The Seattle Sonics Are Moving Their Multichannel Brand To Oklahoma City

NBA owners voted 28-2 to allow the Sonics to move to Oklahoma City. Only Paul Allen of the Portland Trail Blazers (obvious Seattle ties) and Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks felt that forty-one years of fan loyalty mattered a little bit.

Ultimately, a sports team leaving a city is no different than Sears electing to close down an unprofitable store, though a Sears store doesn't bring together a community like a sports team does.


"Back in the day" at Eddie Bauer, President and CEO Rick Fersch footed the bill for a suite at Key Arena. Mr. Fersch allowed garden variety employees (like me) the opportunity to enjoy a smattering of games in the suite. If you were lucky enough to attend, Mr. Fersch was democratic about seating in the suite. He required attendees to switch seats at the end of every quarter so that all employees could enjoy each other's company, and enjoy the perspective of different areas of the suite. This is one of many reasons I fondly remember the leadership of Mr. Fersch.

I was lucky enough to attend two Sonics games in my four years at Eddie Bauer. One was a playoff game in 1998 against the Los Angeles Lakers, an elimination game won by Los Angeles. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, donning a Lakers jersey, was sitting about ten rows below the Eddie Bauer suite. He had just starred in a movie (maybe you heard of it) called "Titanic".

During a timeout in the second half, when it appeared that the Sonics were going to lose, the crowd became depressed and quiet. Suddenly, one of Mr. Fersch's teenage daughters uttered a high-pitched, ear-piercing scream heard as far away as Bellingham ... "LEONARDO ... I LOVE YOU!". Mr. DiCaprio turned around, identified the young lady who seconds ago joined Mariah Carey as one of only two females to ever reach that octave, and politely nodded his approval.


We were told that if every seat for every game were sold, the Sonics would still lose money.

The Sonics had multiple channels to generate revenue. Corporations could purchase expensive seats. Corporations could purchase sponsorships. Wealthy fans could purchase season tickets. Garden variety fans could purchase individual game tickets. Any fan could purchase concessions, or souvenirs. Revenue came in via a local radio contract. Revenue came in via a local cable television contract. Revenue came in from at least two national cable broadcast stations and one national television network. Taxpayers funded a renovation of Key Arena in the mid 90s to improve the revenue generated from the stadium. I'm sure I'm missing another dozen channels that the Sonics harvested for revenue.

We're told that "multichannel customers are the best customers". In Seattle, multichannel customers (radio, television, in-game attendees, concession stand shoppers, etc.) couldn't generate enough revenue to keep the team here.

This will someday become a problem for our humble little multichannel brands. As we expand our online presence, as we build stores, execute direct mail and e-mail campaigns, manage paid search programs, participate in social media, treat our sites like entertainment brands, we will demand that our customers return the favor by providing us with more and more cash. In the NBA, player costs increase. In multichannel cataloging, the USPS increased costs, and may make life more challenging in 2009. Importing goods from China will cost more. Fuel will cost more. We'll demand that our customers pay the freight, just like an NBA owner demands that the residents of his geography foot the bill.

We're likely to learn, like the NBA in Seattle learned, that no matter how many channels we offer our customers, customers only have so much they can spend. We'll need to be very thoughtful about how we approach using incremental channels to generate sales and profit.

Bill Walsh, The Coaching Tree, And Multichannel Marketing

Former San Francisco 49er football coach Bill Walsh passed away today.

I've always been fascinated by his "coaching tree'. He had a group of assistant coaches in San Francisco who went on to become head coaches elsewhere. Many had tremendous success, like Mike Holmgren (being part-owner of the Green Bay Packers, I have a soft spot for Coach Holmgren). Holmgren's tree includes Mike Sherman, Andy Reid, Steve Mariucci, Marty Mornhinweg and Brad Childress.

In multichannel marketing (catalog + online, online + retail, catalog + online + retail), who are the leaders, and who are the disciples who carry multichannel marketing to new levels? Who are the folks who are doing genuinely innovative work, the folks who build upon what innovators have done, and create something new, interesting, successful, profitable?

Tell us about the folks you've worked with who have had an impact on multichannel marketing in the comments section.

I can honestly say that I've borrowed from the strengths of many different folks who I've worked with or followed over the years (and the company I worked with these individuals at):

• Ron Mowers, Garst Seed Company: Patience.
• Lori Liddle, Lands' End: Unparalleled passion for creating a 'perfect' circulation plan.
• Dave Johnson, Lands' End: People skills. I haven't worked with another individual who valued people as much as he did.
• Jim Fulton, Lands' End: His consulting practice is thriving because he figured out how to generate useful information from computer programs, information that shows how the future of a business is likely to evolve. This spurred my interest in what I now call "Multichannel Forensics".
• Bill End, Lands' End: It was great to work with a President/CEO that would take time to teach an arrogant, garden-variety analyst like myself how the world worked.
• Harry Egler, Eddie Bauer: Harry lets you do your job without micromanaging the details.
• Rick Fersch, Eddie Bauer: The President/CEO had one phrase that told you what you needed to do ... "Drive Sales Profitably". In other words, increase sales AND increase profit. The other phrase that proved prophetic was "Grow or Die".
• Brian McAndrews, aQuantive: I only spoke the President/CEO of aQuantive twice. The second time was when I resigned to become VP of Database Marketing at Nordstrom. He only had two questions for me. One was "... but do you still believe in our business model?". He stuck with the company from $78 a share to $1 a share to selling to Microsoft at $65 a share. How many other online leaders "sold out" when the going got tough?
• Blake Nordstrom, Nordstrom: He stayed away from gaudy, confusing, high-flung strategies. Most interesting --- in February 2005, I wanted to apply for the President of Nordstrom Direct position. Blake told me in plain, simple language that I did not have the skills he believed were needed for the position. He wasn't mean. He was simply matter-of-fact about it. The conversation fundamentally changed the direction of my career --- I knew it the moment I the conversation ended. Who knows what might have happened had he danced around the subject, or worse, been dishonest?
• Jim Bromley, Nordstrom: He was the President of Nordstrom Direct, and like Dave Johnson, accomplished a heck of a lot by believing in people over marketing gimmicks or high-flung strategies.
• Frank Buettner, Nordstrom: He cared about the $11/hour call center and distribution center individual. 'Nuff said.
• Brooke White, Nordstrom: The PR Executive who did things opposite of every other PR person I've met. Never heard her name before? There's a reason for that. She would do anything to protect the Nordstrom family, or the Nordstrom culture.
  
• Linda Finn, Nordstrom: The EVP of Marketing rescued me from a lousy situation. She also valued people over marketing gimmicks or technology.
• Don Libey, Guru: How many people would publish two books from an absolute nobody? These books kick-started my new endeavor. Who knows how many other kinds words he's spread about me that have helped me get this thing going?