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Final Four Tickets, originally uploaded by jholland444.
It is March Madness time again, one of the most recognized sporting events in the nation. It is the time of year when people spend weeks watching college basketball, waste countless hours talking about the games, reviewing scores, and filling out brackets. The U.S. economy will lose approximately $3.8 billion in productivity. But this post is not about losing productivity, but about brands.
When filling out your brackets there are several brand strategies you can consider. Some people pick based on favorite colleges, team colors, mascots, favorite players, city or state affiliations. Or even Nike vs. Adidas schools. In an office bracket last year, a friend of mine who doesn’t follow college basketball at all won by using the team color strategy. A very reliable, data driven methodical way of selecting teams, based upon jersey colors (yeah right).
Will tradition and reputation impact your choices? When I think about North Carolina being the number one seed in the east region, I think about the legacy–the four national championships, Michael Jordan, Dean Smith, and Carolina Blue. But will I pick them to win it? What is driving your brand decision–the brands or the data?
I truly feel that it’s neither the brands nor the data. I think it’s the data that has created the brand that is the root of it all. Take myself for example. I actually don’t really know anything at all about up to date college basketball stats. However, what I can tell you is there are names that I recognize as some of the better basketball teams or not. I think it’s hard not to hear bits and pieces of basketball talk here and there this time of year. Even those that take no interest whatsoever in basketball find themselves leaving the TV on the game before flipping to the next channel. All-in-all I believe the data is a part of the brand. My personal brand is upheld by my data, by how I live my brand. The same for basketball, the data makes the brand.
DanaMarch 26th, 2007 at 8:13 pm