WWE Marketing

[The Mandarin 0]

So obviously WWE spends loads of dolla-dolla bills on marketing their oft-craptastic product in certain areas, to sometimes certain groups of people. Well, they concentrate on some more than others, but really: they'll take any fans they can get. So let's discuss their tactics in your area, what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, and what needs to be done.

 

My points.

 

WWE, Viewer's Choice and Famous Players teaming up is a good thing. They shill and shill and shill the PPVs (commercials, radio ads, billboards-- I saw a billboard with Hogan, Rock and Trish on it once).

 

WWE Experience is not entertaining, BUT it's good they're introducing this profane and occasionally disgusting company to young children. I remember I got hooked on WWF Superstars. Also, it's good that they're showing WWE figure commercials because that's the kind of shit you show children who are in their parents' pockets. They should have an extra commercial for Raw, though, showing the Classic Superstars figures for the older kids. You put the Classic Superstars commercial on Experience, it will do nothing. ("Look kids! Hot commodity, Tito Santana!")

 

WWE has killed off the Latinos. Just last year, this was a HOT market for SmackDown. Eddie, Chavo, Rey should still have a lot more focus on them than there is now, because there's still interest (although it's been slowly dying ever since Bradshaw murdered him).

 

What the shit is Power Pasta?

 

More to come, I'm multi-tasking.

[Guest Tjhe CyNick]

I think SD should be marketed to younger kids.

 

I dont have any kids myself, but if I did, I know I wouldn't let them watch wrestling until they hit 21 probably. When I got hooked on wrestling it was as a little kid cheering for Hulk Hogan. There's nothing like that on WWE TV anymore, and all the shows are so offensive and crass I cant see any sensible parent would let young kids watch.

 

The benefit to catering to kids is that you get a 2 for 1 in terms of ticket sales. If an 8 year old kid wants to go to a wrestling event, that means he or she (most likely he) will drag at least one parent to the show. Whereas with the 16+ crowd you only get the one ticket sale.

 

Merchandise would probably increase as well because kids want everything, toys, t-shirts, belts, the works. I know just for myself, I dont buy any WWE merch and really haven't in a good 8 years or so.

 

You also have a better chance of creating new fans for the future. Like I said before, I got hooked as a kid, and have been watching now well into my 20s. I'm sure the same thing would happen for many younger fans if they were hooked in the near future.

 

The way I see the product now, it just seems that they have no ability to gain new fans. Their numbers just keep dwindling and dwindling. And their average viewer keeps ghetting older and older. From a marketing POV thats a bad thing (unless your selling Lincolns or Viagra). Plus with the audience getting older (I think they say the average WWE viewer is in their 30s) they are likely having kids, so if you provide a kid friendly product those people will be more likely to expose their children to the product.

 

At the same time they could continue to make RAW a show for teens/young adults, with the audlt oriented storylines and what not. In theory you'd literally have somehting for everyone in the family when it comes to WWE.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

I dont have any kids myself, but if I did, I know I wouldn't let them watch wrestling until they hit 21 probably.

Your children are going to hate you.

 

But you're right about marketing to kids.

 

Which they do, even though they claim they don't. They just need to be more obvious about it.

 

But still find a way to kill babies and mate corpses with the living.

 

But they don't do rape.

 

Necrophilia is not rape.

 

It's necrophilia.

[Guest combat_rock]

Personally, I understand the concern of parents, but at the same time, I don't want to go back to cookie cutter characters like Hulk Hogan. So it's a delicate tightrope. Obviously, some things such as Katie Vick go way to far though.

 

Anyway, as far as marketing, what they really need to do is shed the "entertainment for idiots" image. I'm not saying that they should simply cater to the smarks of the world, but that they should stop doing way over the top stuff such as the Kane/Lita angle. Also, things like the "youth debate" don't hurt. Also, when they send a wrestler to a mainstream talk show, they need to send their brightest performers (guys like Jericho, Guerrero, and Angle), and NEVER insult the mainstream audiences intellegence by playing in character. If for no other reason than that it would force people to realize that neither the WWE or it's fans are making believe that this stuff is "real".

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

WWE has killed off the Latinos. Just last year, this was a HOT market for SmackDown. Eddie, Chavo, Rey should still have a lot more focus on them than there is now, because there's still interest (although it's been slowly dying ever since Bradshaw murdered him).

 

This has been one of the WWF's worst offenses of the last year. I can't even believe that they introduced a racist character and then proceeded to win every match in the feud. The WWF has developed a very very bad habit of having the racist in a race feud always winning.

[The Mandarin 0]

This has been one of the WWF's worst offenses of the last year. I can't even believe that they introduced a racist character and then proceeded to win every match in the feud. The WWF has developed a very very bad habit of having the racist in a race feud always winning.

Booker T losing to Triple H at 'Mania was such a disappointment. Not the only case of the night in which the wrong man went over, though.

 

WCW did it right, they had Bam Bam lose to Goldberg in the end.

[Guest curry_man2002]

I think all wwe programming should become a little more edgy again and i dont mean shagging dead corpses and giving birth to hands. I mean like the renegade factions like d-x and the nwo the cool anti heroes who never really did that much to stop parents letting there kids watch the product. I think wrestling should be aimed at the teenage/internet generation. such as myself

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I think all wwe programming should become a little more edgy again and i dont mean shagging dead corpses and giving birth to hands. I mean like the renegade factions like d-x and the nwo the cool anti heroes who never really did that much to stop parents letting there kids watch the product. I think wrestling should be aimed at the teenage/internet generation. such as myself

Vince Russo tried that with WCW........incase you forgot.......it FAILED.

[Guest Coffey]

It failed because of the way it was presented and exectued. As with anything in the business, if done correctly, it'll succeed.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

It failed because of the way it was presented and exectued. As with anything in the business, if done correctly, it'll succeed.

In this casze Coffey.......it won't happen at all. There isn't a big enough demo to alienate the rest of the fans........it'll fail like WCW did with it.