner Sports president Harvey Schiller doesn't see an end to the league's prosperity and success because of the 1998-99 lockout and Jordan's departure.
"We knew MJ wouldn't be available," said Schiller. "We knew what the threat and the danger of a lockout could be at that time. I think we took all those things into consideration. I truly do not believe that this is going to be the abyss that some people are predicting."
Still, it won't be a slam dunk for the organization that could be a Harvard Business School case study in marketing success. Stern was hired 15 years ago to rescue the NBA from its mid-70s doldrums. His solution was to market the league's superstars. The strategy paid off with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Then, just as their careers were winding down, Jordan emerged, and for most of this decade, he's been the league's featured attraction. So much so that the NBA billed its frequent national broadcasts of Bulls games as simply Michael versus fill-in-the-blank team. It may take more than one player to fill in the space left blank by Jordan.
"I do think you're gonna see us, as well as our broadcast partners, move away from maybe defining a team by one superstar," said Welts. "I think that has been something that's been pretty successful for the NBA, but we all think it's time to maybe move onto a strategy where we're stressing teams more, stressing the game and players more than we have in the past."
Roy Johnson, Fortune Magazine's editor at large, sees a group of players filling the role of super attraction rather than a one-man show.
"What's exciting about this time is perhaps we'll see five or six different athletes who step up in a different way and maybe fill the void collectively to the extent of helping redefine the NBA's image," said Johnson. "not just as a one-player league."
Kaplan agrees.
"There never will be another Michael. But there are a young generation of players, the Tim Duncans, the Grant Hills, Kobe Bryant -- that are going to take up the mantle and I think young males, which is the core audience, are going to be back."
But no matter how telegenic and talented the new stars are, the league and its marketing and broadcast partners must do more than simply tout them as the reincarnation of Jordan and expect them to lure back fans.
"The challenge for us now is to get as many of the great young next generation of players out there on television as often as possible and without Michael's' great shadow," said NBA Sports president Dick Ebersol.
There's a lot riding on the NBA's new strategy. If the league can't win back fans, it could lose its blue-chip sponsor base as well. Miller Brewing Co., decided last week not to renew its $100 million contract with NBA Properties, though it maintains individual agreements with 13 teams. And the league hasn't yet re-signed longtime sponsor IBM, whose multi-million dollar, multi-year agreement expired at the end of last season. But Peter Kaplan, whose firm represents several of the NBA's national partners, believes the league will devise a winning plan.
"The NBA are marketing geniuses and I think they will figure out a way to win back fans and remarket this league," said Kaplan. "I am one of the people in the optimistic camp about the NBA's ability to get on top of its game."
It's a once-dominant franchise trying to rebound from a series of setbacks. If the NBA can pull it off, it would give the folks at Harvard great material for a case study.
| 
