WUSA Marketing

Real Ray · Sep 28, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/sports/soccer/28WUSA.html

Interesting to hear from marketing guy, who confirms some of the issues I've heard a lot of WUSA fans note.

Perhaps the most troubling discovery in his research was that girls - the W.U.S.A.'s core audience - found the league to be "uncool" once they reached middle school. They became "somewhat embarrassed" to consider themselves fans or to wear league merchandise, he said. When they watched games on television, they tended to watch them alone instead of with friends.

...An inexperienced W.U.S.A. staff, Chung said, violated a cardinal rule of youth marketing: you do not advertise yourself to the age of your core audience, but to the age your core audience aspires to be.
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sljohn · Sep 28, 2003

This article makes some great points. Here's another quote I think sums up the situation well:

[Suspending operations] was disappointing, Chung said, because the W.U.S.A. "had incredibly strong assets to turn itself into one of the coolest brands out there for older girls - and guys." He added, "But the league would have had to break out of the mind-set that they were selling women's soccer, and start behaving like an entertainment marketer."
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Awe-Inspiring · Oct 3, 2003

The Women's World Cup is giving the WUSA an incredible marketing tool.

Just run film clips of Abby Wambach's incredible play.

Slogan? "WUSA: Where Wombats Rule!"

Guys who see her play are just simply in awe.

It will help get the league past the 12-year-old girl bracket it foolishly marketed itself to.

seahawkdad · Oct 3, 2003

It's been pretty clear to me, from my long association with a girl's travel team, that as they got older the WUSA became less and less interesting to them.

Marketing primarily to pre-teen girls and their parents leads to a continually churning fan base which can olnly grow at the rate of participation in soccer by this group.

Northside Rovers · Oct 3, 2003

Originally posted by seahawkdad
Marketing primarily to pre-teen girls and their parents leads to a continually churning fan base which can olnly grow at the rate of participation in soccer by this group.
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Damn good point.

Metro · Oct 3, 2003

Originally posted by seahawkdad
It's been pretty clear to me, from my long association with a girl's travel team, that as they got older the WUSA became less and less interesting to them.

Marketing primarily to pre-teen girls and their parents leads to a continually churning fan base which can only grow at the rate of participation in soccer by this group.
Click to expand...

Thank you for summing it up. For a few year, I've been trying say this to anybody who will listen. It just takes me 10-minutes to say and it comes off like a rant.

DennisM · Oct 5, 2003

"The Women's World Cup is giving the WUSA an incredible marketing tool.

Just run film clips of Abby Wambach's incredible play.

Slogan? "WUSA: Where Wombats Rule!"

Guys who see her play are just simply in awe.

It will help get the league past the 12-year-old girl bracket it foolishly marketed itself to"

Show Malin's free kick for a goal or the pass/save by Victoria to Hanna for her header. Or Alberta's goal against Australia. Good highlights. I am not in awe of Abby though. If anything show Kristine Lilly's runs. She is great.

Wolves_67 · Oct 5, 2003

I have said it several times before but I still think one important change the league needs to do if they come back is to stop having identical broadcast times for their national game as MLS on Saturday. A decent share of their potential viewers and fan base are fans of MLS.
Move it to Sunday or anytime except the same time as MLS.