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• « Monday « April 28, 2014

  1. datetime

     1. {04282014}
     2. {08:13:56 PM}

     content

     1. NBA Fans: The ball is in your court

         
     2. The NBA has a brand image problem. Donald Sterling is a racist white supremacist, he really doesn't like black people, allegedly, and he owns an NBA team, the Los Angeles Clippers.
        

        The NBA has a brand image problem. Donald Sterling is a racist white supremacist, he really doesn't like black people, allegedly, and he owns an NBA team, the Los Angeles Clippers.

        A lot of people think the NBA has to do something about this problem. Racism is apparently bad for business. Tuesday, at a press conference, we'll find out what the league plans to do. But the NBA, which represents the group of team owners, a group which obviously includes Sterling, is not the answer.

        A lot of people think the NBA players should stage a work stoppage, or show some kind of solidarity that counters the plantation mentality evinced by Sterling's hateful, ugly remarks. The Clippers players had a chance to do it Sunday afternoon in their playoff game against the Warriors, and they did nothing. Of if they did something, it was small and inconsequential. I, for one, am tired of looking to athletes to be the flagbearers of social justice. Time and again, most pro athletes have proven that they are ill-equipped to be role models outside of the context of arenas, courts, and playing fields. And that's cool, it's fine. Just don't go chasing waterfalls, ball players, stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to. The players are not the answer.

        A lot of people think the sponsors should do something about this problem. Over the course of the last 48 hours or so, many big-name sponsors have ended their marketing affiliations with the Clippers, including Virgin America, RedBull, CarMax, Sprint, Kia, and State Farm. They're doing what smart brands do: distancing themselves from bad brand associations. It's Branding 101. But the sponsors are not the answer either.

        The answer is as obvious as the Google Glass sitting on my face: the fans, the collective fans of the NBA, in the United States, and across the globe, but mostly in the United States.

        Follow me here: the sponsors pay for tie-ins with NBA teams in order to get to the fans—and their money.

        The players gargantuan salaries are supplemented partially because of those sponsors, but mostly because of the fans. Fans' love and admiration of the players often pays off handsomely for the sponsoring brands, in money.

        And, of course, league exists for no other reason than to grow and harvest a large, loyal base of repeat customers—the fans—whom they can then sell to sponsors and broadcast networks, again, and again, and again.

        Everywhere you turn, it comes back to the fans. The fans. The fans.

        So the fans are the answer.

        This brand image problem boils down to one key question: collectively, are the fans of the NBA so disgusted with a racist white supremacist like Sterling owning a team in their beloved league that they are willing to walk away, even if only temporarily? Are the fans willing to boycott all NBA games—not just Clippers games—until a satisfactory solution is reached? Or do the majority of fans just want the problem to go away, swept under the rug after some emotional and incendiary rhetoric is spewed out and eventually forgotten in the relentless and endless media cycle, so that they can go back to giving their hard-earned money away to people who see them as cash cows?

        Make no mistake about it, this is about two things: money and racism white supremacy. The player composition in this league is predominantly black. The composition of the fan base, at least in the United States, is predominantly white. These variables are ineluctable, essentially permanent. The money part is the dynamic component. Without regard to what the NBA, the players, or the sponsors do about Sterling, what the fans do is the key to whether or not this story will write its own ending. And what the fans do will change the money part of the equation.

        If the fans stand up, and show the NBA—and the world—that they will not stand for racism in the league and in the sport, then they will take control of this situation, and will dictate what the NBA, the players, and the sponsors must do. Smart brands pay attention to the tastes, temperments and preferences of their customers (in realtime if they can), because without customers brands cease to exist. The fans of the NBA everywhere—not just LA Clippers fans—have a chance to exise a cancer from the game they love. All they have to do is vote with their wallets and with their time.

        NBA fans—the people—the ball is in your court.

        Photo credit: CSCT3, Flickr (Permission being requested)

     metadata

     1. 
     2. 08:13:56 PM
     3. The NBA has a brand image problem. Donald Sterling is a racist white supremacist,
     4. 

     categories

     1. keywords:
     2. white supremacism
     3. sports
     4. tags:
     5. donaldsterling
     6. nba
     7. magicjohnson
     8. clippers
     9. boycott

     type

   

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