“BRANDING FOR WINS”

The Importance of Effective Branding in Today’s Marketplace.

Put Branding to Work for You!

“The Global Approach”“Creating and fostering a collaborative connection between your internal and external branding is the key driver behind any thriving company’s success.”

– Bruce Baldwin

Put Branding to Work for You!

Two Key Components to Successful Branding

1. External Branding – reaching out to existing and potential customers; building the demand outside your company’s walls.

2. Internal Branding – using the in-house tools available to help promote your company’s vision and goals.

Consistent, Effective Branding Can …

• Deliver a clear message– Good branding acts as a great communicator.

• Create business credibility– Good, bad or otherwise, customers associate your brand with your

company.

• Create connections– Brand can develop a strong tie between the company and clients who are

continuing to patronize the company’s products and services.

• Motivate a buyer– Brand can be a good motivator for clients to consistently purchase the

products or services your company offers.

EXTERNAL BRANDING

External branding is vital to your company’s success because it is:

- How your company remains relevant in your marketplace.

- A gauge for the appetite the market has for your product or service

- The oil to your company’s marketing engine.

- The great communicator of things you offer and things to come.

- Your company’s stamp on the marketplace.

EXTERNAL BRANDING

• Leverage social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) to keep your company “top of mind” with your existing and potential customers

• Maximize product and logo placement through existing national retailers

• Participate in any local chambers of commerce, join a speakers’ bureau, etc.

• Attend industry-specific trade shows; see how the competition is doing it

There are easy, effective ways to brand your company externally:

It is key to always to stay ahead of the game by always finding new, creative, inventive, unanticipated ways to get your brand into the market, locally and nationally whenever applicable.

“Know Your Company’s Framework”

Who/What are the Pensacola Blue Wahoos? • The double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds – tomorrow’s baseball stars

playing today in Pensacola!

• A family destination that provides “Affordable Family Fun!”

• An organization that lives by the creed, “Customer Serviceis Our Best Seller!”

• Visited by guests are from a radius of 200 miles for 80%of our business!

• Committed to doing a year’s worth of business in five months!

• Dedicated to using brand to remain relevant duringour offseason.

“Branding the Blue Wahoos”

ProductGood, bad or otherwise, a consumer becomes your walking billboard when purchasing your product.

Quality & content are king!

LicensingStrict licensing protocol, managed by Minor League Baseball and followed by all teams, helps protect brand integrity,ensure product quality and promote each team’s brand.

We’ve contracted with a third-party licensee to provide storesthroughout northwestern Florida with Blue Wahoos Water. Keeps us and our brand top of mind during the offseason.

“Branding the Blue Wahoos”

“Don’t be afraid of national retail sales!”

Blue Wahoos merchandise is sold in national retailers such as Dicks Sporting Goods, Academy Sports, Walgreens and Walmart.

*** CAN ONLY HELP YOU! ***

1. Nationwide exposure means more eyes see your product. Raises awareness!

2. Gives instant acceptance; a major retailercarrying Blue Wahoos merchandise signalsto the consumer that we are legit!

3. $$ - We make money from licensing fees for every item sold.

“Building Our External Brand”

Strategic external branding efforts by the Blue Wahoos:• Product Placement - “Wahoos Water” in convenience stores in northwestern Florida

• Hospitals - Baby blankets to newborns in local hospitals; new fans!

• Mascot/Character appearances - most recognizable brand in your market. “Mascot Night” yields characters from no less than 25 local companies.

• Events – if possible, use your venue to host events where many will attend; “Kraft Bier Fest” and “Big Green EggFest” are examples.

• Social Media - Singlehandedly the most effective way to share your brand with the world!

“Leveraging Social Media”

Social Mediais the most

cost-effective, efficient way

to monetize your brand.

“The most effective way to monetize yourbrand is through Social Media.”

