Marketing Your Athletics Program

When you look at quality athletic programs around the country, one of the key components to a programs success is their ability to market themselves. From advertisements of athletics, to advertisement of academics and even to creating deals for students and fans, all of the top schools in the country have great marketing plans in place. 

While on my computer today an article about the athletic department at Penn State University popped up in my feed. It stated "Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics will embark on a comprehensive survey of its Nittany Lion Club membership and current season ticket holder base later this month in order to gain a better understanding of where the department stands in the eyes of its most avid supporters." Penn State is actually taking the time to find out how to become a more "fan appreciative" program. All of this is a part of their marketing plan. When marketing your athletics program one of the key things to do is understand your audience. Clearly, Penn State has taken the time to begin to figure out what their audience wants from them so that they can be better prepared and more effective program for their fans. 

Another key to marketing your program as I stated before, is to come up with some sort of gimmick in order to fill seats and allow your school spirit to show. In the world of college football, rivalry games are created to allow fans to not only to feel excited about at least one big game during the season, but they are created in order to help generate more interest in the athletics of the school. Yearly rivalry games such as "The Iron Bowl", "The Lone Star State Showdown" or "The Red River Rivalry" are all examples of big time rivalry games which are not only marketed to the current students and faculty, but also to the alumni of each school.

Marketing is a subject that can we can go on forever talking about but for now we will focus on two things:

1. Understand your audience

2. Create a big time rivalry game

These two things will help to change your program over time and are a good start when you are coming up with your sports marketing plan for an intercollegiate athletics program.

Quote for the day: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

- Aristotle

JP aka Coach Poindexter 

How to develop a football program: Boise State University

Looking at this College Football season and the BCS Rankings, one of my new favorite teams is only one or two slip ups aways from competing for a National Championship. I'm talking about Boise State.  Boise State has developed into one of the top college football programs, in what seems to be overnight. In an article on idahostatesman.com, Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier states "Look at these (commemorative) footballs of teams we were playing in the late '60s and early '70s" including such teams like Linfield, Westminster, Whitworth, Eastern Oregon, Hiram Scott and the College of Idaho. "Fast forward to 2011, and put BYU, TCU, Utah, Air Force on that same football.Boise State, come 2011, will be in the Mountain West Conference and will compete with the teams just mentioned. SO, the question is how do you go from competing against small NAIA schools to the current #4 college football program in America in about 15 years?

My belief is that with any program, as you can see in any information about Boise State, 4things are important to growth:

1. Finding quality talent (Players and Coaches

2. Playing the toughest opponents possible

3. Generating funds

4. Marketing your team, personnel and school.

These may sound like common tools or ideas, but clearly as you look college football, these are not the easiest things to gather. In order to be a successful program you have to find the balance between all 4 tools. Boise State has become successful because they have taken the time to market themselves to their community as well as the entire college football community, find quality coaching and player talent (Boise is 49-4 in the last 5 years), generate funds (football program budget has gone from approx. $3 million to $6 million) and they have played tougher opponents (eliminating their rivalry with Idaho and playing teams such as Virginia Tech this season).

These 4 things will help ANY college or high school football program grow from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the mountain.

Going on with your day, I leave you with the words of Lou Holtz, “Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

JP aka Coach Poindexter

Welcome

Welcome to my blog everyone. My name is Justin Poindexter and I am a soon to be graduate of Howard University with a B.S in Sports Management and minor in Economics. This year I have finally discovered my passion, in the field of athletics and the impact that they have on young men and women around the world. This site will serve as my journal of thoughts as well as information about coaching, Intercollegiate Athletics, football and baseball. I will provide insight on the world of sports from different realms and the effect that it has on my everyday life

Stay tuned for more details

JP aka Coach Poindexter