The number one thing I’m hearing is that the Basketball needs to reconnect with the community (see my interview with Michele Timms and John Matthews).
The interest in the sport is huge at grassroots level, but the top tiers of the sport are not making the effort to link to the thousands of junior players and followers.
The NBL is now saying it has to be done, and it WILL be done.
Chris Anstey, Mark Worthington, Sam Mckinnon, are all saying they will do it.
But more concrete commitment is needed. How will it be done?
I highlighted in a previous post the fact that Hummer is still part of many of the NBL logos you will find on their official sites, that is a real worry.
Things like this need to be fixed ASAP.
The AFL has used a number of campaigns recently, to help create exposure and communicate a certain community identity.
Carlton Goes Yellow to raise funds for cancer research
Cancer: Demons’ newest opponent
That is something that the sport of Basketball in Australia and the NBL could use.
I wrote an essay on how the NBA creates and maintains its corporate identity, or image, and the ways that it turned around the way the public viewed the sport after certain "incidents". It is fairly in depth, but worth a look if only to remind yourself all of the changes the NBA has implemented recently to rebuild it's image.
The NBL should certainly be trying to learn from the almighty NBA and how they achieved success in this area.
How the NBA rebuilt their Corporate Identity.
By Ryan Mobilia
Corporate communications are an essential component of managing communications between an organisation and its public. These communications are crucial in creating an identity for the organisation, a set of values and ideals they wish to be associated with, in the mind of their public. (Cornelissen, 2004, p. 185) This essay will discuss the many ways in which the National Basketball Association (NBA) works to build and communicate a corporate identity. It is the intention of this essay to demonstrate, using collected artefacts, the devices used to build and communicate that particular identity to the community. Through critical engagement with those artefacts and a variety of scholarly texts, it will be shown that the NBA uses a number of conventional communication devices, such as rhetorical language and discourse, as well as aspects of non-verbal communication and symbolism, to create their identity. I will also discuss the effectiveness of the devices used by the NBA and how well they persuade and convince us of their ideals and thus forming the basis of their corporate identity.
As an organisation, the NBA is a billion-dollar enterprise, and has gone to great lengths in recent years to rebuild its corporate reputation, in the aftermath of a brawl at a game in 2004, widely recognised as “one of the ugliest scenes in sports history.” (Seitel, 2007 p. 77) The situation brought their corporate reputation and identity to a critical juncture, and the NBA was left to try and turn around the image of their organisation and the community’s growing perception of the NBA as “a halfway house for pampered, self indulgent millionaire athletes, with minimally controlled tempers.” (Seitel, 2007 p. 77)
The NBA brand and its reputation had been significantly damaged. Shortly after the incident, the NBA introduced a number of new rules, regulations and programs to rebuild their corporate identity and communicate their newly formed ideals and initiatives to the community. The most substantial program undertaken was a social responsibility initiative known as ‘NBA Cares’, a way for the NBA to ‘give back’ and engage with the community once more. (Seitel, 2007 p. 79)
An example of the NBA using a communicative device to help establish their identity can be seen through the NBA Cares program, and its use of rhetorical language. According to Marsen (2006, p. 39), “rhetoric is a set of techniques aimed to persuade by using language.” When the discourse of the NBA is examined, many of the written communication messages can be explained as various aspects of rhetorical language.
An ‘epideictic discourse’, which aims at enhancing the image of the NBA and celebrating the values of their organisation, is clearly evident in the mission statement of the NBA Cares program. (Marsen, 2006 p. 40) This exert from the NBA Cares mission statement describes the crux of the program, yet also concisely conveys their ideals:
The NBA is dedicated to demonstrating leadership in social responsibility, using the popularity and visibility of its teams, players and the league to effect positive change around the world….motivated by the unique opportunity to make a profound difference. (NBA Cares, 2009)
Another example of rhetorical language adopted by the NBA is the use of ‘allusion’. It is used in this instance by “making an association between two texts so as to produce a memorable impression.” (Marsen, 2006, p. 43) Under the NBA Cares program there are several key initiatives relating to ‘Health and Wellness’, the largest being ‘Basketball without Borders’. (2008) (Figure 2) In naming their program this way, the NBA links their identity and the values of Basketball without Borders, to the identity and values of the international medical humanitarian organization ‘Doctors without Borders’.
Finally, images can also be rhetorical is nature. In the example of the NBA Cares logo, a ‘heart’ is used as a metonym to signify the intended connection between the NBA and their socially responsible ideals of caring for the world. The ‘basketball’ image from the logo also uses the same device to represent the NBA, rather than having to write the word. (Marsen, 2006, p. 43) (Figure 1.)
