When to Pull the Plug? The Pro Bowl Saga in Hawaii

One of the most dangerous practices in marketing is to keep pouring money into an unsuccessful product or campaign just because "we've always done it."  In business school, students are taught to pull the plug on failures, but in the real world sometimes the band plays on because of emotional attachments or a misguided belief that "if we can only tweak this thing it will turn around."

Hawaii has just such an example of an idea whose time has come and gone:  the Pro Bowl.  The reason that the Pro Bowl is a yawn (with declining attendance at the game and low television ratings) is that fans don't like the product.  What's changed over the years is the growing "super event" - the Super Bowl" which sucks all of the oxygen out of any "All Star" event.  (The Super Bowl is the All Star Event; the Pro Bowl is a weak sister).  The Super Bowl is the culmination of a fan-frenzied playoff series.  The Pro Bowl is a pick up game.

What's more, there's a change in the economics of the game.  Players are sooooo valuable now that they don't want to risk injury in a game that doesn't mean anything.  The result is a Pro Bowl that looks more like a neighborhood game of touch.  It has become so bad that a few years ago, the fans in the stands (who paid good money to watch a football game) booed when it became obvious that they were watching something entirely different.  Even worse for Hawaii, the game is played in Aloha Stadium, which is an embarrassment when it comes to showing off our state.

This year, the National Football League is trying to improve things by changing the format of the game ... using a Fantasy Football draft as a way to select the players.  That still doesn't change the underlying dynamics that have made the game a dud.

Yet, despite all the signals that the game isn't going to become the success that it was years ago, the Hawaii Tourism Authority continues to write multi-million dollar checks to keep the game on life support - and keep it in Hawaii.  There's an emotional attachment to the "game" that makes it hard to act rationally.  But, there's also the comments from fans tourism execs that the game shows off sunny Hawaii in the midst of the Mainland winter.  Granted.  But the HTA could spend that four or five million dollars in other advertising efforts that would not only show Hawaii's sunshine, but communicate a message that is strategically aligned with the brand.  

When I was at HTA I (un-popularly) suggested that we continue to partner with the NFL to benefit from the star power of its players ... but dump the game.  I suggested that we host a post-season event for the NFL all-stars with skills events, celebrity parties and other made-for television activities ... and get rid of a game that no one cares about.  That idea went nowhere.

So, I suspect the Pro Bowl will go on for a while until it dies of natural causes.  In the meantime, the state and the NFL are pouring money into a terminally ill brand. 

Driving Points Home ...

When I teach or make presentations, I find that if I do the conventional thing and make a rational speech with rational points, what's often heard is "blah, blah, blah."  What seems to stick with the audience are axioms or sayings - liberally borrowed from others - that make the point in a much more clever (and memorable) way.  Here are some of the "sayings" that I sprinkle through my presentations.  Feel free to "borrow" them for yourself.

• Nobody wants a quarter inch drill bit.  What they want is a quarter inch hole. The lesson here is that marketing is all about benefits ... not features.
• Learn to fail fast. You need to take risks to create products and services that are unique.  Calculated risks.  Of course, if you take risks, you often fail - so learn to fail fast so you're not throwing money into a black hole.
• Never let a good crisis go to waste.  A crisis is a huge opportunity because conditions are changing and change opens doors.  Sometimes the best time to make change is in a time of crisis.  When times are good, you get fat, dumb, and happy.
• You can’t win at chess if you’re playing checkers.  Strategy, strategy, strategy.  Think long term.
• We have met the enemy and he is us. We're often our own worst enemy ... engaging in group think and ignoring the world around us.  
• I’d rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong.  How often do we get caught up in reams of data and lose sight of the big picture.
• What got you here won’t get you there.  What made you successful won't necessarily help you in a changing environment.
• Your past success is your worst enemy.  Your confidence in business is based on your past success.  That is a false sense of confidence. 
• If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.  You have to be moving forward, or else you'll be standing still or falling behind.  Similarly:  There are three kinds of companies:  Those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that wonder what happened.
• Sacred cows make the best burgers.  Find your "sacred cows" and ask if they're producing milk.  Otherwise ... it's time for burgers. 
• Search all your parks in all your cities – you’ll find no statues to committees.  Committees often lead to "group think" and paralysis.  I was on a panel once with Jerry (from Ben and Jerry's ice cream, famous for its open corporate culture).  He said:  "We're participatory but not a democracy."  Well put.
• Avoid the curse of knowledge.  How often are we so knowledgeable about our product that we speak in language alien to the customer?
• In the factory I make cosmetics … in the store, I sell hope.  Charles Revson.  This famous quote once again makes the point that we sell benefits not features.   
• Some is not a number; soon is not a time; hope is not a strategy.  Look at your plans and programs.  Do they contain flabby generalities?  If so, get out a sharp pencil and make yourself accountable for specific results!

S

The Folly of Turning Back the Tide

I vividly remember a story whose moral is about the danger of hubris.  It's the story of King Canute, a  

Danish King who ruled much of England and Gaul.  His courtiers told him he was so powerful that the tides would obey him.  Here's the story from the account of Henry of Huntingdon in his Chronicle.

[Canute] commanded that his chair should be set on the shore, when the tide began to rise. And then he spoke to the rising sea saying “You are part of my dominion, and the ground that I am seated upon is mine, nor has anyone disobeyed my orders with impunity. Therefore, I order you not to rise onto my land, nor to wet the clothes or body of your Lord”. But the sea carried on rising as usual without any reverence for his person, and soaked his feet and legs. Then he moving away said:  “All the inhabitants of the world should know that the power of kings is vain and trivial, and that none is worthy the name of king but He whose command the heaven, earth and sea obey by eternal laws”. 

So, who are the modern Canutes?  Those who believe that their orders can change the course of the universe.

I just read an article bewailing changes in the hotel industry.  More and more accommodations are being run as timeshares, condotels, or vacation rentals instead of full service hotels.  Even "full service" hotels are cutting back on service, changing linens every few days instead of daily and dropping traditional amenities like room service.  The net result of these changes is a reduction in the labor requirements to operate.  The point of this article was that "this has to stop."  We need to go back to an industry of full service hotels.  Unfortunately, the economics are driving investors to change the accommodations landscape.  With timeshares and condominiums, investors can get all of their money back, often even before construction is complete and they make money on the management of the units.  The customer, too, is driving change as people are more willing to co-produce service (or do without) in order to save costs.

Look at all of the changes we're seeing where service is automated or cut back.

•  Reservations for hotels and airlines are mostly online now, with little or no human interation.
• Airline check in has become automated, with kiosks replacing human beings
• Hotel check-out is accomplished through your in-room telephone or television.

I even stayed in a hotel in Europe that had nobody at the front desk.  When you arrived, you approached a vending machine which displayed keys in little windows.  If there was a key in the window, the room was available.  You selected a room, inserted a credit card, pushed a button and the machine "dispensed" a key.  No human was involved.

For certain high end products, automation isn't going to work, but more and more we're seeing people being replaced by machines.  That's reality.  And wishing the world would go back to the way it was won't change things.

There are some poignant examples of people trying to turn back the tide.  As railroads switched from steam to diesel, the unions were able to require that engines still carry a "fireman" ... although a fireman was absolutely unnecessary.  This was a practice known as "featherbedding" and it nearly killed the railroads.

So, as much as some may wish that the world would move back to a time that is more conducive to their world view, it is better to acknowledge the inevitability of change - and move on.