The Big Fat Marketing Blog

The Bridgeport Bluefish were once the darlings of Southern Connecticut. The independent team knocked a nearby affiliated team right off the map, and set all sorts of minor league baseball attendance records along the way. But they enter their 12th season facing elimination, even with a new ownership group at bat.

So what happened? Somewhere along the line, Bluefish management got complacent and figured fans from all across Fairfield and New Haven counties would flock to The Ballpark at Harbor Yard no matter what. They took an only-game-in-town attitude and ran with it, and suddenly were suddenly playing in a half-empty stadium. more

The Bridgeport Bluefish were once the darlings of Southern Connecticut. The independent team knocked a nearby affiliated team right off the map, and set all sorts of minor league baseball attendance records along the way. But they enter their 12th season facing elimination, even with a new ownership group at bat.

So what happened? Somewhere along the line, Bluefish management got complacent and figured fans from all across Fairfield and New Haven counties would flock to The Ballpark at Harbor Yard no matter what. They took an only-game-in-town attitude and ran with it, and suddenly were suddenly playing in a half-empty stadium. more

Remember “Mr. Mom,” that 1983 Michael Keaton movie about the car executive who turns house-husband after a layoff? His wife takes an ad agency job and gets assigned to the troublesome “Schooner Tuna” account. And after assorted wackiness, she comes up with the perfect ad campaign: a temporary price cut to show that Schooner cares about its customers’ real worries and is, in fact, “the tuna with a heart.”

Brands are now rushing to prove themselves heirs to the Schooner legacy with programs meant to reassure consumers that they’ll be neither buried in debt nor cut off from vital resources if they lose their jobs. In one policy swoop, they’re acting to overcome buyers’ fears and build brand loyalty. more