burnet44
01-17-2007, 09:47 AM
By MARIA HALKIAS / The Dallas Morning News
7-Eleven Inc. is playing in the big leagues, but don't expect to see its name on the side of an arena.
The Dallas-based convenience store chain is taking more of a grass-roots approach to sponsoring professional football, basketball and baseball events.
Over the past six months, 7-Eleven has signed multiyear sponsorship agreements with 15 pro teams, trying to connect with customers on their home turf.
Knowing that its core shopper is an 18- to 44-year-old male sports fan, the chain has set up promotional activities in its largest markets, including Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Washington.
It's doing it with coupons for free Slurpees and Taquitos, with a halftime giant dice toss at Dallas Mavericks games or by persuading the Chicago White Sox to start every weeknight home game at 7:11 p.m.
The program is supported with radio and television ads and integrates 7,200 company-owned and franchised stores by backing the home team.
More than 500 people showed up at a 7-Eleven in Chicago to get an autograph and a photo taken with Chicago Bear Otis Wilson this month.
Last fall, a 7-Eleven in Arlington held drawings every 30 minutes for free tickets to Texas Motor Speedway. The crowds were big enough to hold brain-freezing Slurpee chugging contests between drawings.
“Our customers are sports fans, and sports fans are our customers,” said Doug Foster, 7-Eleven’s vice president of marketing. "Our customers are sports fans, and sports fans are our customers," said Doug Foster, 7-Eleven's vice president of marketing. "We reach them on their way to and from work and during their lunch hour. Now we want to join them when they play."
7-Eleven's in-house marketing staff put the extensive program together.
"Once we had the first two or three teams lined up, the others got it and the rest came faster," Mr. Foster said. "Then the team marketing staffs wanted to help us, too."
15,000 coupons
The chain is distributing about 15,000 coupons at each game it sponsors.
"We're taking the customer by the hand into our stores," he said. "We don't have to call it 7-Eleven Field."
"We're getting 8 to 15 percent redemption rates the same evening at 11 p.m., at midnight," he said. The average redemption rate is 3 percent to 5 percent on exit promotions.
7-Eleven is stretching a conservative marketing budget and getting customers to try its fresh foods, which are increasingly regional in flavor, Mr. Foster said.
"We have to micro-market," he said. "This breaks the traditional media planning model. It says it's not enough to buy a ton of radio, TV or print advertising and expect to get results."
"Today you have to be closer to the customer both geographically and psychologically," he said.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said the dice toss, in which fans try to roll a giant 7 and 11, is a hit.
"I love it," he said. "It's fun, and the fans really get into it."
Bang for the buck
7-Eleven, won't disclose the financial terms of any of its agreements, but the company probably is getting a lot of bang for its buck, said Jim Andrews, editorial director of the IEG Sponsorship Report, a newsletter.
The programs 7-Eleven put together will cost "north of about $10 million a year," he estimated. A company had to spend at least $15 million to get on IEG's 2006 annual sponsorship list, which has 96 companies on it.
"It's impressive. They went from zero to 60. We think this will resonate with the teams," Mr. Andrews said.
By comparison, in March 1999, Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. agreed to pay $195 million over 30 years for the naming rights to the new arena in Dallas.
7-Eleven has been sponsoring 2004 IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan. It's also the official convenience store of Texas Motor Speedway and signed an agreement to sponsor the Honda Grand Prix in March in St. Petersburg, Fla. It also recently became a sponsor of X-games competitions on ABC through 2009.
"It's really important to reach your target audience in ways and places at which they're likely to be attentive to advertising and promotion," said Eric Bradlow, professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Sports Business Initiative.
"It's been shown at sporting events, people are likely to be receptive to promotions," he said. "Especially at basketball and baseball games, people have a lot of free time to look around and notice."
It's important for 7-Eleven to differentiate itself from the growing competition, said David M. Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute.
"Their name has become synonymous with the action," Mr. Carter said. "It's like Kleenex and Xerox. When someone says they have to stop at the 7-Eleven on the way home, what do they mean? They may be stopping at the market or a competitor."
The chain's program sounds effective, he said. "It's a great fit because they are the distributor of so many things."
7-Eleven is following some of its biggest beverage and snack suppliers into sports marketing.
Now that it has its sponsorships lined up, 7-Eleven may be asking its suppliers to be a part of one another's promotions.
Budweiser, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi and Coke are major brand sponsors of sporting events, said IEG's Mr. Andrews.
"These companies are the biggest. And if you think about it, the young male customer of these products is buying them at 7-Eleven," he said.
Anheuser-Busch Cos., which markets Budweiser, spent $330 million on event sponsorships last year and ranked No. 1 on the IEG Sponsorship Report.
No. 2 was PepsiCo, parent of Plano-based Frito-Lay, at $305 million.
General Motors Corp. ranked third, and that hasn't escaped Mr. Foster.
