Fan Press - Submission #27
By David Warschawski
He is a lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame. But he belongs in the Marketing
Hall of Fame, as well.
At the end of the 2001 season, Cal Ripken, Jr. will retire. There is no question
he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, not so much for his baseball numbers
as for the brand he created. Cal's career batting average is not even close
to .300, and he has not averaged more than 30 homeruns a year. Yet he is
one of the most popular, memorable, and most marketable players of recent
history. Why?
For the past twenty-one years, Cal Ripken has been a living example of what
marketers need to do to build a successful brand. If you didn't pay attention
to it, you missed one great lesson. For Cal, building his brand came naturally.
It flowed from his love for the game.
People love and "buy" Cal because of the image he has created - the consistent
and decent everyday type of guy who just does his job. Let's look at the
incredible, almost textbook marketing lessons to be learned from Cal.
Stand For One Thing
You can't be all things to all consumers. It never works. You have to carefully
determine what you are selling, and I'm not talking about whether you are
selling washers or accounting services. What is the soul or the vision behind
what you are selling - what is it that you stand for and are asking your
consumers to identify with?
Hundreds of baseball players are selling baseball skills, but that doesn't
turn them into a popular brand like The Iron Man. Cal has been selling
reliability and decency. Consumers have identified with his
blue-collar work ethic and have "bought into" his brand. Day in and day out,
everyone knew what they were getting from Cal.
What are you selling? If what you are selling is unclear to you or your
consumers, then you are doing a poor job of branding yourself.
Clarity of Message
Once you have determined what it is you are selling, then you need to make
sure that this is clearly communicated through all that you do. There is
no room for confusion or mixed messages here. You can't sell
reliability one day and flashiness the next. This creates
"cognitive dissonance" for the consumer and always results in poor or
unsuccessful branding.
Your brand must be communicated clearly in all that you do - from your PR
and advertising messages to your people on the street to the products and
services you provide. Not nine to five, but twenty-four hours a day!
This is the beauty of the Cal brand. Whenever or wherever you see him, he
always bespeaks reliability and decency - never anything else.
How clear is the message that your company is selling?
Consistency and Repetition of Messages
Building a brand requires patience. A long-term successful brand has never
been and never will be established overnight. The key is consistency and
repetition of your core message. It is unlikely that your consumer will learn
and remember what you stand for after only one encounter with your "brand".
You must be relentless in repeating your core message if you want to create
long-term success.
Cal took this axiom to the extreme in that he repeated his selling point
over and over again until it was crystal clear that he was the embodiment
of the blue-collar work ethic. Seven years into Cal's career people in the
Baltimore/Washington area knew that he was reliable and decent, but people
in Oklahoma and California did not.
Continual repetition of his unique selling point changed this over the next
ten years - to the point where Cal became known throughout the country as
The Iron Man. Are you consistent and, even more importantly, relentless in
explaining what you are selling?
Be Best, Better, or Different
Once you have determined what you are selling, you need to determine how
you can position yourself as best, better or different from your competitor.
How and why do you stand out from the crowd and why should the consumer pay
attention to you?
There have been many other ballplayers over the past twenty years who were
reliable and decent. Cal chose to make himself the best of this group by
outlasting them all and by making a commitment to not missing one single
game during a sixteen-year period. In addition to shattering Lou Gehrig's
"unbreakable" record for most consecutive games played, Cal further
differentiated himself by playing for one team his entire career - the Baltimore
Orioles. For a superstar to do so in today's sports world is virtually unheard
of.
The fact that Cal played for only one team his entire career is also a great
example of consistency of message. There never was and never will be any
confusion. Cal is an Oriole. Had Cal played for a couple of different teams
during his career, his brand would never have been as strong.
What can you do to distinguish yourself from your competitors? How can you
make yourself best, better, or different?
Control Your Own Message
The best brands are those that have controlled their own destiny. They were
built from the ground up over time, and whenever controversy raised its head,
they didn't bow to it. They stayed true to their core message and proceeded
according to the timeline that was most advantageous to the brand.
Cal has been a master at this. When people said it was time to sit down,
he didn't get involved in the controversy. He just made his move when he
felt it was the right time, all the way down to his decision to retire. He
controlled the message. He did it when it was right for him. And he did it
in such a way that reinforced his brand. Do you control your own message
at all times?
There is no question that we in Baltimore have been privileged to be a part
of something very special. We were allowed to witness first-hand the birth
and career of one of the greatest baseball players of all-time - one of the
few really good guys in sports. A ballplayer who epitomized what it meant
to be a ballplayer when baseball needed it most.
As a former baseball player, I have loved watching Cal play the game the
way it was meant to be played. As a PR and marketing professional, it has
been a joy watching him create a brand the way it was meant to be created.
See you in the Hall of Fame, Cal - the marketing one, as well as that one
in Cooperstown.
David Warschawski is founder and president of
Warschawski Public
Relations, a full service PR and marketing agency based in the
Baltimore/Washington area. WPR has won thirty-one industry awards for its
work in the last three years. He can be reached at
[email protected].
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