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Marketing Lessons Learned From the New York Yankee Mustaches

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Editors note: This blog post originally appeared on the Mad Marketer website and was re-posted here with the permission of the author and Mad Marketer team.

Recently, the New York Yankees, formerly noted for their traditional team uniforms and specific grooming code, which since the early ’70s has included a no facial hair policy, have started loosening up their upper lips. That is, they’ve joined the #stachesquad, an Instagram hashtag that has gone viral after prominent Yankees players started posting pictures of their newly grown whiskers.

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Expanding Monument Park: What Marketers Can Learn From the Yankees

Yankee_Stadium_Monument_Park_2008For many players and fans, the Hall of Fame is baseball’s most sacred ground. Being inducted is the highest honor a ballplayer or someone involved with the game can achieve.

But the second highest honor? That’s probably being inducted into Monument Park, the New York Yankees’ version of the hallowed halls of Cooperstown. Sitting behind the center field wall of Yankee Stadium, Monument Park currently pays homage to 30 men.

When the 2014 season started, that number stood at 28. When it ends, it’ll stand at 32.

Continue reading “Expanding Monument Park: What Marketers Can Learn From the Yankees”

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What Marketers Can Learn from Derek Jeter’s Retirement

Derek Jeter’s Feb. 12 announcement—that after spending 19 years in the Bronx, he plans on retiring after the 2014 season—wasn’t a huge shock to me. It’s likely Yankee management knew the news prior to the public, but how far in advance remains a mystery.

ImageThat said, the legendary shortstop will turn 40 in June and is only under contract through the end of this season. Whether he planned on playing after this year might have been unclear, but the fact that one day a man not named Jeter would patrol the shortstop dirt at Yankee Stadium sometime in the future was guaranteed (every athlete has a professional expiration date). Continue reading “What Marketers Can Learn from Derek Jeter’s Retirement”

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Going the Extra Mile to Strengthen Customer Relationships

I was in need of a break.

001H8178It snowed here in Connecticut last week. I am by no means afraid of driving in the snow, but after a enduring a harrowing experience en route to college in Vermont one winter—a taxi merging onto the highway didn’t yield to me during a snowstorm so I slammed on my brakes and 360’d across two lanes of traffic, coming to rest in a soft, snowy ditch—I try to avoid it when possible. I’m still driving that endearing jalopy of a 2001 Nissan Altima, so that day I worked from home, sights set on proving Marissa Mayer wrong. (If you’ll remember, earlier this year, after taking the reins at Yahoo, Mayer famously forbade her employees from working from home.)

As a diehard Yankees fan, I was still stung by the news that franchise second baseman Robinson Cano had opted to take his talents to Seattle, thanks in part to his new agent Jay Z seeking to make a big name for himself in his latest professional endeavor. And he did, helping Cano land a 10-year, $240 million contract, the third largest in baseball history. Continue reading “Going the Extra Mile to Strengthen Customer Relationships”

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Dear New York Yankees, I Like You, But Please Leave Me Alone

May 12, May 26, and June 1. What do these days have in common?

They’re the only days since May 1 that I’ve not received an email from the New York Yankees informing me of super sweet deals in their virtual store, telling me who the Bombers are playing that day at the stadium or even informing me about an upcoming soccer match that’s set to take place on its luscious outfield grass.

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Apparently the marketing minds at yankees.com realized those three days had elapsed without sending me any emails and countered by sending two emails many days since May 1. They even sent three—three—my way on June 3. Continue reading “Dear New York Yankees, I Like You, But Please Leave Me Alone”