Great example of sports marketing – Ethnic Heritage nights at NBA games
Posted by joe
Marketing students know that the key to good marketing is tailoring a marketing mix to the needs and interests of a specific target market. This article in the Wall Street Journal, “NBA Game Promises to be a Turkey? Call In the Turks — or the Filipinos,” (January 19, 2011 – non-subscribers may have to click here) shows how some National Basketball Association teams dentified niche markets and tailored their product to sell more tickets. For example, the Sacramento Kings, one of the worst teams in the league, are drawing big crowds on Jewish Heritage nights in Toronto, Washington, Atlanta, and Boston. Why? They have the league’s only Israeli, Omri Casspi. Teams have give away yarmulkes and provided kosher foods to further appeal to the Jewish fan.
What other organizations could offer similar special nights? How could they increase their appeal to such a target market?
Tags: Sports
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 29th, 2011 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Marketing strategy planning, Segmentation, Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I really thought promoting diversity was a really good marketing strategy for the Kings. They’re showing their fans that they do appreciate their Israeli player as well as the fans who have a different background than the majority of the Kings’ fans. I know that the Colorado Eagles have different nights to promote their support for different organizations such as Military Night, Scout Night (for the boy scouts and eagle scouts in Northern Colorado), and many other nonprofit organizations. I think it’s a good strategy because it broadens their fan base by showing recognition and respect, therefore increasing potential profits and fan loyalty.
December 1st, 2011 at 10:35 amThe article was stating that the NBA is capitalizing and drawing certain crowds in to the games with an Ethnic night and making. It stated how the KIngs Omri Casspi the NBA’s only israeli player on one of the worst teams the Sacramento KIngs are still pulling in fans. By using the Ethnic night they’re pulling in jews and selling out games even tho they are one of the worst teams in league. Its a good marketing tool to pull in diversity. Other teams like Heat capitalize on those ethnic nights also when they wear their jerseys in spanish.
This strategy might get a specific crowd in and cater to that a crowd a little too much. Other fans might be offended by how the league is catering to only one ethnic group.
The fact that the NBA thought of another way to capitalize on a sales and attendance was a great marketing strategy. They catered to specific target market. They give stuff away thats related to that ethnic group and served food that they are specific to that culture. So that target market that’s being drawn in is fully catered to.
September 5th, 2012 at 8:07 pmSome of the teams in the NBA are stepping their game up when it comes to selling tickets. They are trying to draw in big crowds by finding certain niche markets and tailoring products that some of these teams my have. The article specifically identifies the worst team in the NBA , the Sacramento Kings as one of those teams that are doing this by holding a Jewish Heritage night, simply because they have the only Israeli player in the NBA named Omri Casspi. During the games they have team gives away yarmulkes and they cater to the Jews by providing kosher foods. The Orlando Magic held something like this instead it catered to Puerto Ricans , because at the time Carlos Arroyo ( a Puerto Rican native) played for the team.
September 26th, 2012 at 5:47 pmTheir are pros holding a Jewish Heritage night for the Kings, because it brings diversity into the fan base and into the NBA organization in general and of course bring in more fans. They show fans, players, and people in the world that the NBA cares about other ethnic backgrounds and that their is no discrimination in the league. Then again their are negatives when it comes to events like this because some players on the team or some fans feel that they are catering to the Jews a little to much causing, other fans and players to feel left out because the Kings aren’t holding such events for their ethnic backgrounds.
All in all I feel that this was a great marketing strategy. Not only is the NBA targeting a certain target market, they are catering to the needs and wants of this specific target market. It shows the consumer that they are willing to go out of their way and look into their psycho-graphics in order to make sure that buying a ticket to the game would be worth their while. They evaluated the things that they were able to do in order for the consumer to have a reason to purchase a ticket.