The Tray Way: Marketing Tips You Can Learn from the Final Four

After a grinding college basketball season and a tough NCAA Tournament, we are down to the Final Four basketball teams in the country: Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas and Ohio State. Four qualified teams that have had to work hard to be in the position they are in.

So the question becomes, “who will win this weekend?” Sure, your brackets were filled out weeks ago and the decision on which teams to pick were based on everything from field goal percentage to locations of the schools.

We decided to make our Final Four game predictions based on what we know best: Branding, specifically taking the most visual representation the four teams have – their jerseys - and analyzing their colors and font styles to determine which represents the key ingredients needed to be winners.

In general, "reds" (and other “warm” colors) are more aggressive, exciting, energetic, and dominant. In contrast, “blues” (and other cool colors) are masculine, calm and tranquil.

As for fonts, those that are “blocky” and san serif imply power and strength, while serifed fonts offer a more traditional and classic feel.

While all of these descriptions can be beneficial at one point or another on the basketball court, based on our research and marketing experience, if it were on branding alone, Louisville and Ohio State would be meeting in the Finals.

Now, obviously, the teams will need a lot more than jerseys to be successful, which brings us to our broader point, These teams will not be basing their strategy on one specific aspect. They will be integrating several strategies in order to make situations work to their advantage. The same has to be done in the business world for marketing. Using the experience that print marketers have to develop a visually appealing and impactful piece of collateral is important, but it has to be part of an overall integrated marketing strategy. Images, combined with messages, distribution, technology and other components give you the best chance to be victorious.

The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages. For information about the company and its successes, visit www.traypml.com