Aspirational Marketing vs. Marketing Reality

I’ve been thinking about this one for a long time, but October baseball finally pushed it to the front of my brain. I’ve been neck deep in baseball for a lot of years now, and it has never been harder to play this game at the next level. College. Pro. The trenches are deeper, more crowded and more unforgiving than ever. That’s a conversation for another day.

What I keep thinking about is how we market the game.

We love aspirational marketing. I get it. We want to see the big leagues. The perfect clubhouse. The custom gear. The hero athlete. Shohei Ohtani. Twelve pieces of protection, arm guards, oven mitts, pink bats and maybe some sparkly eye black for good measure.

In the outdoor industry, where I spend most of my time, it’s the same thing. We want to be YETI. We want to be Arc’teryx. We market the summit, the perfect line, the dream adventure.

But what happened to marketing reality?

What about the 99.9% of baseball players grinding somewhere nobody is watching? The high school and travel ball kids whose parents can’t afford every tournament, lesson and piece of gear. The JUCO bandits fighting for a roster spot with 70-plus guys. The crappy fields. The late-night cage sessions. The beat-up cleats. The players without a cool clubhouse, a sponsorship or a camera following them around.

That's baseball too. Maybe that's actually more of baseball.

I keep waiting for a baseball brand to have the balls to build campaigns, products and messaging around that player. Not because they're aspirational, but because they're real.

Show up for them. Support them. Tell their stories. Build gear for them. Sponsor their fields. Put some money behind the programs that need it. Celebrate the kid who keeps showing up when nobody is watching.

We spend so much time marketing where people want to be. Maybe there’s an opportunity in marketing to where people actually are.

I'm waiting for somebody to step up to the plate.

SUPPORT BLUE COLLAR BASEBALL.

Call me if you can't figure out how.

-Schneider