We don’t have a fancy Athletic Department publicist or a deep-pocketed marketing department, but what we do have at FGCU is a staff that does an exceptional job with the resources they are given to promote the Athletic Department, its sports and their events. However, since finances and person power are limited it is up to the individual programs to decide whether or not they want to continue this promotional campaign themselves.
Under the direction of our Head Coach the Men’s Basketball program has taken a grassroots approach over the last few years to hit the streets and encourage local support. One way that we do this is by pairing coaches with players and dividing up the Fort Myers and Naples areas in an attempt to go business to business passing out schedule cards and asking establishments to hang posters in their windows.
This idea is similar to one that we employed at Dartmouth where we went to local businesses and asked them to make donations in exchange for advertising at our yearly golf tournament fundraiser. While we did garner some support from area businesses it was difficult at times to convince owners and managers that this was a worthwhile exchange of services.
However, here we are only asking places to display a poster in their window and put out some pocket schedules so that their patrons have the opportunity to learn a little about our program and perhaps be interested enough to come check us out. Having that been said one would expect that we would get nearly 100% participating in this endeavor since heading in I really couldn’t understand why anyone would object.
If anything, I thought that they would be happy to help since supporting other area organizations would make them look good in the eyes of community members, and further ingratiate them as an integral and caring member of the local society.
While I can understand businesses not wishing to display our larger posters in their windows since it may lead to their business being covered in such displays, I simply can’t comprehend any place showing resistance to us leaving a few schedule cards by the register.
Yet, after we had finished our second attempt this morning to get the word out about FGCU Men’s Basketball we were all shocked by the collective tally we unfortunately put together of places that weren’t willing to even except the schedule cards. With the number of places that we went to over the course of two days it was by no means a high percentage of businesses that denied us, but it was noticeable.
Some places said that if they displayed anything of ours then they would have to do it for everyone and didn’t want their establishment covered in schedules and fliers promoting local teams and events. However, in my opinion this is exactly what a business should want, especially during the current economic crisis that has cripple much of southwest Florida.
Wouldn’t the perception that you were doing everything in your power to support and promote the welfare and best interests of the community help your standing within said community and therefore attract more customers?
Perhaps I am naïve in this notion but I was honestly a little shocked when given this rationale for why they couldn’t help us out. When we visited several different chains that fell under the jurisdiction and laws imposed by their corporate masters some said that they didn’t have the authority to display anything, which as silly as it sounds is something that I can accept as a byproduct of the corporate hierarchy.
Any way you look at it we all need to do what is in our best interests, especially during tough times, but that means different things to different people and businesses. While some establishments are only willing to help and support others if they can envision a way that the exchange will directly benefit them, others take the alternative approach and are completely willing to be of assistance in any way possible as long as it doesn’t hurt them, regardless of whether they will gain from the relationship or not.
In the end perhaps I wasn’t looking at the reality of the situation we were heading into when we began this campaign by optimistically assuming that everyone would take the latter approach, but then again the fact that not everyone was helpful has certainly increased my level of appreciation and admiration for those did.
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