Advertising in the NBA

Advertising today is all about enhancing a corporation’s image and positioning a corporation to stand behind a particular issue or promote a certain cause.  Advertising is not only about the positioning and selling of a product, corporate advertising goes beyond those realms. 

The corporate culture of the NBA is to solely make the best decisions regarding basketball that will make for the best experience for the fans and the communities in which the NBA serves. Being the largest basketball league in the world, the ideas and decisions the NBA makes to enhance or change the image, are images that have to be thoroughly thought out because of the global platform the NBA is on. It is important that the NBA holds all employees of franchises accountable for their actions and maintain the highest level of integrity throughout the entire league. The NBA is owner of its branch off leagues the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Basketball Association Development League (NBA-DL).  In 2007, there were rumors circulating of the NBA altering the outcome of games because of the FBI investigation of criminal acts of referee Tim Donaghy. Donaghy was convicted of providing insider tips on games and tax fraud and was sentenced to 15 months in a federal correctional facility. Donaghy never implicated the NBA with any of his wrong doings but that did not stop the rest of the world from raising doubts and be suspicious of the rest of the NBA’s involvement in this matter. This prompted immediate action from Commissioner David Stern.  He has been known to show that he understands the benefits of good public relations and developing and maintaining a positive global image. He has definitely gone to great lengths to clean up the image of the league and its players. "When we deal with our brand, there's no such thing as a minor issue with brand awareness and reputation. I am the protector of the brand and its integrity," stated Stern when he spoke on the rogue referee. "That's a job that every CEO has, and I consider it my job to be out there to be protective and to respond so I become the spokesperson in times of crisis." 

The NBA is one of the most trusted corporations in the world as it deals with fan’s emotional human sense as it provides of joy and entertainment. The NBA marketers are paying large amounts of money to ensure that fans are receiving the best real game experiences. Experiences of the actions of players and personnel on court and the not off court shenanigans of dishonest referees and misguided players.

        

The NBA recognizes the importance of properly enhancing an image and devotes millions of dollars and countless amounts of hours to do such. The NBA uses common corporate advertising strategies but with a slightly different twist to them. For many of the strategies, such as Goodwill Advertising and Green Initiative, the NBA launched its own programs that have successfully operating for over five years. The NBACares and the NBAGreen Week are the two programs launched and each serves a vital role in enhancing the image of the company and the sustainability because they cater directly to the public.  The NBA also successfully partnered with State Farm introducing their joint campaign of the high school dropout rate. This is a huge issue in America and the efforts from the two major corporations and having All-star Lebron James as the spokesperson will hopefully bring more attention and awareness to the issue. The NBAFit program is also a fantastic approach at addressing advertisements. In efforts to combat the United States’ obesity issue, the NBA has created a program where the athletically built players of the NBA educate the families of America on ways to stay active and live healthy.

Since the NBA sells a service and not a product it was interesting to see their efforts on Market Prep advertising. The league does a phenomenal job at advertising for the NBA playoffs as each year they will be different because there is no guarantee on the seeding for which teams will play each other and who will win the championship. Each year the NBA adds more suspense to get intrigue the viewers to want to watch again or to see what will be different.  The overall objectives of creating a positive image and communicating the corporation’s viewpoints on particular issues are both obtained from the advertising of the NBA. The idea of putting corporate sponsoring on the Jerseys of NBA players is very important addition to the NBA, not only will it increase advertising for the other corporation but still increase the numbers of those who are unaware of the NBA but have knowledge of the partnering company.

Overall, the reputation of the NBA will continue to positively expand because of the efforts they put forth in advertising. Commissioner David Stern, has created an identity for the NBA that the corporation goes beyond providing a basketball game for entertainment, the NBA is here to service the world in every way it possibly can. This culture feeds off to the employees of the NBA /players as many develop into philanthropist of their own. This culture will help continue to the NBA continue to grow and reach heights they haven’t reached before.