Selling tickets, attracting more fans, and gaining increased exposure would all lead to higher revenues, which when assuming a constant cost base, would lead to greater profits. With this as a given, marketing ideas that achieve these goals would, in turn, lead to greater profits. Link? Please explain. Another Brother -- how would you react to this assertion? I think we need more white people in the Rockets' TV ads. Since the majority of Harris County is white and only 18.5% is black (according to the 2000 census), it is only fair to assume that by including more whites in the Rockets' TV ads, we are accurately targeting the demographics of the Rockets' fan base. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48/48201.html
Does the census indicate how many black professional basketball players there are in Harris County? Does that classify as a skew? And what is the racial breakdown for Rockets fans with regard to your percentages? Whites may outnumber blacks 5 to 1 in the county, but I've been led to believe that this is a football town. If we have 18.5% representation, I can loosely guarantee 90% are Rocket's fans. What percentage of the majority is? I'll look for my link as you look for yours.
Your "loose guarantees" and speculative figures (90%) don't form the basis of an argument. I have provided a factual link. Case closed. The point of this thread is new marketing ideas. I apologize to the group for creating this tangent. In terms of marketing ideas, I would try to tailor some ads that bring back memories of the glory years (1993-1994 and 1994-1995). These were the years when the Rockets were the most watched program in town (not just sports program, but the most watched program on television). People associate these years with good feelings and if there was a way to weave that into what we're doing now, that'd be awesome.
Two things -- one, the Reliant ads that Another Brother is referring to are actually developed and produced by Reliant, not by the Rockets. They've been a great corporate partner for us; I'll pass on your comments to them. Two, the link to the demographics (thanks for posting it) provides a great illustration of Houston's diversity. Read down lower, and you'll see that Houston's percentage of white, "not of Hispanic/Latino origin" is only 42.1%. Houston is a truly diverse city, one where there is no longer a true racial majority. In fact, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians all make up bigger shares of Houston's population than the national average. Tim
A factual link that proves little and I havn't heard 'case closed' since the last episode of 'Night Court'. Although I'm not an economics major I know what's right, marketing and advertising should be all encompassing, including EVERYONE. See ya at the next 'Greg Brady' night YOUR HONOR.
Tim -- what are your thoughts on how marketing will change with Yao Ming now in the fold? Do you foresee a greater emphasis on Chinese audiences, or do you think he will effectively "sell himself" through the free media attention and high level of play (hopefully)? I look at what Ichiro and Sasaki did to the fan base in Seattle and I'm really excited about what we could do here with Yao. Hey, as long as we've got sell outs at the Compaq Center, the atmosphere ought to be great! I'm considering purchasing the "Yao Ming Big Man Package" of 12 games this year. Looks like a nice collection of games. Well, Another Brother, I'm glad I've changed your mind on this issue. You went from saying to now saying Seeing as though the Rockets ads already include many of the black demographic, as illustrated by Tim's original post, then the only logical choice to include "everyone" would be to move away from this demographic in an attempt to create diversity of representation. GAME, SET and MATCH. thanks for playing.
thanks tim, unfortunately you got that in after the case had been closed (LMAO) by Trader J. thanks for listening
Tim- My Dad and I watch all the road games and some home games on TV, and I want to tell you that all the same commerials, really gets nerve racking. For example, The Auto-Zone commercials, you can only see the sames ones in EVERY TV time out and you go crazy. Or the Chevy commerical with the 2 guys showing off thier new truck, it gets old also. Please just try and talk to someone about changing those commericals up some, get new ones everyother game, please it gets very redundant. PS it motivates channel surfing during the time-outs
Did you just go from the court room to the tennis court? Plus, I think adding 'color' would better include everyone, what are you trading Jorge, crack? Actually Tim indicated that within your census find, this county is less white than you give credit. Therefore fortifying my point that there should a more racially diverse presence in ads. I'm really trying to move on dude, but if you must... GO FISH! By the way that was an mighty fine question for Tim, keep up the great work Judge McEnroe.
