How To Learn Marketing from Major League Baseball

In honor of Major League Baseball's Opening Day in 2014, we realized that there are things that we can appreciate about the MLB that go beyond just an entertaining game of baseball and hotdogs; we can actually learn some real marketing lessons from them as well.

1. Have your profit generators stand out from the crowd. When you have several offerings to your customers, let them know which parts of your business are the real moneymakers, of course, you will have to find a way to do so other than, "Hey! Check out these cash cows! Give us your money!" Point them out by placing the links to those pages in prime spots like the top corners of your site. Mention them in your social media when doing your internet marketing. Make sure the pages for those sites are in spots they cannot miss. 
2. Sell subscriptions to services. Be able to give subscriptions to services that people will want to utilize and experience on a regular basis. For example, if you want to have live baseball streams on your phone, tablet, or computer, you will likely have to subscribe to some service. This concept can help people develop a taste for being a repeat customer to your business. 
3. Utilize segmentation of consumers. The league uses a concept that is dubbed "hub and spoke", which means that they have one central spot that leads to several smaller ones; they have the mass MLB.com which then has links to the different team sites. This concept enables consumers to go to the sites they have interest in, they do not have to waddle through the muck of other information they couldn't care less about. 
4. Target market, go local. Each market of the MLB (cities that have teams) receive different marketing content from the League so it is tailored to their team(s). All the products and services from the League is tailored to those cities, it would not make sense to constantly market Yankees things to the St.Louis region, get it? The Cubs site has info and products that talk about the Cubs and events that Cubs fans would like. 
5. Have tiers for products and services. We can look at this one way in that they have tiers in the stadiums; if you want the best seats (level of your services or products), you have to pay more but it is well worth the money (never offer tiers if you make them all the same, make it worth their time and money, don't be a jerk). Another way to look at it is how the MLB offers different levels for their services like subscriptions for online streaming. The different levels appeal to different levels of interest, budgets, and gives those who splurge for the top tiers a sense of pride. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Integraphix. 

QR Codes, Where Are They Now?

QR codes were once the coolest thing you could see on a poster; people would get excited to see a QR code and think, "Awesome, I get to use the cool app I downloaded for this!" (Or something like that). They once served a purpose, however, the problem was that the "purpose" they served was not uniform for all industries and those who had the most control over the success or failure of the QR code, retailers, did not make sure they were effective. Why did retailers have the most control? Well, they are some of the most dominating marketing forces in the world, they're everywhere, and they have the most merchandise.

However, the usage of the QR code by retailers was not one that consumers enjoyed very much and it has cost the QR code its power and its life. Retailers were lazy in their usage of the technology; what most of them did was use the codes to direct people to their website or something equally unexciting. The codes just became another vessel for information we already knew about and could get to, they weren't doing anything fun and new. They also did something that turned out to be fatal for the QR codes by putting them just about everywhere; you couldn't walk through a store without seeing at least a dozen of the codes for the same thing, even in the dressing rooms of clothing stores!

It got to the point where consumers were ignoring the codes because they knew it would not lead them to anything worthwhile and so why bother scanning it?

Now, QR code slamming aside, they do have a purpose and can still succeed; they won't disappear completely but they have been reduced. Look for the codes to connect you to things like product descriptions, ordering products, and linking you to more things; for example, some stores are using QR codes to link you to more products that are kept in back so they can keep fewer things on the sales floor (it's a spacial issue, not laziness). Some clothing stores have started using the codes as a way to try on clothes; you scan the code for a clothing item you'd like to try on and then make your way to the dressing room and find that item in a dressing room, ready for you.

If you have any questions about marketing or advertising, then contact Integraphix - a Los Angeles marketing firm.