Marketing 101

[lodini]

Where can you find the stats on the number of regular pool players in each state? By regular I mean those who play at least once per week.

I would think that the APA, BCA, or WPBA would have information like that. You can't sell sponsorships without knowledge of your demographic!

 

[cleary]

A lot of people get into watching bull riding because they want to see people get hurt. The same reason a lot of people initially get into nascar and hockey.

I have always thought that pool is more like poker and should be marketed the same way. My grampa can play poker, my grampa can play pool.... but he cannot do either of these things the way a professional can.

The major difference (and why I think poker is doing so much better) is because when someone watches poker, they can identify with it. They know that on any given night with their friends, if luck is on their side, they can end up with a flush that wins a big pot. But when they go out with friends and try to shoot pool.... the shots never seem to go in like they do on tv.

I am acutally in the process of putting together a tv show idea right now that I would not only be entertaining to the average person, but also informative and make people want to get into pool. So hopefully I can use my creative ablities and inside connections to help. Anyone have a few million dollars laying around??

 

[Scott Lee]

lodini...To be a bit more accurate, RJR made the PBR what it is. Legislatively speaking, pool is no longer able to rely on tobacco or alcohol companies for major support...even though most of it's patrons participate in at least one of those activities. Even when they were part of pool (Bud Light Pool League, Camel Professional Billiards Tour, etc) the money the sponsors invested was small change, and didn't get the ROI that the companies expected.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Bull Riding wasn't always "a product for which there is already significant and growing demand"... the PBR made it that way.

 

[lodini]

lodini...To be a bit more accurate, RJR made the PBR what it is. Legislatively speaking, pool is no longer able to rely on tobacco or alcohol companies for major support...even though most of it's patrons participate in at least one of those activities. Even when they were part of pool (Bud Light Pool League, Camel Professional Billiards Tour, etc) the money the sponsors invested was small change, and didn't get the ROI that the companies expected.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

While I am not privy to the history of professional bull riding, one thing I do know for sure is that the ROI received by RJR would have been provided by the marketing efforts of the governing body (or bodies). If the marketing people at the Bud Light Pool League and the Camel Professional Billiards Tour had done their jobs right, their sponsors would not have walked away unhappy. Half the job is selling the idea of sponsorship, and the other half is servicing your client and providing valuable ROI.

Just as NASCAR was built on the Winston Cup, a lot of sports gained popularity riding the coat-tails of the big money tobacco industry. ROI doesn't just happen... it's a result of the product.

This wasn't about comparing pool to bull riding. It was about all the excuses I always hear on AZ about how pool doesn't have this and doesn't have that; how it's entirely unmarketable, and I just don't believe that... the fact is that the sport has millions of people's attention, but no one yet has figured out how to capitalize on it.

 

[Johnnyt]

I think its fair to say after years and years of trying by different people and groups that pool is not going mainstream anytime soon without an organization. Maybe the APA should take over pro billiards, they have money and the no-how. Johnnyt