Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Memphis Grizzlies and Their Attendance Problem

It has been discussed ad nausium this season as to why the Memphis Grizzlies are not drawing fans to the game and I have the answer. Pundits want to blame the median household income and the fact that the majority, of the city proper, residents live below the poverty line; while this might play a small role in the low turn out it is not the main reason. The reason why they do not have a larger fan base is due to thier poor branding efforts. What? When the Grizzlies moved from Vancouver it took team management 3 seasons to change their logo and colors. To some this might be a trival matter but it helps when the team looks like it belongs in a certain city. Teal, red, white and brown do not reflect the city of Memphis. when the team did roll out a new logo and colors they did it in a manner that was simplistic and trite. They tried to link the new colors with the musical past and heritage of the city by calling the blue Beale St. blue. Which leads me to the next problem thier advertising campaign in which the team arbertrariliy intertwined images of music with the Grizzlies without making a deeper link with artists that came from the city. They threw something together and hoped it would stick and it really hasn't. Thier marketing strategy is the equivilent of throwing darts in the dark, just throw it and hope it gets close. Tomarrow I will have part 2 of my analysis.

3 comments:

TNIRISHFAN said...

NBA = people with REAL money.
REAL money = East
East = too far away.
I really think it is that simple.

Anonymous said...

I'm an old Vancouver Grizz fan who went through the ups and downs of the franchise and had my heart ripped out when they bolted. Fan support for the Grizz was good, despite the terrible team and what Heisley said about losses. Once he took over the ownership, he set the franchise up to fail so that he could make a case to move it out of town.

Anonymous said...

Dear ,

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Can we add Memphis Grizzlies Team blog to the widget,too? That means that every time you post to your blog the headline of the post will show up on the widget and link directly to your post.
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Memphis Grizzlies posts too. It's a powerful and free way to publicize your site.

Finally, would you add the Memphis Grizzlies News Widget to your site so that others can see it?
Everyone who grabs the widget will automatically link to you so it's great for your search engine rankings. Plus, it shows a lot of stories about NBA and since it's updated every hour it is fresh and will make your site even more appealing than it already is.

What do you think?

Go Memphis Grizzlies

Aurelie

aurelie@widget1000.com