Bully Ray Speaks to TNA's Brand Awareness, Says it's Biggest Issue Company Faces

[It's Damn Real!]

This from his interview on the Talk is Jericho podcast:

“I’m not trying to sound like a douche, but a lot of people have said that a guy like me, who has come up on the pole with Vince McMahon and stuff like that, should be helping out. I try to help out as much as possible, but they have their vision and they do what they want to do. I think TNA’s number one problem – forget about the product because there’s a lot of great wrestlers there – it’s product awareness. You can build the better mousetrap, but if nobody knows that you’ve built it, nobody is going to buy it. We need to get our name out there more, we need to knock on more doors, and we need to get more commercials out there.

“The number one thing that I told TNA to do was to go fish in WWE’s pool. If it was up to me, I would saturate Monday Night Raw with TNA commercials so that people were forced to open their eyes and go ‘Hey, what the hell is this?’ If it was up to me, I would create a nice, big, shiny infomercial. Let’s take something like the George Foreman Grill or the P90X. How did those products become so popular? Where did they start? Infomercials at three-in-the-morning! Then once they caught on, the mainstream marketing and advertising went through.

“So I presented an idea to TNA: let’s put together a nice, big, shiny infomercial. Here’s Hulk Hogan, here’s Kurt Angle, here’s Sting, here’s Jeff Hardy, here’s all the names that you know and love that are very recognizable. Here’s what TNA is, here’s what we do, here’s why we are different, and here’s where you can find us every Thursday night. And since we’re on Spike TV, which is a member of Viacom, we can take this infomercial on TNA and we can put it on all of the brother and sister stations of Viacom at two-in-the-morning where the advertising rates would be a little bit cheaper. Let’s bring our product to the masses, and let’s force feed it down their throats just as the George Foreman Grill and the P90X did.”

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So basically, the tl;dr version is two ideas he has on how to market the brand better — the first being to saturate Monday Night RAW broadcasts (though this does pose a larger issue, as USA Network is not owned by Viacom, rather NBCUniversal), and the second being to create an actual infomercial for TNA using their top draws/stars that would air late at night across as many of Viacom's brother and sister stations at like 2AM so the advertising rates would be cheaper.

This might be a little out of my depth in not really getting this side of the television business that well, but airing commercials during RAW episodes sure as shit seems like a great idea, at least on paper. Especially if you are using former WWE wrestlers in those commercials to draw quick parallels to the fact those wrestlers are now with TNA.

Thoughts?

 

[SinCityBlitz]

With the people at the very top in TNA not pumping much money into the product anymore they would have a hard time getting the money to air the commercial. Plus NBCUniversal would shut it down anyway. I am pretty sure that there is something in the contract to prohibit this.

You can't compare wrestling with fitness and health products. Eating healthy and fitness are things that people strive for which is why they became so popular. Wrestling is never going to be popular like that. It was for a very short time. If you want to attract people you need to put on a better product. it doesn't matter who all those top stars are if the fed is shit.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Bully Ray's infomercial idea smells of 1997. TNA needs to reach out to the internet generation and forget about the lonely teenage male sitting up late at night flipping channels that fell for ECW. Those guys are on their computer and they are also aware of TNA by now. They are either getting enough wrestling via WWE or they don't care. If Bully wants to borrow from Heyman and they can afford it, they should be using powerful music in their advertising that get's the blood pumping.

But mostly TNA needs to focus on the quality of their programming and keeping the audience they do have (easier said than done). Those fans are their best promoters. We are all consumed with advertising. There is an abundance of information we all take in. The most powerful promotion is the recommendation from another relatable human being.

As far as adveritising on Raw, I thought TNA tried it a couple of years ago. It sounds expensive and like I said before, in 2014 people who may be interested in TNA already know they exist.

Right now it looks like TNA is struggling. They've clearly cut costs and it seems to have hurt their TV and live attendance. It has probably hit their merchandizing as well. In the last five years they seem to have tried so many things. Right now the bare bones approach is probably for the best. Hopefully they can piece together some compelling stories that can keep their current fans interested and build up a star or two that will get them new fans.

This was total rambling on my part. I'm not even sure what the original question was or if I said anything of any value.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Bully Ray's infomercial idea smells of 1997. TNA needs to reach out to the internet generation and forget about the lonely teenage male sitting up late at night flipping channels that fell for ECW. Those guys are on their computer and they are also aware of TNA by now. They are either getting enough wrestling via WWE or they don't care. If Bully wants to borrow from Heyman and they can afford it, they should be using powerful music in their advertising that get's the blood pumping.

But mostly TNA needs to focus on the quality of their programming and keeping the audience they do have (easier said than done). Those fans are their best promoters. We are all consumed with advertising. There is an abundance of information we all take in. The most powerful promotion is the recommendation from another relatable human being.

As far as adveritising on Raw, I thought TNA tried it a couple of years ago. It sounds expensive and like I said before, in 2014 people who may be interested in TNA already know they exist.

Right now it looks like TNA is struggling. They've clearly cut costs and it seems to have hurt their TV and live attendance. It has probably hit their merchandizing as well. In the last five years they seem to have tried so many things. Right now the bare bones approach is probably for the best. Hopefully they can piece together some compelling stories that can keep their current fans interested and build up a star or two that will get them new fans.

