Hop's Ideas Re-examined...

[DrumCorpsFan27]

QUOTE(jeffsnewjetta @ Mar 9 2006, 01:54 PM)

oh we know Mike, no one else seems to see what you do tho. it's ok :P

Yes, the St Lucy's, St Rita's, Blessed Sac, Black Watch, Garfield...etc...alums I spoke with, just in my immediate seating area, were not really there.

Boys, don't make me stop this car! :P

Edited March 9, 2006 by DrumCorpsFan27

[MikeD]

Boys, don't make me stop this car! :P

OK dad, I'll be good.

for a while, anyway! :P

[Jeff Ream]

Boys, don't make me stop this car! :P

dad he started it. he said YEA was good for drum corps :P

[danielray]

Actually, that little catch phrase was originated by Daniel Ray (nezneau) right here on Drum Corps Planet. He wrote up a nifty little essay about the marketing side of drum corps and thinking outside the box. It was, if nothing else, controversial and sparked a lot of discussion and debate. I wish it was still archived here. :( For as much as people are looking at what Stewart and Hopkins said in 1997, much of what George put forth in that now infamous powerpoint presentation was inspired by what Daniel Ray wrote here on DCP back in 2002 or 2003. It was a very good read.

Thanks :)

I dug that up to repost, along with a presentation that I did send on to Dan and had some discussions with him about. If you have powerpoint, you can download it - Becoming HARDCORPS: A Brand Respositioning and Development Strategy for Drum Corps International.

It is QUITE stale at this point (a few years old), but some points are still a bit relevant. It was at a point where I needed to work a bit less, but couldn't wind down, so started to spend some time 'working' on things that I felt were a bit more worthwhile.

Anyway.... here's the post...

Drum Corps IS Marching Band (and other affirmations)

After several years of absence from the drum corps, I have a renewed interest supporting the activity, its future and sustainability.

Given the perspective of this absence, it is surprising to see that such fervent argument still exists concerning topics that are over 10 years old – amplification, modified instrumentation, ensemble size, etc. Equally surprising is the fact that not much has really changed programmatically in the last 10 years. Granted, this is only from what I have seen on video (I live in Europe now, and haven’t much opportunity to see live performance), but to compare the dramatic changes from 1980-1990 or 1970-1980 with those from 1990 to the present might indicate that the activity has arrived at a bit of an impasse.

Knowing the many wonderfully creative individuals that dedicate their thoughts, energies and lives to this art form, it would appear that this impasse would not be fault of the creators, but rather a near exhaustion of possibilities given the limitations of current structure. Simply stated – the rate of program innovation has outpaced that of the activity as a whole. If this issue is not resolved, it will threaten the sustainability of drum corps.

Since my involvement in drum corps, I have built a career in marketing and advertising. Hence, the purpose of this post is nothing more than to offer an assessment from a purely marketing perspective – one not often heard in this forum.

To begin, the most fundamental and universal truth in marketing –

“The inability to adapt to a changing market will result in loss”.

Has the market (potential participants NOT spectators) changed since DCI’s inception?

Has DCI and/or its member organizations adequately adapted to these market conditions?

Of course, there is the argument that something such as drum corps is not a product or something that can be commoditized (and the idealist in me might somewhat agree). However, the reality is that of intense competition for attention and participants, with the thousands of other possible activities that youth have option to become a part of.

In order for the drum corps activity to successfully compete for attention in a quickly changing market, it must first accept a certain reality. This reality is not of how drum corps wishes to define itself, but is rather of what it truly is and how it is outwardly perceived. Once accepted, only then does the option to redefine itself exist. Ironically, what should be considered affirmation, are precisely the issues that are the activity’s largest source of contention.

1) Drum corps is an obscure activity

2) Drum corps is a youth activity

3) Drum corps isn’t cool

4) Drum corps is marching band

DRUM CORPS IS AN OBSCURE ACTIVITY

To look exclusively at numbers, drum corps with its 5,000+ performers (DCI 2003 Championship Site Information Kit) is a rather small and unknown activity when compared to other national not-for-profit youth organizations:

- 20+ million youth sports participants under the age of 16, with 1.3+ million coaches in America. (National Youth Sport Coaches Association – December 2001)

- 6.8 million youth participants in 4-H, with more than 610,595 adult volunteers (National 4-H Council – November 2002)

- 3.3 million youth participants in Boys & Girls Club, with 3,103 club locations and 36,000 professional staff (Boys & Girls Clubs of America – Annual Report, December 2001)

- 3.3 million youth members of Boy Scouts of America, with 1.2 million adult volunteers (The Boy Scouts of America – December 2001)

- 3.3 million young people involved in cheerleading throughout the United States (Lifestyle Ventures, LLC, publisher American Cheerleader® magazine – September 2002)

Though small in comparison, the drum corps activity has an excellent opportunity for growth. However, this growth can only be achieved by becoming more accessible to young performers in other, broader-market, cross-over activities (marching band, winterguard/drumline, etc.) while demonstrating a willingness to accommodate corporate sponsorship.

