Friday, June 15, 2007

Open Letter to NA Sports


I was clearing out my e-mails and found this letter I had fired off to NA Sports in February. They are the owners of the Ironman name and the trademarked M-Dot. Sue Me for the photo at right. But I thought it was an honest question. Needless to say it went unanswered.

Greetings,

I am an Ironman and preparing for Ironman Arizona in the next few months. I and several of my friends whom are also Ironman finishers and general triathletes were discussing the phenomenon of the common person still not recognizing that there are several more Ironman distance events other than Kona.

When we discuss Ironman to these people they simply don’t understand that Kona is the World Championship of triathlon and you must qualify to get there. With the advent of the 70.3 series, we all recognized that the marketing campaign is geared to expose equally all the event locations in the program and that it will definitely show as a much larger footprint in triathlon than 140.6 distances just based on number of events.

My question, that many of us want to ask, is what or how is marketing going to change or what are we (as observers) missing in regards to NA Sports growing the name recognition of M-Dot races other than Kona .

Honestly very few triathletes have been or will go to Kona, but as finishers at CdA, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, Lake Placid and Canada, we feel that those well established and quality run races are slighted in the perception of the general public.

Keep up the great work and thank you for providing such wonderful races. Triathlon has changed my life.

I don't think this is out of line or inappropriate. Maybe they just don't care. I hope not. What do you think from your standpoint of: finished an Ironman, been to Kona, training for a future Ironman, never want to do Ironman but love triathlon, a triathlete supporter.
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6 comments:

Winz Photo said...

wether its a NA licensed 70.3 or 140.6 you finish your iron. I think NA is too hog tied in their marketing and I've recieved a couple of nastygrams from their lawyers about using the M-dot on some maps (in a triathlon forum no less)

June 15, 2007 at 9:24 AM
Phil said...

I think that for all the good it does, NBC does just as much harm to the Ironman brand. The NBC broadcast is probably the only exposure to “Ironman” that the lay-person gets. There is never mention of the process to get to Kona. The fact that you do need to qualify to get there in the first place is never mentioned. All of the sob stories they feature about “average people” overcoming personal problems just to finish - that’s bogus, these people are not average people - they are top age-group finishers at a previous Ironman.

What should NA Sports do to promote other M-Dot races other than Kona? I don’t think they even need to do anything. All of these other races sell out in less than a day – so why waste money on marketing efforts. Perhaps part of the responsibility lies with the host-towns.

I was in Lake Placid not that long ago; there was tons of athletes training, but very little visible signs that this was an Ironman town. Lake Placid is still banging the 1980 winter Olympics drum. If I were a regular Joe-tourist, I’d be like, “what’s with all the bikers?”

The reality is, the onus of promoting MDot, Iron Distance, Triathlon and even Marathons for that matter (I can’t tell you how many people think that a 10K road race is a marathon), is left to the people who actually care about what the name, label or brand means to them. The tough part of the sell is that most people can’t comprehend the difference. To the average Joe - anything that involves more than two hours of sustained athletic effort is unnatural.

June 15, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Bigun said...

Yea, I agree with Phil - you probably won't get much of an answer from the NA folks - they really don't need to change a thing - it would be nice, but any more marketing to change public perception is just lost profits. Anyone who would actually spend money to race already knows the difference. Well, except for idiots like that Chu guy.

June 15, 2007 at 2:33 PM
Di said...

Comm, most people have no idea what it means to be a Triathlete. Even your friends, unless they compete or show up to support you, will never really know what it means. Ironman, well, most just don't care. Unless you are throwing a pigskin at another guy, dribbling a ball or shooting a little round disc across the ice, people don't care.
The folks from NA probably realise this and choose to spend their dollars where they think it matters. Afterall, most of the people who watch the Ironman broadcasts are triathletes or people who just "stumbled" on the show. Don't you think?
Because we (you tri studs and us athletic supporters) are completely submersed into Tri's it's a big deal to us. NA chooses one "Big" race to feature and it happens to be Kona. Too bad really, but it'll only change if the public wants it to.

I hope you have a very Happy Father's Day Comm.

June 17, 2007 at 8:52 AM
Phil said...

On top of what I said earlier... (after a long bike ride, and some more reflection) ...I'm kind of bummed that NA Sports has decided to promote Ironman 70.3 as aggressively as they have (if you can call it aggressive). Some day, I do hope to complete an Ironman. And when I say Ironman, I mean an actual Ironman Branded 140.6 mile event as opposed to a generic Iron-Distance event. For whatever reason (right or wrong), I’ve bought into the Ironman brand, and have the mindset that if I’m going to dedicate a year of my life and exert myself for 14 straight hours, I want to finish under an MDot banner. So, I’m slightly disappointed that NA Sports is prostituting out the name Ironman to the half-iron events. In my opinion this is watering down the brand by tagging a lesser event Ironman. Yes, I know half-iron is still an incredible distance, and I myself have yet to complete that distance; however, for the unknowing public – “Ironman 70.3” will likely get shortened to “Ironman” thus causing all sorts of confusion. The numbers are meaningless to the public. Why not call a spade a spade and a half-ironman a half-ironman? No one says, I competed in a Marathon 13.1 – it’s a half-marathon for Pete’s sake.

What would have been better, is if NA Sports was called something better than NA Sports – something that sounded endurance related or at least triathlon related. This way, they could properly brand each race, and grow the NA Sports name.

June 18, 2007 at 1:36 PM
tarheeltri said...

I agree with everything that's already been said. But, in the same manner I would hate to hear someone who completed a 70.3 call themselves an Ironman because of the brand, I would hate to see Kona become just another Ironman event. It's Kona... however they keep the name magical, that's what needs to be done.

June 18, 2007 at 2:30 PM

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