This was total rambling on my part. I'm not even sure what the original question was or if I said anything of any value.

In my own personal experience, the recommendation of a trusted friend is far and away the most valuable tool a company has, since it's basically free advertising. Costs them zero. Zero dollars out. More dollars in.

I've turned three fans onto TNA who were lifelong WWE and/or WCW fans who had absolutely no idea TNA even existed, which speaks directly to the brand awareness issue at hand. The way I got two of them to watch was back in 2009 when Hogan, et. all were there and was able to play off the emotional connection they had with Hogan as kids by saying, basically, "dude, he's in TNA right now — great company. Nash is there too. So is Sting..."

I was able to list out ex-WCW/WWE guys that I knew they'd recognize, Angle as well, and both were basically saying "oh man, I loved those guys, lemme check this out!" Then, guys like Styles hooked them where Hogan and his comrades couldn't (in the ring).

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Problem is, Bully has come out with this now - that means they can't entice people with all the familiar names because the only one they definitely have now is Jeff Hardy and the Willow character isn't even immediately obvious to casuals as Jeff. Casuals from the mid-noughties will probably remember Bully okay... but as a tag team wrestler - him being a top singles wrestler is unlikely to entice them initially.

If they were to bring fans in, they need to be highlighting an alternative... guess what I'm saying next? That means they need to bring back the 6 sides and emphasize how they're different. The plus side to that is that they can then use their back catalogue of moments to draw people in - things like Skipper walking the cage, Hardy's mad dive onto Abyss, Joe taking out AJ and Daniels in their 5 star classic. With artists like Aries, the Wolves, Joe, Hardy, King - those moments can be again. TNA needs to drop the WWe/WCWlite stigma if they are to go forward without 'names', the first step to that has to be looking different. Then let the wrestlers above give us the OMG moments and the traditional guys like Storm, Roode, EC3, Anderson, Bully etc prove their worth by holding the attention of new fans.

As far as promotion - that should be straightforward. The US has many, many local TV and radio stations. Make the TNA guys and gals earn their wages - hit as many of them as you can. Use local (ie cheap) local TV stations advertising in areas you'll be appearing and, most importantly, deliver with the product.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Seems like an overly simplistic approach to me, one that really is not likely realistic to implement and one which will come nowhere near addressing the concerns facing TNA today. I'm not sure that flooding Monday Night RAW with TNA commercials can even be done, from a logistic or financial perspective. And late night infomercials are not the solution either. The only people people reached in these manners are likely well aware of TNA Wrestling, but are electing not to watch it. This is a problem for many of the reasons facing professional wrestling in general these days: fan impatience, the internet, multiple other options for televisions viewing, and a plethora of other reasons why pro wrestling is not the hot commodity, in some ways, that it once was.

The problem facing TNA these days is that it has a total lack of any perceptible identity. You can lure people in all you want with commercials during RAW and infomercials in the middle of the night, but if the product being offered is not appealing, you have a problem. Back in the day, TNA could tout their product as a viable alternative to WWE: more wrestling, less storyline, edgier product, better females, whatever. Had they stayed the course, perhaps they would have built a loyal following over these past five years or so. But they didn't, they chose instead to lure in former WWE guys, and plenty of them, and offer a "WWE-light" product, devoid of the six sided ring as well. That didn't pay dividends, in fact did more harm than good, and now, TNA is stuck squarely in the middle. Not enough quality older draws from elsewhere, but not enough "homegrown" talent to entice new viewers to give it a shot. Gone are the Hogans, the Stings, the Flair's, etc., Gone as well are the Styles, the Daniels, etc., Who exactly are they going to feature in these commercials and infomercials to draw people in? I'm not sure if they currently have anyone.

IDR speaks of luring in three buddies to watch TNA. My experience has been the exact opposite. I used to talk to my buddies, the guys who got me into WWE in the first place, to ask them if they watch TNA. None of them did. They stopped by the other day on a Thursday evening, and I happened to be watching Impact. Unfortunately it was two episodes ago, one of the worst episodes in Impact history in recent times. Between Jeff Hardy morphed into Willow (which I was at a loss to explain), the Menagerie, yet another power struggle (this time between Dixie and MVP), and a bunch of relative unknowns, they couldn't believe I actually watched the show. There's no way they are going to watch again. Simply put, if they cannot improve the current product, no amount of brand awareness is going to suffice. Some will call that negativity. I call it reality. Truth be told, I believe that TNA is worse right now than it has ever been in the five years I have been (sporadically) watching the product. This is the biggest obstacle facing TNA today. And if they cannot do something to make the show more watchable, the apocalyptic references we have all read on here a million times are going to come true.

 

[RipRoarin75]

You have to know what your brand 'identity/value' is before you can start generating brand awareness. It's like driving a car without knowing your destination. The ability to drive is not enough. No destination = no plan.

When the company leaders understand what the brand identity/value is - they can then communicate it to their staff - and in turn they can go out and explain it. Its not the consumer's job to figure it out. That's #BrandFail.

Being an alternative to another company is not the brand identity. That's just stating the market need for the business.

Each wrestler is his/her own brand. Jeff Hardy I believe is a great example of someone who understands his brand value. "Cool/OK to be different". People who aren't mainstream can identify with him.