Compare the current state of DCI to NASCAR pre-1972, who themselves describe everything after this period as the “Modern Era of NASCAR”.

Before 1972, NASCAR had built a world-class group of participants and dedicated following of supporters numbering tens of thousands. However, growth seemed slow and limited with such an expensive activity to produce and promote.

In 1970-71, many changes in the point system, rules and general structure were suggested, but vigorously opposed. These changes would make the activity more accessible to participants and spectators, while making events easier to produce, but many purists felt that it would dilute the sport or change it too much and threatened to leave. Upon pressure from a potential sponsor (RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company and its Winston brand) the rules and management were changed and many supporters did in fact leave the activity.

These hundreds that left were quickly replaced with what now number in the millions of supporters world-wide and NASCAR was transformed into an extremely profitable activity, grossing multiple millions of dollars annually.

Though DCI’s market potential is nothing near that of NASCAR, it is reasonable to believe that a similar approach could result in significant growth and financial stability. It is also reasonable to believe that the organization and its member organizations can and should become 100% sustained and profitable through corporate sponsorship and licensed merchandising. The ‘Old Navy Summer Music Games’ or the ‘PEPSI - The Choice of DCI Tour’ might have a nice ring to it from the inside of a nice air-conditioned bus that is paid for.

DRUM CORPS IS A YOUTH ACTIVITY

More specifically, Drum Corps International (DCI), according to their mission statement is exclusively a youth activity. The current primary focus of the activity is the experience of the participants.

- “Drum Corps International (DCI) is a non-profit youth organization servicing the world's junior drum and bugle corps and related activities.”

A sampling of mission statements of DCI member organizations reinforces this idea.

- “The Blue Devils is a non-profit youth organization dedicated to the pursuit of competitive excellence through the discipline of the arts.”

- “The mission of Youth Education in the Arts is to support the development of young people into magnificent human beings through participation in the performing arts.”

- “The Glassmen provide opportunities that promote and develop life skills and personal enrichment through education, participation and performance.”

- “The mission of the Santa Clara Vanguard is to provide the opportunity for young adults to perform in a highly competitive performing arts activity.”

Other options do exist for drum corps as purely a form of entertainment and that are not limited to youth participants. Most notable is Drum Corps Associate who, in contrast, state that “Using entertainment as a primary goal, DCA performances are unique and represent ‘state of the art’ in mass appeal drum and bugle corps.” Furthermore, “DCA strives to provide performers with stimulating and rewarding social experiences, to provide a competitive outlet for performers, and to entertain and excite the audience”.

DRUM CORPS IS MARCHING BAND

The argument that drum corps is not marching band has been quite a stubborn one, but with the best of intentions. Over the past 30 years, however, drum corps and marching band have become so similar that anyone unfamiliar with drum corps would not immediately identify differences between the two. Given that nearly everyone in North America has some awareness of marching band, the argument that drum corps is not marching band - from a purely marketing perspective - seems ineffective and a wasted opportunity.

In product marketing where there is an assumed market familiarity with a product similar to one that you wish to promote, the choice to highlight the similarities vs. differences is determined by the audience’s level of knowledge of the product in comparison.

- If they are more knowledgeable it is most effective to illustrate the differences.

- If they are less knowledgeable it is best to focus on the similarities, and discuss differences later once their familiarity has increased.

- If you do not know their level of knowledge, assume that it is less until it is proven greater.

Another marketing and promotion concept is an ‘elevator pitch’. The term comes from an old guerilla marketing tactic of jumping into an elevator with a difficult to catch executive and giving a quick concept pitch in a place that is reasonable to casually “run into them” and where they are physical unable to leave for 15-20 seconds. This is a highly-condensed presentation with only a few seconds to communicate an idea to someone that you have no idea what level of familiarity they might have with the concept.

To more clearly illustrate this, a snippet of an ‘elevator pitch’ promoting drum corps might be something like this…

“So, drum corps is marching band?”

“Yeah, but probably not like any you’ve ever seen. It’s a semi-pro deal with months-long national tours, radio spots and an hour-long TV special. Think of it like the major leagues, with marching band a sort of farm team. It’s intense, fast paced and seriously loud… and kids (and some adults even) go crazy for it. You’ve got to see it”

“… and marching band is drum corps?"

“Nope, it’s pretty much the same idea though, but like I said a bit less intense, a bit slower pace. Again, you’ve got to see it.”

In a more literal sense there are those that argue that drum corps is becoming too much like marching band and that if changes are made in the rules of DCI to broaden its definition they will no longer support the activity.

Though unfortunate to lose any support, in reality, a loss of up to 15-20% of current support (if the structure of drum corps were modified to expand the instrumentation to include marching band instrumentation) would become largely unnoticeable within a few years, given the sudden increase in the potential number of participants (current marching band members). With the number of potential members over 200 times the current number of participants, this expanded market is more attractive to corporate sponsorship than the existing drum corps market.

