Adventures in Marketing (or Why Club Scarlet and Hockey and Heels Aren't As Bad As We Make Them Out to Be)

Talk Hockey to Me, Wrap Around Curl and Puck Huffers, among other blogs, spent yesterday discussing the new Club Scarlet website, an marketing effort by the Washington Capitals to reach out to female fans by objectifying members of the Capitals as hot guys, and explaining the basics of the game. I'm on the fence about this and an effort in the same vein by the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins - Hockey and Heels - an event to teach women about hockey while they are at a day spa. While I understand the initial knee-jerk reaction to these efforts by female sports fans, they're not intended to offend.

I'll be blunt. There have been a lot of things I have done in my twenty-seven years that were solely motivated by the attractiveness of guys. Joining indoor track in eighth grade. Becoming a fan of the Steve Young led San Francisco 49ers even though I lived in Buffalo Bills country. Joining Hall Government at Binghamton even though I had sworn off being involved after transferring (haha.) Call me shallow, but I would rather call it primitive. Since the beginning of time, heterosexual females like males, and will find ways to be near or see attractive ones.

So to say that efforts like Club Scarlet and their marketing of the Capitals as a team of attractive men that look like they belong in the now-defunct Playgirl is horribly misguided is horribly wrong. There is a reason why in college many advertising majors have psych minors - because they want to make a convincing and successful appeal to those they are advertising towards, and what better way to do so by using psychological elements of human nature. Therefore, you want to draw more female fans, you appeal to their natural desire to seek out attractive members of the opposite sex.

As for the arguement that efforts like Club Scarlet and "Hockey and Heels" dumb down the sport of hockey to a female population, I say good for the teams for taking what can be a confusing game that is not popularly played in the majority of the United States and making an effort to explain it. This level of basic explanation needs to happen not just towards females, however, but accessible and marketed towards a variety of populations as well. For example, last Friday night at the Boston University - Northeastern game, the stranger borrowing my season ticket neighbors seats for the evening had never seen a hockey game in his life. He was from California, and understood soccer well, so when he asked me to explain the game to him, I used that sport as a basis to explain hockey. If teams took the opportunity to educate fans more - maybe during a game break by having an amusing quick Jumbotron video, or through features on their websites - that would only build their fan bases.

And last but not least, the arguments about Club Scarlet brought up the neverending discussion of the pink teamwear that is prevalent in the NHL Shop. Yes, I think many pink options look somewhat tacky. But believe it or not, it sells. I was interviewing a new sportswear company founder for my blog a few months back, and I asked him about why, among his great looking female shirts for the Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox and Celtics, he had included a pink Celtics shirt. "Despite the outcry about 'pink hats', we and other companies have done extensive market research regarding designs and products, and the pink stuff actually sells." he said. "I'm not going to not carry a style of shirt that sells, especially as a new brand."

In these economic times, which despite what any governmental official says are far from over, sports leagues need to make a drastic effort to reach out to every potential fan base possible. Efforts such as Club Scarlet and "Hockey and Heels" are means of doing so, means of keeping sports leagues that are all at the edge of becoming obsolete in a society whose entertainment budgets are becoming non-existent.

Read More......