Wrong again, Another Brother. Tim made reference to the city's demographics. I originally quoted the county, and I stand by that quote, seeing as those not all fans live within the city limits. To refute your statement, Another Brother, Tim did not say that the county is less white than I gave it credit for. Tim made a comment regarding the city's demographics. Anything else you'd like to address, Bro?
I think good marketing will take care of itself once they change uniforms. I think I heard earlier this year that they will have new uniforms for the new arena next season. I would like to see a color scheme similar to the Sixers uniforms (red, gold, black, white). We go back to the old colors but mix in some black. Any ideas?
Actually Tim said Houston and quoted figures from Harris County. His reference was to Harris County's demographics even though he said Houston. White persons, not of Hispanic/Latino origin, percent, 2000 42.1%
Don't even bother, Timing. Trader Jim Bob clearly has superiority complex and will argue no matter what closing cliche he has to hack. If the NBA can have more racially diverse ads why can't Houston. That's all I'm asking. Unreasonable?
TJ: I'm not sure what your issue is here. The key demographic for any entertainment industry (or entertainment related like Nike or Reebok) is the high school and college age group. They buy the merchandise and the tickets because they have the disposable income. Now, if you want season ticket holders and sponsors or suite sales, that is a different market altogether and it isn't even people, it's busineses. But, getting back to my point, look at the shoe market, the fashion market, the national music charts...none of them reflect an influence on or toward the white, middle class suburban market. They all are aimed at a young, urban demographic plain and simple. Why? Because kids today are influenced heavily by that culture. R&B, Hip Hop and Rap have been the mainstays on the Billboard charts for nearly 10 years. The deal is that the young culture in America is being influenced by two of the most important emerging markets - African American and Latino. Unlike the 70's when a very high percentage of both groups resided in the low and lower-middle class, today, they are an upwardly mobile group. It is no stretch to suggest that Reliant might want to gear some commercials towards that market when they are trying to partner themselves with an entertainment vehicle like the Rockets. It's just a smart business move. Now, the Rockets do what the NBA does. They showcase their talent as a means of marketing. As a result, it is almost always race neutral. That is why the NBA has become so successful. The product is good because the players are your highlights. That makes it easy.
Jeff -- A very well articulated post and I do see your point. We may be debating two different subjects, however. My initial response was targeted at Another Brother's disdain at seeing white people in the ads -- which frankly I viewed as a racist comment. My argument addresses the economics of basketball and the marketing decisions that support them. While I don't have the Rockets income statement in front of me, I would wager a guess that the two largest components of revenue for the team are the television contract and ticket sales (including all seats and suites). While I do not dispute that apparel sales would benefit from hip/hop style marketing, you must admit that this represents a very small portion of the Rockets' business. The Rockets do not sell shoes or music, so I'm not sure how those references are relevant. In order to create an image that is acceptable to corporate sponsors (and the key individuals at the corporation that make the decisions), and to the television viewing base, the demographics of the fan base must be fairly represented. My point is that by over-emphasizing the hip hop culture, you are missing the majority of the fan base. The Rockets and Les Alexander are in this game to make a profit, a goal not unlike any other businessman. In order to do this, they market themselves in a manner which maximizes revenues and profits by targeting a representative demographic. High school and college-aged kids support the team, but mom and dad pay the bills.
