Week 11 Blog Post

Final Blog Post: Convincing Coaches that the Key to Success is...Marketing?

We have finally made it to the conclusion of the course, and our last posts are intended to take a look at marketing from a "macro" perspective.  This might be a stretch, and if any coaches ever come across this, they may come for my head, but I am going to try my best to tie this in to my profession as a college football coach, and wrap up my semester long attempt at the relationship between college football and marketing.  My final post will attempt to educate my colleagues on the broader picture of marketing, that marketing is not just about advertising, sales, and the 4 Ps, but marketing is more than that.  In fact, it is the main component to all businesses, including the success of all college football programs.

As in many of my posts, when looking at this case, the Western New England University Varsity Football Program will serve as the business, and the players and prospects will serve as the customers and potential customers, respectively.

Preseason camp is approaching in just over a month, and soon all the coaches will be arriving on campus, about a week before the players arrive, to begin preparations for pre-season camp as a staff.  Undoubtedly, as we go through our team goals, the head coach will proclaim, in some form or another, "the key to our success this program's success is determined by the number of wins and losses."  Having just recently taken marketing management, I will interrupt him and say, "No coach, the key to this year's success is dependent  on how well we market the program."  This is when the rest of the staff looks at me like I have 3 heads and the head coach tells me to leave and never return.

This is when I enlighten them of my madness:

The key to any business, including Division III Football, is dependent on 3 basic principles:

1. The purpose of a business is to create a customer
- The customer is the foundation of a business and keeps it in existence.
2. The business has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation.  Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are costs.
3. [Marketing] encompasses the entire business.  It is the whole business as seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view.

I would remind the staff that the purpose of the program is not the number of wins, but that certainly helps with marketing our program.  The purpose of WNE Football is to create customers, that is, to recruit players that eventually decide to deposit and play football at Western New England University.  I would argue that the players are the foundation of our program's success, and that they are the ones who ultimately generate the wins and the losses.

Some of the coaches might actually agree that our players are ultimately the ones who determine the outcome of the game, they may argue that they are the ones responsible for it, but ultimately, they are the ones executing the schemes, so they may be on board with what I am saying up to this point.

My next challenge will be to convince them that the purpose of our program has two, and only two, basic functions: marketing and innovation.  As employees and stakeholders of the program, it is our responsibility to market the program to our customers and our prospective customers, get our name out there, relay the message that we are the perfect program for them and the benefits of being a Golden Bear.  In my past posts, I have discussed the ways in which we do that, which is not important at this time, all that is important is convincing my fellow coaches that marketing is key to our success at this time.  The challenge will be to convince them that innovation is the only other function of our program. I would tell them that it is our job to be innovators in every aspect of our program: our schemes, our practices, uniforms, game-day setting, study halls, off-season programs, everything!  It is our job to be innovators, to find ways to set our programs apart from others and get quality players to attend our institution.  That is the key to wins and losses.

A few more coaches might be following along at this point, but our head coach will most definitely still have a scowl on his face, so it will be important that I really bring home my last key principle.  Marketing encompasses our entire program.  It is the whole program as seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view.  Ultimately, I will challenge the staff to think about how our players and prospects view Western New England Football.  Is it the program they want to be at?  Is it the best program in the Northeast?  Is it where they want to spend all 4 (or 5) years of their college career?  How do our players view our football program, and do more players want to be a part of it?  This, ultimately, comes from how the program is run and what the players get out of it.  Are wins and losses a part of this?  Undoubtedly.  But wins and championships and not the purpose of a program.  Instead, they are a utility, a marketing tool to keep the program running at a successful rate.

Now, will my head coach be on board with me at this time?  We shall see come August...