This Sunday the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Championship in a best of 7 game series. They clinched the title deservedly from the Miami Heat in an away game. It was a great demonstration of the power of team work over individual brilliance (more on that another day).
What I admire about American sports is the absolute efficiency of organisation from game coverage through to promotional merchandising. You see the moment the final whistle was blown the players and all associated staff members and owners miraculously donned promotional caps, and emblazoned shirts along with printed bottles and wristbands of their team name as well as the words NBA 2011 World Champions!!! There was no possible way this merchandise could have been branded within the 5 minutes leading up to the final whistle. All this merchandise was pre-planned in the anticipation and hope that they will win. It’s no guarantee they will win the gameof course however some smart marketing procurement person made sure that if they did then the celebrations will be all the better and the atmosphere all the louder and notto mention the T.V coverage to millions and millions of viewers.
Things to Consider
1) Plan early. How Early? Well for anticipation of a large event 2-3 months in advance.
2) What to plan for?
– The type of merchandise you think will be appropriate
– The quantity of merchandise you may need
– Artwork and logos created design wise
– Artwork and logos created and visually applied to the merchandise (ready for you to give the go ahead)
– Organise for a certain amount to be air freighted and the remainder to be sea freighted
– Logistics! Where the product needs to go and how!
3) As you near the climax of your season or your event…. typically within 3 weeks (you will know the probability of your team making the finals usually) then place orders on locally stocked products in small runs… ie. enough for your team, your staff, some key sponsors and enough to distribute to some select fans. Therefore perhaps a few hundred in quantity!
– Large visible merchandise. ie. Branded Caps, Personalised Tee shirts and even shorts! Why? well its the first thing Fans see and it is also the first thing cameras will see too.
– Place orders on related smaller merchandise such as branded stubby coolers
– Keep in mind some products store really easily too. eg. personalised keytags
4) Once your team wins immediately give the go ahead to all the work you did for in points 1 and 2. Ensure that no time is wasted as your fans are now waiting to purchase products to join in on the team merchandise celebrations.
So why go to all this hassle? Well using this guide you can simultaneously meet the demand of the initial hard core fans. Then you can have product for your team to celebrate in countless photo and video opportunities. Thirdly you can meet the demand of general fans. Fourthly you can ensure your merchandising needs are well planned to maximise exposure yet minimise cost. Lastly it allows companies like ourselves time to ensure that there is no delays and that quality is up to standard. Finally it also gives you insurance that if your team is on the losing side (like the Miami Heat) that you will only lose out on a small quantity of product and that it will not effect your oganisation too much financially.