Thanks for the catch, Timing (appropriate handle, there). I was saying Houston but was pulling the Harris County numbers from the link. I usually think in terms of Greater Houston (that's really the Rockets market), so Harris County and Greater Houston get pretty interchangeable for me. The same demographic figures generally hold for both. It all boils down the same way -- Houston is one of the most diverse markets in the country, and the marketing should represent the fan base. Jeff raises a great point. It's the image your customers want, rather than a straight reflection of who they are, that should drive marketing. Sneakers and music are great examples of that. Suffice to say that our demographics and consumer psychographics are sufficiently different from those two examples, however, that our marketing won't neccesarily have the same emphasis. On Asian marketing -- we had already started laying the groundwork for a Asian marketing initiatives before we thought we had a chance at Yao Ming. Asians are 5% of greater Houston, they are more likely to identify themselves as basketball fans than the general public, and have a high percentage of disposable income. It's a market we don't feel we've tapped as much as we should have. All those plans got a boost with the draft, though. Sofine81 also brings up a good point ... the ads on our programming were more repetitive than we'd like last year. There's a number of factors that were involved in that, which we're addressing. I won't go into the details here, but we're aware. Also, someone mentioned the Yao 12-game pack ... just want to clarify that the Yao Big Man Pack I is a 6-game pack, with all the games in the first half of the season. If you want to get 12 games, though, talk to your ticket rep about getting Yao I and Yao II, which has 6 games in the second half of the season, all at once. We're not putting a lot of promotion behind Yao II yet because we don't want to confuse people with too many packages at once, but it's there if you ask for it. (We'll start promoting Yao II in November.) Tim McDougall Vice President of Marketing Houston Rockets and Comets timm@rocketball.com
We must have read it WAY differently. I never saw anything that he said as indicating he had a disdain for white folks in ads. I saw it as frustration with a lack of black folks in ads. There is a difference. Actually, you'd be close, but not quite. The vast majority of their revenue is generated from TV revenue, ad revenue and corporate sponsorships from what I remember from the arena campaign. From what I understand about sports business, the big money for teams come from naming rights, corporate sponsors, etc. None of those represent a significant PUBLIC marketing effort. Marketing for those things takes place behind the scenes, not on TV. Yes, I'm sure ticket sales make up a significant portion of revenue, but anyone will tell you that merchandise is one of the biggest and most important streams of revenue for pro sports teams. It is NOT insignificant. But, even if it were, are you suggesting that they should avoid ads that have culturally urban influence because ticket holders aren't influenced by them? That would assume that only older white people buy tickets and they are, generally, offended by or put off by those ads. That seems like a tremendous stretch. The fact is that the people who buy most of the tickets are not necessarily old or white and, even if they were, that wouldn't necessarily mean you push ticket sales with country music and pictures of guys on the golf course. The reason I point that out is because the NBA's primary demographic is similar to Nike or Reebok. They want to own the urban youth market, period, because it is a significant emerging market. As a result, you market to them with the same type of advertising. Why do you think Mattres Mac does so many Spanish radio and TV ads or ads on urban radio? You think that upper middle class white people are his target market? What about Miller beer? I doubt they are concerned about the 40-something suburbanite judging by their commercials. These are BIG sponsors for the Rockets - two of the biggest. I don't see how marketing using urban influences is alienating those sponsors or any other for that mattter. I think you are not only underestimating the purchasing power of African Americans and Latinos, you are making the assumption that their influence is relatively insignificant. It simply is not. Yeah, but who influences the decision to buy the tickets? Take Astroworld. Do they market to adults? No. But, the kids don't pay for the tickets, so why would they market to them? Because they know that parents want to make their children happy. This is an entertainment vehicle. The market that DRIVES just about every entertainment industry is the youth market - usually 18 to 24 year olds. They are the one's with the disposable income, the free time, the ability to influence others to go to games or concerts, to buy merchandise or support sponsors. They are the most easily manipulated demographic out there. The older people get, the more brand conscious they become and the harder sell they become. If you get them young, you keep them for life. Honestly, I don't see the Rockets as doing that much individual advertising that has any racial deliniation whatsoever except for maybe the ads they do with non-English language media. Generally, like the NBA, they present their product and let it sell itself. Everything else is ancillary.
Thank you so much for answering Tim, I know you must be busy! But what a market research Idea you had, genius
nevermind...my first post here saying that Reliant commercials are not Les commercials. I'm so late on this one. Tim and Another Brother have my full agreement.