"Why couldn't we give a way a truck?" Mr. Foster asked.
7-Eleven Inc. is playing in the big leagues, but don't expect to see its name on the side of an arena.
The Dallas-based convenience store chain is taking more of a grass-roots approach to sponsoring professional football, basketball and baseball events.
Over the past six months, 7-Eleven has signed multiyear sponsorship agreements with 15 pro teams, trying to connect with customers on their home turf.
Knowing that its core shopper is an 18- to 44-year-old male sports fan, the chain has set up promotional activities in its largest markets, including Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Washington.
It's doing it with coupons for free Slurpees and Taquitos, with a halftime giant dice toss at Dallas Mavericks games or by persuading the Chicago White Sox to start every weeknight home game at 7:11 p.m.
The program is supported with radio and television ads and integrates 7,200 company-owned and franchised stores by backing the home team.
More than 500 people showed up at a 7-Eleven in Chicago to get an autograph and a photo taken with Chicago Bear Otis Wilson this month.
Last fall, a 7-Eleven in Arlington held drawings every 30 minutes for free tickets to Texas Motor Speedway. The crowds were big enough to hold brain-freezing Slurpee chugging contests between drawings.
“Our customers are sports fans, and sports fans are our customers,” said Doug Foster, 7-Eleven’s vice president of marketing. "Our customers are sports fans, and sports fans are our customers," said Doug Foster, 7-Eleven's vice president of marketing. "We reach them on their way to and from work and during their lunch hour. Now we want to join them when they play."
7-Eleven's in-house marketing staff put the extensive program together.
"Once we had the first two or three teams lined up, the others got it and the rest came faster," Mr. Foster said. "Then the team marketing staffs wanted to help us, too."
15,000 coupons
The chain is distributing about 15,000 coupons at each game it sponsors.
"We're taking the customer by the hand into our stores," he said. "We don't have to call it 7-Eleven Field."
"We're getting 8 to 15 percent redemption rates the same evening at 11 p.m., at midnight," he said. The average redemption rate is 3 percent to 5 percent on exit promotions.
7-Eleven is stretching a conservative marketing budget and getting customers to try its fresh foods, which are increasingly regional in flavor, Mr. Foster said.
"We have to micro-market," he said. "This breaks the traditional media planning model. It says it's not enough to buy a ton of radio, TV or print advertising and expect to get results."
"Today you have to be closer to the customer both geographically and psychologically," he said.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said the dice toss, in which fans try to roll a giant 7 and 11, is a hit.
"I love it," he said. "It's fun, and the fans really get into it."
Bang for the buck
7-Eleven, won't disclose the financial terms of any of its agreements, but the company probably is getting a lot of bang for its buck, said Jim Andrews, editorial director of the IEG Sponsorship Report, a newsletter.
The programs 7-Eleven put together will cost "north of about $10 million a year," he estimated. A company had to spend at least $15 million to get on IEG's 2006 annual sponsorship list, which has 96 companies on it.
"It's impressive. They went from zero to 60. We think this will resonate with the teams," Mr. Andrews said.
By comparison, in March 1999, Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. agreed to pay $195 million over 30 years for the naming rights to the new arena in Dallas.
7-Eleven has been sponsoring 2004 IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan. It's also the official convenience store of Texas Motor Speedway and signed an agreement to sponsor the Honda Grand Prix in March in St. Petersburg, Fla. It also recently became a sponsor of X-games competitions on ABC through 2009.
"It's really important to reach your target audience in ways and places at which they're likely to be attentive to advertising and promotion," said Eric Bradlow, professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Sports Business Initiative.
"It's been shown at sporting events, people are likely to be receptive to promotions," he said. "Especially at basketball and baseball games, people have a lot of free time to look around and notice."
It's important for 7-Eleven to differentiate itself from the growing competition, said David M. Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute.
"Their name has become synonymous with the action," Mr. Carter said. "It's like Kleenex and Xerox. When someone says they have to stop at the 7-Eleven on the way home, what do they mean? They may be stopping at the market or a competitor."
The chain's program sounds effective, he said. "It's a great fit because they are the distributor of so many things."
7-Eleven is following some of its biggest beverage and snack suppliers into sports marketing.
Now that it has its sponsorships lined up, 7-Eleven may be asking its suppliers to be a part of one another's promotions.
Budweiser, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi and Coke are major brand sponsors of sporting events, said IEG's Mr. Andrews.
"These companies are the biggest. And if you think about it, the young male customer of these products is buying them at 7-Eleven," he said.
Anheuser-Busch Cos., which markets Budweiser, spent $330 million on event sponsorships last year and ranked No. 1 on the IEG Sponsorship Report.
No. 2 was PepsiCo, parent of Plano-based Frito-Lay, at $305 million.
General Motors Corp. ranked third, and that hasn't escaped Mr. Foster.
"Why couldn't we give a way a truck?" Mr. Foster asked.