The notion of a sports brand…or any other brand…building to enhance image and planning for that rainy day should never be lost.Blackhawks lost their marketshare and are now being rebuilt under John McDonough, or to Starbucks, which has to start back to identify with th.customers who gave them the marketshare they enjoyed (as well as the stock price).ar.examples of lack of rainy day planning. So it is great to see another Chicago team, the Bears, going out and taking the aggresive branding step to tell fans, both ardent and casual, who they are, what their history is, and what value the team has today and going forward. Do NFL teams, many with few tickets to move, need to do such a branding campaig.? Many will argue no, that the investment made in branding is lost becuase of the small margin to be made with available tickets. However there is a difference when the franchise has a tie to grow with the community not just as a team or a brand but as a public trust.the post-Olympic interest in what China can mean for sports and brand marketing began well in advance of the Olympics, and was really led on a sports side by the NBA's aggressive moves to grow hoops in the country.Today's Wall Street Journal has another must-read, on the Leverage Agency's aggresive stance trying to sell the naming rights to the two main stadiums. The success of that project could be a great tale to tell for the big spend for the sports dollar in the country after the Beijing Olympics are history…Dan Steinberg's Washington Post Olympics blog has a good piece on athletes bartering for knockoff merch in Beijing…and AP has a good look into all the perks that the Packers were putting into Brett Favre's pre-trade deal, perhaps the first time a blog was used as achip with a marquee athlete…and the LA Times Bill Dwyre has a great piece on James Blake's attempt to invoke the Olympic spirit during a controversial moment in his semi-final loss today…..?
