Blogger Bleg--WNBA Survey

It's that time of the year again--when school requirement override blogging duties. My group's Sports Marketing project centers on the potential introduction of a WNBA team in the Denver area.

The survey should take no more than a few minutes, is completely anonymous (names and email are not required or collected), is entirely voluntary, and available only to those 18 and older.

Your participation in this survey is greatly appreciated by yours truly.

Click Here to take our survey

Hello,

The Denver professional sports market is unique in that very few other U.S. cities in comparable size support four major professional and four minor professional sports teams. We are interesting in learning more about additional market opportunities that might exist in the Denver professional sports market, including the potential market viability for a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team in Denver.

This survey is part of a Sports Marketing Research project conducted by a group of graduate students from the University of Colorado Denver. Your participation as one of a small number of people selected to offer their opinion on these matters will ensure that the results more truly represent the thinking of professional sports consumers. It is important that we achieve a sample response that is diverse in order to most precisely reflect overall consumer attitudes. It is also important that we have approximately the same amount of male and female respondents. For this, your response is very important. Please note however that we require that respondents must also be at least 18 years of age.

Your participation is greatly appreciated, and entirely voluntary. Surveys are anonymous and you can be assured of complete confidentiality. Your responses will be used only for aggregate analysis and will not be identified as an individual response. No personal contact information will be shared with any outside parties, nor will it be sold or made available to any commercial entity. You may receive a summary of the survey results by requesting a copy with your submitted survey response. Please do not include contact information or request for survey results on the survey itself.

We would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Please email us at stephmariewilcox@yahoo.com, tabascoii@gmail.com, or mario.boschmann@yahoo.com. Professor Lawrence Cunningham of the CU Denver Graduate School of Business is also available to answer any questions you may have (Lawrence.Cunningham@ucdenver.edu).

Estimated survey time: 15-20 minutes.

Thank you for your assistance and consideration.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Wilcox

Michael Sandoval

Mario Boschmann

Click Here to take survey

Titanic Battle Rages On As Democrats Race Toward DNC

No, not Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. An identity battle.


“The Democratic Wild West at Denver”//Edward Windsor Kemble//Harper's Weekly//July 4, 1908, pp. 18-19

It seems that Democrats can't quite decide just exactly how the Democratic National Convention host city should be marketed:

How to portray the West?

For a party hoping to pick up the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, Denver's selection as host of the 2008 Democratic National Convention offers plenty of positives. But focusing on Old West symbols to appeal to rural voters risks alienating the many metro-area residents who are more at home on a bicycle or a scooter than on a horse riding the range.

"Yes, I sense a tension," said Mark Squier, the producer responsible for crafting the political messages displayed inside the Pepsi Center, where the convention is to be held. "It's going to be a bit of a tightrope walk, balancing off the new and the old of the West."

A crystallizing example of the tension occurred this month in a heated, behind-the-scenes dispute between officials with Denver's host committee — the locals responsible for bringing the convention to town — and the major sponsor of the event's biggest party, the so-called Media Welcoming Party.

Mindful of the power of Old West symbols, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver wanted to stage an exhibition rodeo during the party. U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, a ranch owner from the San Luis Valley usually seen in boots and a white Stetson, wanted a cattle-drive parade like the one that begins the annual National Western Stock Show.

William Dean Singleton, publisher of The Denver Post and chief executive of MediaNews Group Inc., one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, threatened to pull his financial support from the media party, saying he didn't want the media's first impression of Denver to be that of a "cow town," several sources familiar with the dispute confirmed.

And I thought that the Democrats had bigger problems to be worried about.

I guess not.

Besides, Westword has been using a cow on its annual "Best of Denver" issue for years.

When Howard Dean led the call for naming Denver the site of 2008's DNC, it was with an eye to repositioning the Democrat's "brand"--something distinct and in-touch with voters inside the more "metropolitan" coasts--and not a simple rehash of East and Left-coast liberalism or its associated imagery. This was to be the opportunity for choosing a candidate at the foot of those "purple mountains'majesty" in an increasingly "purple" state.

When the local hosting committee can't agree on what "message" will be conveyed--how the host city will be framed from a marketing viewpoint to the residents of that same city--one detects that like their rival candidates' struggle for the nomination, there is a battle raging within the party at a much deeper level, something they don't want to admit. Nice to see that it is not just the Republicans who are experiencing a bit of an identity crisis.

As we can see from the cartoon nearly a century ago, not much has changed in the way of perceptions in the 100 years since the city last hosted the Democrats' nominating convention. Denver may still be a "cow town" in many ways, but she won't be a one-trick pony.

Drunkablog has a similar take, and notes that Recreate '68 may do some "branding" all on its own.

Bud Light's Spanish Billboards: "As Good As The Honky Woman Checking You Out"

"As good as the honky woman checking you out"

There's pandering to the Spanish-speaking Mexican community in Denver, and then there's this:

I love you, man: Bud Light knows what Mexicans like: beer and white women.