FACEBOOK - Promote specials/deals, upcoming events and exciting team-related news. Sold out party deck in 18 hours with one Facebook this past July 4th.

TWITTER - Communicate quickly; used for in-game updates to broadcast quickly to fans who follow. Bubba Watson tweeted to his 1.2 million followers, “At the Blue Wahoos’ game!” Instant exposure.

“The most effective way to monetize yourbrand is through Social Media.”

INSTAGRAM - Avenue to promote behind-the-scenes coverage and help peak interest in pending events; Battleship eating contest spread quickly because of Instagram.

PINTEREST -Allows fans to build their own collection of Blue Wahoos-specific pictures/memories, and share them with friends and or other fans looking to whet their appetite for all-things-Wahoo.

“Harnessing the Power of Social Media”

CRITICAL TO KNOW THE AUDIENCE YOU’RE BRANDING TO …

Facebook: Largest segments reported by PEW Research (Oct 2013):• Females between 30-49 yrs = 35%• Income earners making $75K+ annually = 42%• Democrats = 35% (Independent = 32%, Republican = 27%)• 30% of US adults get their news from Facebook.

Twitter: “Young, Mobile & Educated” – PEW Research (Nov 2013)• Rely on Twitter as their news source• Are connected to their phones around the clock• Downside: Just 16% of United States adults use Twitter

Blue Wahoos use Facebook to promote information about club, Twitter to promote in-game progress.

“Internal Branding”

“CUSTOMER SERVICE IS OURBEST

SELLER!”

“Organization of the Year”

The Blue Wahoos received a rating of 9.3 on a ten-point scale from fans who were surveyed after each of our 70 homes games in 2013.

Time and again, we hear from fans that no other minor league ballpark has a staff so engaged, so entertaining, so concerned, friendly and helpful as ours.

We believe that this exemplary rating was based on the foundation teachings at the heart of our culture – “The Five Pillars” and “The Nine Principles.”

“The Five Pillars”

Service: Provide an environment in which guests receive service exceeding expectations.

People: Develop and support a culturally diverse, competent, motivated and productive workforce.

Quality: Provide quality customer service that can be measured and published. To enforce and invest in a pervasive culture of safety and make zero errors.

Financial: Attain financial success to support advancing the mission and vision. To be operationally efficient. Offer unquestionable value to payers and consumers.

Growth: To be the entertainment venue of choice for the community offering a broad depth and breadth of services.

“Nine Principles”

NINE PRINCIPLES®:

A sequenced step by step process and roadmap to attain desired results and help ‐ ‐leaders develop and achieve an excellence based culture. The Nine Principles® are ‐truths upon which the culture of excellence can be built:

• Commit to Excellence• Measure the Important Things• Build a Culture around Service• Create and Develop Leaders• Focus on Employee Satisfaction• Build Individual Accountability• Align Behaviors with Goals and Values• Communicate at all Levels• Recognize and Reward Success

“Internal Branding”

Internal Branding: Game Day Matrix / Communications

• Utilize the Game Day Matrix to keep staff apprised of information distribution

• Covers social & traditional media, in-stadium messaging, email distributions, press releases and more.

• Allows planned, effective messaging and the coordinated, simultaneous distribution of critical information to staff and fans.

• Supports our ability to create a “united front” to the world, and helps maintain our brand.

• Effective branding starts with teamwork!

“Internal Branding”

Internal Branding: Game Day Matrix / Communications

COLLABORATIVE WINS!

“When optimized, internal and external branding are an unstoppable marketing engine for your

company , and will pay you back a hundred-fold.”

- Bruce Baldwin

UNITING INTERNAL & EXTERNAL BRANDING FOR WINS!

We are continually evaluating the connectivity between our internal and external branding to ensure the correct messaging is being sent to both fans and staff alike, thereby ensuring we’re adhering to the standards of the Five Pillars.

Doing so helps us move forward as a company and maintain ourselves as leaders in excellence in our field.