Marketing Business Article Review

Jorge  Torres  

 

The National Basketball League (NBA) plans to be the first of major U.S. sports leagues

to advertise on team uniforms. The article “NBA Jersey Ads Likely in 2013,” as the title depicts

discusses team owners and league leaders seeking to have advertisement on their team uniforms

for the 2013-14 season. The idea is to have each league team place small patches on their

uniforms from a sponsor. This decision is important for managers and organizational leaders to

make since it will be the first time teams have any sort of advertising on uniforms. Most

importantly, however, it is an important decision given the amount of revenue that can be

generated from placing ads on team uniforms.

NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver has stated this as a great opportunity for the

league in order to generate more revenue. His early projections have estimated that the ad

patches would be likely to generate around one hundred to a hundred and twenty-five million in

sales from the league’s thirty teams. As with any business or organization in the real world every

aspect of the decision had to be evaluated. Such would include the patch deals involved for

advertisement, the production and costs to have the patches, and whether or not the target market

would purchase the product, in this case NBA fans.

Just as you would with any other real world business, this scenario shows that even in the

world of sports decisions have to be made by management for the better of the company,

organization, or team. Decisions influence the future of an organization this case is no different.

From this one could take the same steps in making decisions, partnerships, and marketing a

product in the “real world.” For example just as the NBA and its teams had to consider aspects

such as promotional deals and product production the same might have to be done in a business

organization when producing a new product. The NBA has a partnership with sportswear giant

Adidas that produces all league team uniforms, a partnership just like any other in which both

organizations help stimulate their company success. Lastly as is the story of all businesses, the

marketing of its organization/product is key to success. In this case there is the opportunity for

the NBA, Adidas, and a third organization to help promote each other. Perhaps it can be quite

complicated to have such an extensive and intertwined partnership, but if it leads to success for a

company that is what’s most important.

I agree with the decisions made in this article for a couple of reasons. First off this is an

excellent opportunity for the NBA and it’s teams to have an alternate source of revenue. By

advertising other companies on team uniforms, there will be a great number of annual revenue

yielded into teams and the organization. This especially is a positive aspect for smaller, less

recognized times teams who don’t have as much money as other team organizations in the league

have.

One of the factors that will arise from the prospective situation will be whether or not the

target market will react and purchase the jerseys with the new advertisement patches. As

discussed in Marketing by Pride and Ferrell, a target market is a group of customers on which

marketing efforts are focused. In this instance the target market would be the fans of the NBA,

and more specifically each individual team’s fans that support the organization and purchase

team jerseys. This target market will be the most influential towards whether or not the expect

income revenue is attained. This group of people will either decide to purchase the new jersey in

support of their team, or decide they do not want to spend on a new jersey given that they are

quite expensive.

Another aspect that is covered in this article also involves an individual league team

having a competitive advantage through its own target market, or fan base. A competitive

advantage is the result of a company matching a core competency to opportunities it has

discovered in the marketplace. In this case certain NBA teams will have and advantage over

others in the sales of their jerseys because of highly recognized players, or newly acquired ones.

An example from the article involves Houston Rockets player Jeremy Lin. Having recently

transferred from the New York Knicks to Houston, fans of the Rockets will seek to purchase

jersey of the newly acquired Lin. However, Lin will not only generate jersey sales within the

Houston area and the United States, but also Asian countries. Since Lin is one of the few Asian

Americans in the NBA, the Houston Rockets are expected to have more prospective revenue

from jersey sales through this advantage. Opportunities like this will influence which teams have

a more successful result from their advertisement deals.

The world of sports is more than engaging in physical and competitive activity. As the

article illustrates a sports organization and team faces the same decisions and situations any

business had to face. As businesses seek to promote and sell products such as food and services,

sports organizations seek to promote and sell their team. Cases like this show how a business or

organization will strive in different ways to succeed in the market. The ambition for an

organization to grow and prosper will result in new ways to better promote and sell themselves.

Works Cited

Marketing 2012 Edition by Pride and Ferrell

NBA Jersey Ads Likely in 2013 by Ira Boudway. C2012 Bloomber L.P. July.20.2012