Brandon Yopp
PRT 507 (601)
Feb. 6, 2011
Book Assignment – Ice to the eskimos
Summary
Jon Spoelstra’s
Ice to the eskimos: How to market a product nobody wants is a relatively quick and easy read that offers countless examples of implementing marketing and enjoying break-away success with a less than stellar product. A long time executive with multiple NBA organizations and a marketing professor, Spoelstra offers sage advice for anyone interested in growing their brand. As he explains in the opening chapter, although the book is centered on sports, it can be applied to any marketing project. It is not a sports marketing book.
Spoelstra’s book is a 20-chapter marketing manifesto that is built around his process of jump-start marketing, which is a process in which one dives head-first into a real marketing challenge and grows the business by refining its marketing, getting creative and taking chances, getting to know its customers and treating them like royalty and improving employee morale.
This doesn’t involve an easy sell by any means. In Spoelstra’s case he accepted a job marketing the hapless New Jersey Nets long after he had already enjoyed a successful career with the
Portland Trail Blazers and a short stint with the Denver Nuggets. Why? He wanted the challenge.
As we learn from Spoelstra, it’s much more difficult to market a poor product than it is to brand a market heavyweight. This involves creativity, hard work and thinking outside the box.
One of the first things you must do is recognize who you are and exactly who your audience is.
Don’t try to be something that you aren’t. Figure out your real target market, not your dream market, and hit them hard. In Spoelstra’s case, the Nets had been marketing to all of Manhattan and New Jersey, but the market was saturated with teams. Instead, they made a decision to go

after basketball fans that either couldn’t get a ticket or afford to see the league’s stars when they played the Knicks in New York City. It was a brilliant move.
Spoelstra also implemented the “quick-fix silver bullet” which involves finding a way to increase the purchases of your current consumers. For example, they found the names of their past ticket buyers and sent them ticket mailings. The previous purchases indicated that they were interested in tickets, so maybe all they needed was a gentle reminder to buy. Part of this depends on Spoelstra’s practice of keeping customers names, tracking their purchases and getting to know them. Once you know they are interested in your product, you have a better shot at making a sale.
The book also preaches focusing on new business. Spending money to make this possible is typically looked at in a negative light, but it is actually a justifiable expense. If a company spends $1,000 on a radio ad that generates $2,500 in new business, then the expense was worth it because there is a $1,500 net gain. Spoelstra suggests forming a “terrorist group” of co-workers if the higher-ups oppose to your pricey marketing ideas to help gain momentum and support.
The book also discusses the “golden rule” of jump-start marketing, which is only selling a product that a customer wants to buy, and finding a way to have them purchase just a little bit more than they’d like to. He also stresses the importance of management taking an active role in marketing, getting to know the customers, experiencing the product from their prospective, and not being too afraid to work in the trenches like a low-level employee. He also points out that by observing first-hand, companies can save money on expensive research by getting to know their customers, product and experience on their own
Spoelstra gave countless examples of marketing to a segment of one, which is going after people that you know are interested in your product and treating them as a friend. You can

improve these relationships through personal notes, attention to detail and annual reports, which by making the customer a hero, makes them more attached to your product.
Spoelstra preaches that by sticking to the principles of jump-start marketing you will increase sales and grow business, improve employee moral and enjoy unlimited success. His track record speaks well of the process.
My Take
As a professional working in athletics, I am somewhat accustomed to many of the practices outline by Spoelstra in this book. Having said that, I understand how one could consider this the Bible of sports marketing. He drafts a blueprint for growing business regardless of whether or not the product is the best in its field.
One of Spoelstra’s ideas that I enjoyed the most and would like to practice is figuring out your real target market. As an employee in the NC State athletics department, I think this would be extremely beneficial to us. Outside of current students and alums, we compete directly with
Duke and North Carolina for ticket and merchandise revenue. Often times I feel we market to too broad of a group. This book solidifies my belief that we need to refine our marketing and figure out which customers are more attracted to us. By doing this, we can focus primarily on that market and increase our returns.
Another great idea is selling only what the fans want. We don’t need to try to be all things to all people, so let’s find out what our customers want from us and make sure that we give it to them. Whether that involves lowering the volume of music at football games or improving the atmosphere at basketball games, let’s figure it out. Our new athletics director recently did this by implementing a real wolf mascot into our home football game pageantry.

Finally, I agree complete with two of Spoelstra’s main objectives. First, keep the names of your customers because they are obviously interested in your product and you can continue to market towards them. Second, don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and do work yourself.
Instead of passing it off to lower-level employees, upper management can regularly improve their knowledge by taking time to get to know their customers and experience the product from their perspective. I think if someone in our administration sat in the student section at a football game, they would quickly figure out the conditions aren’t what they should be for such an important part of our fan base. The way we treat them now will affect the way they treat us as consumers down the road.
Class Application
Several aspects of Spoelstra’s
Ice to the eskimos go hand-in-hand with the topics that we have covered in class. Our lesson on strategic marketing management alone covered several key areas of the book. As we learned in class, marketing myopia involves a lack of foresight. The common belief is that winning cures all, but that is clearly not the case. Spoelstra preaches the importance of pursuing new customers and business, but also treating your customers like heroes and making them vested in your product. As Spoelstra points out in chapter 17, winning doesn’t automatically translate into financial success. He explains that although the Edmonton Oilers won five NHL titles in a seven-year span, their season ticket numbers continually decreased.
They were so focused on winning games, that they neglected the wants and needs of their customers.
Spoelstra also touches on company analysis, although this is done mostly throughout the book as a whole instead of all at once. As we discussed in class, organizations need to look at their internal factors, and clearly define their goals and vision if they want to be successful.

Again, you can’t be all things to all people. You may need to, as Spoelstra also touched on in chapter 17, chose a segment of consumers to forego and not market too. If this improves your mission and satisfies the wants and needs of your customers, thus increasing business, then it was obviously worth it.
The book also touches on market segmentation. As mentioned earlier, when Spoelstra took the Nets job, they had been trying to sell tickets to everyone. He helped them realize their market. They put a bad product on the floor, but they offered a great opportunity to catch the league’s stars in person at a relatively cheap price. Additionally, any ticket was hard to come by at the nearest competitor. In this case, the Nets had a USP – unique selling position. They seized on that, hit the market hard, and business exploded.
The book also touches on brand image in numerous ways, including Spoelstra’s leading effort to change the Nets name to the New Jersey Swamp Dragons. He wanted the measure, which failed at the last minute due to the objections of one of the team’s seven owners, because they had a reputation for poor basketball and their logo wasn’t sexy enough and they routinely ranked at the bottom of apparel and merchandise sales. He realized that the name, and its plain logo, were having a negative effect on the image of the brand, and he sought to change that in an effort to improve business. Additionally, as the Nets began to sell out games, they established a brand image of offering affordable tickets and family entertainment to basketball fans, as opposed to expensive ticket prices and the corporate, Wall Street-esque crowds that attended
Knicks games. That helped them attract the business of families and sports enthusiasts. These examples fit perfectly with our lecture on branding.

Spoelstra’s practice of retaining customer’s names and info also touches on our lecture on positioning, as customers are already identified with the Nets product and are more inclined to respond to their messages instead of block them out.
Works Cited
Spoelstra, J. (1997). Ice to the eskimos: How to market a product nobody wants.
New York, NY:
HarperCollins.