Here's the question. Ask any joe on the street these days and everyone knows what or who UFC is, but do they really know what sport fighting is and what makes a real fighter? UFC, a Microsoft style marketing engine or good for the sport of fighting? Don't get me wrong, Tapout an UFC brought sport fighting to the masses, but is UFC just a money maker, or is UFC actually educating people on the are of fighting for sport or passion if that's your bag?
Wearing a shirt or a hat with a brand logo doesn't make you an expert on the sport. Hell, I see people wearing Yankees caps all the time and half of 'em don't know squat about the sport of baseball.
Here is a great article on the Marketing power of UFC and it's domination of sport fighting. If you have the time, you'll wanna read this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bjpenn.com/profiles/blogs/the-fins-footstomps-amp-4
this is an interesting topic for me. I feel many have just demonized ufc and decided Dana was a greedy capitalist that drive farrari's when he has employ's that live in RV's and only make 3,000 a fight. when someone else on the same card gets 50,000.
ReplyDeletethere are good reason for this. 3,000 is the guy that just got to the pary, 50,000 for the guy that paid his dues and is the reason we the fan pay a stupid amount for a PPV
Casino Moguls. Yeah they know how to spend money to make it, they know where the investment is.
as an entertainment industry professional I know how importing branding, marketing and all that stuff is. If UFC didn't do this MMA wouldn't be on CBS. bottom line. without UFC's brand EliteXC and now Strikeforce would have no chance of getting out of tiny arenas with no audience and and no TV deal.
what? does the world think UFC should be a non-for-profit company that gives all it's money to poor kids in Africa. they do already do a lot of Charity.
I draw comic books. it's a profesion of passion. the difference between struggling/starving artist and a succesful artist that has hollywood movies maybe out of his work...it's not the integrity of the work(some of the best stuff no ones ever heard of) It's market.
How many people do you know that love UFC but never heard of Fedor? Why? Because Fedor's managment M-1 Global are terrible at marketing that's why
of course UFC wouldn't accept terms of co-promotion with M-1 in order to do sign Fedor. M-1 sucks at promotion. proofs in the pudding. they just promoted a card with the best fighter in the world, on CBS and 7 out of 10 of my fellow mma fan freinds found out about it after Fedor lost, "oh I didn't even know he was fighting, huh" they say.
i have lots of friends that love ufc. when i's on they watch. that couple weeks between fights they don't think about it. I'm on forums and blogs and downloading old fights from favorite fighters so i know their story and backgrounds.
7 years ago(roughly) I said to myself, I wonder if there are websites that talk about MMA. I go into a forum and every troll is posting "ufc sucks, pride is where it's at" So I take the time to find out what Pride even is.
I'm tired so I'm not sure what my closing statement is but you need to market your product. otherwise you can't afford to keep making your product. bottom line
maybe we can jokingly call UFC "Big MMA" like we refer to "big tobacco". UFC is so evil for giving something I love, what a bunch a jerks :/
o man I just wrote an essay of a response but my computer gliched and it got lost. I'm not re writing it now because I'm tired but it basically boiled down to "if people don't know that you're selling something, how are he going to buy it" and "In order to make a product you need money to buy supplies"
ReplyDeletehmm i guess it did post. wierd. I'm on a computer that's antiquated so it's behaving strangly
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I believe that if you want a successful product, you have to market it. You also have to market it effectively.
ReplyDeleteIf nobody knows who or what you are selling, it's just not possible for customers to buy it. However, I also believe in the break even or mimimize profits in the short term to better the product in the long term.
Charge $20 or $25 per fight and organize more fights. I think that would draw more customers. It's tough for a family guy to pony up $50.00 for a fight. It's even tougher for a guy to convince the wife that he needs to spend $50.00 on a fight.
If it was $20, I'd have no problem. But I tell the wife I'm planning on dropping $50.00 and I get the look.
In my experience, organize more fights, pay-per-view them at a lower cost, bring up new talent at a lower pay scale and it all balances out, or you make more money.
Volume is the key. If there were more fights costing less money, I'd pony up for sure. But $50.00, it's a lot.