Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Anna Gerlich
BUS 240
Professor Marzofka
in marketing. So during the first week, when I was trying to determine who I
target. After a few more marketing classes however, the topic of marketing
for the Dubuque Fighting Saints, so to get a marketing aspect from another
goal in this interview was to learn more about the daily responsibilities of a
marketer in hockey, determine the highs and lows of the career, determine
what role marketing plays in USA hockey, and attain some personal advice
stressed that every day was not the same, and it added to the excitement
his job. His daily routine also was affected by whether or not the team was
operations, advertising, or even ticket sales. It all depends on the day and
what the upcoming schedule looked like for the team. Most of his days are
filled with a lot of interaction with both staff and the players on the team.
First he would check emails and voice messages to get up to date on those
activities. If it was earlier in the week, he would then focus on game notes,
line charts, and stat projects to prepare for the games coming up that
the players. This additionally consists of prepping the players for those
interviews. The players that play hockey or USA hockey are some of the best
hockey players in their age group, in the world. So he must take time to
prepare them for the interviews. This includes testing them by giving them
sample questions, and then critiquing their delivery. Then throughout the
meeting, and a game operations meeting. A couple other of his duties that
he must complete throughout the week include being in charge of all the
stats, which is mostly important in the draft years of the players, as well as
the website. His major responsibility for the website is to get the message
out to their fans on games, promotions, player information, etc. So over all,
Mr. Wesoleks job is more lenient towards the communications side of his job
description rather than the marketing side. However, I believe that any
marketer has a great deal of duties that will be in communications. All of his
responsibilities are to make the team look good, and that is what any
marketer wants. Their main goal is to get fans to buy their tickets. And in
order for them to want to buy tickets, they want the product to look good.
With any job, no matter what you do, there will be negatives. Only
setback that he discussed was the hours. With being involved in sports, you
are going to have to work holidays and weekends. And on those game days,
you will be in the office until late at night when all the fans leave and all the
game day duties are wrapped up. Ive talked to a number of people that work
in sports, and this is always the number one setback for every single one of
them. But, you go into the job knowing this, and as Mr. Wesolek told me, you
eventually adjust to the crazy schedule. If you like your job enough, you will
be able to deal with the hours and working on weekends and holidays. He
says that now he barely even notices it. In this career though, the positives
definitely outweigh the negatives in his book. His favorite part of his job was
the fact that not one day was like the next, as I discussed earlier. He talked
about how the sports business was always changing and moving. One day,
he could focus on marketing, and then next, he could dive right into game
day operations. This is an interesting aspect for me. A routine desk job is
something I fear, so this was very appealing to me. Because everything was
changing and nothing was the same, it keeps everything new and fresh. You
Another thing that we discussed during our interview was the role that
marketing played within USA Hockey. The biggest thing that he talked about
was connecting with people and developing relationships into lifelong fans.
They accomplish this in several different ways. The obvious and easiest way
more, they are moving towards more grassroots marketing. This includes
getting their players outside of the ice arena, and into the community.
Whether it is fairs, festivals, parades, or schools, they want their players
there. This physically puts their name out there and puts a real face to their
connection over having a fan see an ad in a paper. It make the fans feel more
connected with the organization this way. A way that they market both these
events, and more information about what is happening with the organization,
Going with getting their players into the community, they tend to
choose events that families are more likely to attend. Families, especially
those with hockey players in the household are their main target market.
Other ways that they reach that target market is through targeted emails. He
discussed how important this was because of the fact that they are not only
trying to create fans, but also lifelong hockey players and fans of the game.
The last thing that Mr. Wesolek and I discussed was his own personal
story and advice he had for me. The big thing that drew him into marketing
was the power of advertising and marketing itself. He always dreamed of the
idea of putting together the perfect campaign and watching it develop and
grow legs of its own. Because there is so much competition out there for
entertainment, you have to step up your game each and every time in order
challenge of doing just this is half the fun. But the biggest advice he had for
myself from all the others out there. If any sort of opportunity comes to me,
whether it is taking tickets at the door, playing music on game day, or
writing a game recap, I should take full advantage of this because your
diverse experience is what is going to set you apart from everyone else. His
etc. is what helped him get a good understanding of what the consumer
wants. To have all of this behind you will for sure put you in front of the pack.
He ended the conversation with saying that I keep up my passion and fire
One connection I made from our class discussion to this interview, was
the idea of target marketing. Our book defines a target market as, a specific
(Pride). This is clearly demonstrated in the way that USA hockey markets
towards families. Because families are the main group segmentation that
they are marketing, they strategize ways to reach out to those people. Places
like fairs, festivals, and schools are places you will find that family
atmosphere. They cleverly put their name out at these events in order to
Hockey by talking to Mr. Wesolek. I thought it was interesting how similar his
communications and his marketing efforts were. At one point he said how
most of his job activities are geared towards the communications part of his
well, depending how you looked at them. He shapes the players and their
social media in order to look good to the community. His goal is to get more
fans to come to the games. That is a large part of marketing. You do what the
customer wants. They find what the customer wants and likes, and gear their
fan experience to just that. All together though, it was interesting how the
day to day routine of this job is constantly changing. Not one day is like the
other, which really appeals to me. The only sacrifice that I would have to
holidays. But if you like a job, those types of things shouldnt matter. After
hockey, the highs and lows of the career, what role marketing plays in USA
hockey, and have some personal advice from someone who has seen
success in the industry. If I take Mr. Wesoleks advice and put myself out
there, take every opportunity that comes to me, and keep the fire in me, I
Pride, William M., and O.C. Ferrell. Marketing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2014.
Print.