E-mail me.
On my c ell-phone, I say, "Leave your name and phone number and I'll get back to you within 24 hours." Always do. A lot of times, it's even quicker on email. So, email me. Let me know what you're thinking and how I can help.

What readers say. Read what other readers are saying about Marketing Outrageously. Add a comment or two yourself.

Free chapter from my book Success is Just One Wish Away.

Books that wow me. There are some marketing books that really had a big influence on me. I vow to read these every two years.

Left on the editor's floor. There were a couple chapters left on the editor's floor. Click here to read.

Free chapters from Ice to the Eskimos. If you haven't read my first book Ice to the Eskimos, here are a couple of free chapters. Enjoy.

Message Board. Need inspiration? Stop by and get some help from other readers, or share an idea of your own.

Outrageous marketing in the flesh. Interested in having me speak for your company? Click for details.

A crazy website I'm involved in. Aliens or baseball, you figure it out.

Ice to the Eskimos
How to Market a Product Nobody Wants

Chapter Thirteen continued...

"I told the woman that the Blazer Music wasn't available in stores," Sue said, "But she was persistent, almost panicking."

The woman told Sue why she desperately needed the Blazer Music that day. Her husband had died and his final request was that when he was lowered into the ground he wanted the Blazer Music to be played.

"I called the studio," Sue said, "and their chief engineer is on vacation. Our original music is locked up someplace there and nobody can get to it. The only thing I have is a tape of one of our broadcasts, which has all the billboards on it."

Billboards are the short sponsor identifications at the beginning of sports broadcasts.

"Is that okay with the woman?" I asked.

"Yes," Sue said, "she's that desperate."

"Fine, give her a copy."

Sue delivered the tape. And we sent flowers.

The next day, this dead Blazer fan was lowered into the ground. At graveside, the woman pushed the start button on the tape machine. There was a drum roll. Then there was exciting audio highlights from one of our games, "Thompson with the rebound, the outlet pass to Valentine, he's going lickety brindle down the middle, pass to Kenny Carr on the wing and he jammed it. Rip city!"

Then the music lowered and the announcer gave the billboards.

The mourners at graveside heard¾and maybe even our dead fan heard

So, even at the end, we were pitching the benefits of our sponsors...

"You know, if I sign this sponsorship proposal of yours," Al Neish, the advertising manager of Safeway in Oregon said, "I could get fired."

This was a long time ago, circa 1979, and Al's words have stuck with me like gum you step on in a parking lot during a hot summer day. Wherever I have worked, whether it be running a pro sports team or doing consulting, the echo of Al's words—I could get fired—were within hearing range. His words put a different perspective for me on selling. Without knowing it, Al's words put a critical spin on an early development of Jump-Start marketing.

IN-HOUSE OR THE OUTHOUSE?

I was shocked when Al had said that he could get fired by buying something I was selling. I was just trying to sell him something; I wasn't looking at this as a life-or-death job situation.

I had just started with the Portland Trail Blazers and we had brought radio "in-house." Bringing radio in-house meant that the team took the financial risk of the radio broadcasts of its games. In the past, a radio station would offer a team money for the rights to broadcast the games. All the expenses were the responsibility of the station—the announcers, the phone lines (now satellite link ups) and what they paid the team. When we brought radio in-house, we hired the announcers, paid for their traveling expenses and hired the sales and support people. In other words, the Blazers were then responsible for all of the expenses in putting that broadcast on the air. The radio station had no financial risk at all in airing the games. The game broadcasts then became a no risk tune-in promotion for the station.

This shift of financial responsibility only worked for the Blazers if we sold more sponsorships than the radio station did. If we didn't, then the experiment of bringing radio "in-house" would send my career to the outhouse.

The Trail Blazers were generally credited as the first team to bring radio in-house. I don't think that we were, but I do know that we were the first to make it a major profit center. For instance, in the 1978-79 season, the Blazers were one of the elite teams in the NBA. Just two years before, Bill Walton led the team to the NBA championship. A Portland radio station paid the Blazers a fee of $50,000 for the rights to broadcast the games. In those days, that was about the third or fourth best rights fee deal in the NBA. When we brought our radio broadcasts in-house, I repositioned and repackaged the sponsorships. With the repositioning and repackaging came new pricing which delivered a net profit of $900,000! That was at the time when entire team payrolls were about $1,500,000. That jump in profit was a shot heard throughout the NBA.

As you would expect, the new pricing wasn't easily accepted by sponsors in Portland. Safeway had purchased a sponsorship the previous year for $19,000. I was proposing a sponsorship deal to Al for $130,000. After the initial meeting where I think Al threatened to have me ground up as hamburger in the Safeway meat market, we sat down again. While the price increase was ludicrous and seemingly unconscionable, there was a lot more substance to the sponsorship than just radio commercials during the game.

Safeway's sponsorship package included radio commercials, but every radio station had those. Our differentiation was that we provided some unique promotions utilizing the celebrity status of the players and the team. These promotions would increase Safeway's business.

Al said to me, "I hate to say this, but your sponsorship with the promotions at $130,000 is a better sponsorship than the one that I bought at $19,000." That was not an easy admission for Al. In Portland, he was regarded as the toughest, shrewdest adman in the west. "But, I've got a boss. He'd think I was an idiot for increasing our expenditure that much for the Blazers. I might be able to get this approved, but if your promotions don't work, I could get fired."

A week or so later, Al got the sponsorship approved from his boss. We now had a commitment from Safeway for $130,000, but we also had the responsibility of Al's career. Selling was no longer selling to me.

Amazon.com: Marketing Outrageously | Success Is Just One Wish Away | ICE TO THE ESKIMOES