At least, that's what a choice billboard at Colfax Avenue and Monroe Street seems to indicate, with its pronouncement that the beer is "tan buena como la güera que te está mirando." For those not in the know, the word güero is on par with gringo, a term used by Mexicans to refer to their pasty neighbors to the north. Güera, then, would be the female form of this, and this cocksure little ad plays off that to speak to Denver's ever-growing Mexican community, basically proclaiming that Bud Light is "as good as the honky woman checking you out."

That offensive sign--imagine one with a different racial epithet (the fallout from "nappy-headed ho" anyone?) or the various "honky" variants "cracker" and "whitey"--has disappeared in less than two weeks, and the new one is much tamer:

Honky if you drink Bud: Two weeks ago, Off Limits offered an impromptu Spanish class, noting that a Bud Light billboard in the heart of hispterdom, at Colfax Avenue and Monroe Street, promised that the beer was "tan bueno como la güera que te está mirando" – essentially, "as good as that honky woman checking you out." Now the billboard is touting the same light beer, with a new, less filling message. "Tan buena como viernes de quincena," it now reads, in a reference not to a woman checking you out, but that welcome mid-month Friday paycheck.

Either someone in Bud Light's marketing department continued the trend of English-oriented companies' proclivity for mucking up Spanish translations:

Still, for odd beer translations, it doesn't come close to the blunder that the Coors Brewing Company made more than a decade ago, when the Spanish version of its "Turn It Loose Tonight" slogan translated to "Take a Dump Tonight" — or, even worse, "Suffer From Diarrhea."

Or the marketers simply figured that the only readers of their billboards--their Spanish-speaking target market--would find the catchy ad "funny", and would be totally ignored by English-speakers in Denver or simply go untranslated, and therefore, under the radar.

Pocket Marketing: Cell Phone Ads And The "Third Screen"

Already here--marketing on the "third screen":

Mobile phones are a potential gold mine for advertisers, the most personal and intimate way to communicate and engage with subscribers - more than 2 billion of them and counting worldwide.

Yet the advertisers' two-liner text pitches have largely fueled a growing hate club, with recipients quickly equating the messages with spam they abhor on desktops.

Now, thanks to improved technologies, advertisers believe they have struck upon the formula for getting their messages across without irking consumers. The development is important given the mobile handset's promise to be a "third screen" - after the television and the desktop computer.
. . .
Better handsets and faster networks mean "more brands utilizing mobile devices for more advanced marketing and advertising initiatives," said Laura Marriott, executive director of the Denver-based industry trade group Mobile Marketing Association.
. . .
The advertising industry is mindful of earlier mistakes, including inundating consumers with pop-up ads on the desktop and text messages on the phone.

Many agree that preserving a good customer experience is critical.

"Push marketing and spam have a very short shelf life," said Frank Brown, director of the mobile marketing and technology firm Sydus.

People need to feel, Brown said, that they had specifically invited the pitch or are engaging with the brand in a relevant and entertaining way.
. . .
The risks are high if they don't do it right.

"Consumer aversion to such advertisements in the past is due to the fact that they were irrelevant to the recipients," King said.

Targeted, "opt-in" ads that appear on cell phones could break the wall that other advertisements sometimes miss, the time and place utility of impulse purchases on location. A relevant ad for a preferred brand--the right message for the right person at the right time.

Customer Relationship Management Survey

This post will remain at the top through Sunday. Please scroll for new entries.

Some of you may have noticed that this blog has been kind of quiet this past week. This is what I've been up to:

Loyalty Programs at Black Hawk Casinos

This survey is part of Customer Relationship Management project conducted by a group of graduate MBA students of University of Colorado at Denver and Health Science Center. The goal of this study is to determine how Customer Relationship Programs of particular Colorado casinos influences the level of loyalty of the customers.

For the results to be precise and representative of the actual distribution of customers of the casinos at Black Hawk, your response is important. Please take a few minutes and fill out this brief questionnaire. Due to the nature of the subject, only those 21 or older are being invited to participate in this survey. Your participation is greatly appreciated, and entirely voluntary. Surveys are anonymous and you can be assured of complete confidentiality. Your responses will be used only for aggregate analysis and will not be identified as an individual response. Please forward the link to anyone to whom you feel comfortable doing so. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via tabascoii@gmail.com, chick_ac116@yahoo.com, moopatt@yahoo.com. Your may also contact our professor, Lawrence F. Cunningham, if you have any additional questions or concerns--via email at Lawrence.Cunningham@cudenver.edu or by telephone at 303-556-5822.

I don't ask for much from my readers (other than patience!), but here is your opportunity to "give back" to this blog.

Click Here to take survey

or

Cut and paste this url:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=OsTSnDB_2bkDdAYgcFCltqOg_3d_3d

We need your assistance in this project, and appreciate your time. Please forward this blog entry or the survey link to friends and family to whom you feel comfortable doing so. Remember the responses are anonymous, the survey is voluntary, and you must be 21 or older to participate.

The more responses we receive, the better our analysis will be.

Thanks,
El Presidente

Online Sales Growth Slips

Revenge of the brick-and-mortar retailer--or is online shopping too much work?