Were DCI a corporation, rather than a not-for-profit organization, faced with similar decisions in possible market expansion (a loss 15-20% of current supporters in exchange for an exponentially larger potential market) the decision not to undertake risks of expansion would be considered fiscally irresponsible.

For those that are drum corps purists, their support could be directed to Drum Corps Associates, which is more traditional and audience-centric by definition. They would welcome the support and the net result is a 'win-win' with increased support for and participation in all marching music activities.

DRUM CORPS ISN’T COOL

This one definitely falls into that category of having to accept the facts before an ability to redefine. The youth market is extremely competitive and is the fastest changing of any market segment. There is no cost/value matrix, no brand loyalty in this market. All fundamentals of marketing go out the window with the youth segment, replaced by one golden rule…

“The market is led, fed or dead by the perception of cool”.

Drum corps is not alone in the growing un-cool crowd. Traditional sports such as football, basketball and baseball have been struggling for the attention of this essential market segment. Their future, quite literally, depends on this.

A few years back I had as a client NFL Players, Inc. (marketing and licensing division of the NFL). In less than 10 years the NFL had lost more than 40% of their once booming youth market segment. They’d lost this attention to skateboarding, snowboarding and other extreme sports along with video games. Football was no longer cool.

To redirect the attention of this group back to football required an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach. I pulled together some artists from Marvel Comics, a writer from Fox tv and soon Kurt Warner was in space fighting an evil robot army, Randy Moss and Jerome Bettis went snowboarding in the Himalayas, while Emmitt Smith and Jason Seahorn traveled back in time and saved to planet. We did animation, video games and published a football magazine that could’ve easily been mistaken for the skateboard mag Thrasher. Problem solved and everyone was happy.

I’m not suggesting drum corps on snowboards (but, wouldn’t that be cool?), but to keep competitive for the attention of potential participants it can’t be expected that the same approach used 15, 10, 5 or even 2 years ago will continue to be effective.

Television is an incredible youth marketing opportunity. While the television production quality for the DCI championship broadcast has been quite excellent over the years. I do wonder, however, what the impact on new membership might be if the broadcast format were overhauled.

Faster cuts, tighter edits, and a visual style more like MTV-Sports than College bowl game might better hold the attention of the young first-time viewer. Show a mixed age group of on-screen personalities while ditching the stale and stationary sports-commentator style of presentation. Get them moving, get them involved with the crowd. Footage with more behind the scenes ‘reality’ stuff that follow key individuals for the entire season (tour diaries meets MTV-RoadRules) could connect with a Web site and be updated daily during the summer. A new format like this could go a long way in finding alternative broadcast outlets and sponsors.

As for the die hard fans that might find this change unsettling… a DVD would have full shows with an option of a ‘staff commentary’ voice over track (similar to director’s commentary with film DVD), interviews and bonus footage for each corps in addition to broadcast.

Merchandising, for many drums corps is what currently keeps them on the road. Without this cash flow the activity would, quite literally, come to a standstill. There are, however, options for organizations in merchandising – licensing models similar to NFL (though largely scaled down), that could provide identical cash flow, while removing liability and responsibility, increasing sales, yet maintaining control.

Anyway, I seem to have gone on here quite enough. As I had mentioned before, the intent of this post was to simply provide a fresh and purely marketing perspective on the current state of the activity.

And for the die hard purists firmly against any change in the structure, instrumentation, et cetera … send me your address I’ll see if I can dig up and copy my ‘Blue Devils Drum & Bell Corps’ bootlegs to send your way, seriously. They’re on 8-track, if you’ve got a player.

[rut-roh]

Thanks for re-posting that, Daniel. Good to see you lurking. :)

[FrankA]

Television is an incredible youth marketing opportunity. While the television production quality for the DCI championship broadcast has been quite excellent over the years. I do wonder, however, what the impact on new membership might be if the broadcast format were overhauled.

Faster cuts, tighter edits, and a visual style more like MTV-Sports than College bowl game might better hold the attention of the young first-time viewer. Show a mixed age group of on-screen personalities while ditching the stale and stationary sports-commentator style of presentation. Get them moving, get them involved with the crowd. Footage with more behind the scenes ‘reality’ stuff that follow key individuals for the entire season (tour diaries meets MTV-RoadRules) could connect with a Web site and be updated daily during the summer. A new format like this could go a long way in finding alternative broadcast outlets and sponsors.

I would definetly agree with this. I think more of the activity needs to be shown on T.V. I understand that its not that easy and cheap. But I think that more money should be saved towards showing commercials on T.V. and possibly we could get ESPN2 and show something like "This is what we do" type of program. Yes I know this cost would be HUGE but I think that it would get much more attention to the activity.

If some kid from a marching band sees this while fliping through the channels dont you think he/she would be interested. And then in turn goes and tells thier friends and other students about it. I think that this would work great for DCI to get more attention to the activity.

Edited April 3, 2006 by bd euph some day