Jon Spoelstra is a sports business legend. If you don’t know anything about Jon, check out this Wikipedia page and buy his book right now, Marketing Outrageously Redux: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts(affiliate)

I just finished reading this book two days ago and all I can say is WOW! Jon’s ideas are definitely outrageous but definitely get you thinking outside the box when it comes to increasing your team’s bottom line in a way that builds your brand positively and creatively. No matter what particular area of sports business you call your own, there is something for everyone in this book. The ideas and examples speak directly to managers working in marketing or ticket sales but also provide a great deal of insight for entry level professionals trying to come up with that next best idea that will get them noticed. For team administrators at the VP or Director level, Marketing Outrageously Redux: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts (affiliate) gives you concrete advice on how thinking outside the box translates into bottom line results that generate positive outposts of memories in your customers’ minds without damaging your public image.

Jon lays out his ideas for marketing outrageously with 17 “Ground Rules” that cover topics such as “Ground rule #1: If you aren’t willing to take a few risks in marketing, become a bean counter” (page 19) and “Ground Rule #6: If you mimic the market leaders, you’ll just add to their dominance.” (Page 97) In addition to being an accomplished NBA executive and established author, Jon Spoelstra is probably also famous for developing the “rubber chicken theory” as well.

The rubber chicken theory is an application of basic advertising principles that finds a way for your message to be not only delivered by also consumed by your target audience. The purpose of a headline is to get someone to read a subheadline whose purpose is to read the first paragraph, whose purpose is to read the second paragraph and so on and so forth. Basically a way to get attention and keep your customers moving along the sales escalator. If you want attention, you need a headline (something that will transmit a rubber chicken like a round poster mailing tube), a subheadline (a rubber chicken) and a message (a letter or message to your customers). I won’t give away the punch line, but the story gets really good right about here. To learn more about the rubber chicken theory and how awesome it is, buy Marketing Outrageously Redux: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts (affiliate) and see for yourself! I promise, you won’t regret it. Even if you think your organization might be caught off guard by “outrageous thinking,” you can’t not be entertained by some of Jon’s real life examples. He’s intelligent, witty, entertaining and an excellent teacher in this book.

I highly recommend Marketing Outrageously Redux: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts (affiliate) and hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

Go Forth!

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