Marketing Lessons: Baseball?

 

A new study released by Columbia University professor Jerry Kim and associate professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University Brayden King could have an interesting impact on marketing techniques—even though it has nothing to do with marketing.

 

Researchers examined cognitive biases affecting umpires in Major League Baseball and found that a statistically significant difference exists between how umpires call balls and strikes for well-known players versus how they call them for more-obscure players.  The study revolves around what is known as the “Matthew Effect”—the idea that high-status individuals have more resources and tend to receive greater recognition for their accomplishments.  Kim and King found that with complete consistency, the percentage of real strikes mistakenly called balls drops steadily as pitchers’ all-star appearances rise.  In other words, if a pitcher has zero all-star appearances, he stands a 20.5% chance that an actual strike will be called a ball, whereas a pitcher with 3 appearances has only a 19.2% chance, a pitcher with 7 appearances has a 17.6% chance, etc. (the complete infographic can be found at the link below).

 

So, what does this have to do with marketing?  Think of it this way—how often do you see a bold commercial or advertisement (one that teeters on the perhaps metaphorical line known as the “edge of the plate”) from a well-known brand and think, Wow, what a great campaign—but then you see another daring ad from an unknown company and think, Wow, that’s really risky.  That slight change in perception could drastically alter the way an average consumer sees a brand—and it could be the difference between a ball and a strike, or better yet, a strikeout and a home run.

 

The Axiom Insights Takeaway

 

Being bold is great, but it must be done with caution.  Too many marketing agencies try to come up with the most cutting-edge idea to ever hit the mainstream community, only to find they didn’t actually do any research to determine whether said campaign would have a positive or negative effect.  Great marketing is all about brand recognition, and building a solid brand takes work.  It also takes an enormous amount of research and analytics, and that’s where the Axiom Advantage comes in to play.