A second communicative device used by the NBA, to be analysed here, is ‘non-verbal communication’ and the way they attempt to communicate their corporate identity via “messages expressed through non-linguistic means”. (Adler & Rodman, 2009, p. 134) Images used by the NBA are examples of the way non-verbal communication is employed. It is recognised as being a key aspect of their attempt at building corporate identity and is a device that is used extensively throughout the NBA, particularly with logos and symbols.
The corporate identity of an organisation is often reinforced by the use of logos, colours and typefaces, and in this vein, the NBA produced a number of logos for their NBA Cares initiative. (Cornelissen, 2004 p. 185) These images were separate to their individual brand logo, the meaning of which signified the various humanitarian efforts of the NBA Cares program. The NBA logo signifies the brand, but used in this way, it also signifies their ideals and a set of values, thus successfully communicating their corporate identity.
According to van Riel and Fombrun, (2007, p. 103) internally and externally, symbols attempt to fulfil the function of being a “visible object that is meant to increase someone’s ability to identify with the organisation” and something that can “increase the instinctive recognition of the organisation.” For example, when breaking down the NBA Cares logo, it clearly uses three key symbols to communicate the NBA message and identity to the public.
The first is the image of the ‘globe’, a representation of the world which attempts to be understood as making a global connection, attempting to convey responsibility to a broader area than just the United States. The basketball and the heart image, as discussed earlier, are metonyms symbolising the NBA with one image, and the caring and connection between the NBA and the world with the other. The heart is a particularly strong, persuasive image as it brings together both the NBA and the world using the universal symbol for love.
Another example of the NBA using logos to communicate is the ‘NBA Green’ (2009) program, an environmental initiative under the umbrella of the NBA Cares program. It has also been used widely to help build and create a corporate identity. The logo incorporates the image of the NBA brand and the well known symbol for recycling. As with the NBA Cares logo, the NBA is able to create a powerful connection between the NBA and environmental concerns. Among other devices used to emphasize that environmental issues are one of their core values, the NBA incorporated new green coloured uniforms for its teams, which contained the NBA Green logo. (Figure 3)
Sturken and Cartwright (2001, p. 25) believe, the way that images such as the NBA Cares or ‘NBA Green’ logo affect the public and translate to an NBA identity is “dependant on the larger cultural meanings they invoke.” Environmental issues are extremely topical and with the NBA demonstrating, both on and off the court, their commitment to a relationship with issues such as this, their ideals are easily recognisable and translatable into a corporate identity.
When discussing how well the NBA communicates their corporate identity, it should be noted, van Riel and Fombrun (2007, p.70) contend there are four types of corporate identity. The type that is seen most frequently with the NBA is what they call ‘Applied Identity’, which they describe as “The signals that an organisation broadcasts...through behaviours and initiatives at all levels within the organisation.”(2007)
This is most noticeably seen in the variety of symbols used to explain the numerous branches of the NBA Cares program. Whether it is the issue of education, youth and family development, health and wellness or environment, all logos and discourse are tied back to their intended identity as socially responsible.
Therefore, it is evident through the use of communicative devices such as rhetorical language and non-verbal communication, which the NBA, according to the applied identity definition, has succeeded in providing an unwavering message to their public. They have built a corporate identity structured towards the values and ideals of their effort to bring about positive global change through socially responsible endeavours.
One final point in terms of measuring the effectiveness of the way the NBA communicates its corporate identity, it is important to observe, that the NBA Cares program is continuously kept in the consciousness of the media, those who dictate the news agenda, on account of constant television and website features, and in each team’s media guide where, “…the league is able to make sure the messaging is consistent and available to all members of the media.” (Favorito, 2007, p.177)
In this essay I have discussed the various ways in which the NBA overcame a significant corporate identity issue, and the steps they have taken and continue to take to rectify that issue. Early in the decade, the NBA was faced with a crisis. I have discussed the communicative action taken, implementing the NBA Cares program in response to a perceived lack of positive corporate identity. As the Commissioner of the NBA, David Stern stated shortly after, “You would have to be living someplace else not to realise our players are better than their reputations were described this past season.” (Seitel, 2007 p. 79)
I believe the NBA took specific, swift steps to ensure that organisation turned around the adversity and built and communicated a strong corporate identity. As Hannington comments, “The role of effective communication is important in any organisation at any time but when you are trying to implement change, it is critical.” (2004, p. 40) I believe the NBA communicated concisely, convincing the public of their ideals, and demonstrated their importance and consistency in this area through action and continued innovation and development.
References
2008/09 NBA Community Report (2009)
http://www.nba.com/media/nba_cares/NBA_Cares_Brochure_lowres_version.pdf
ADLER, R.B and RODMAN, G. (2009) The Self, Perception and Communication IN ‘CONTEMPORARY COMMUNICATION’ South Melbourne, Oxford University Press.
Basketball Without Borders (2008) http://www.nba.com/bwb/
CORNELISSON, J. (2004) Corporate Communications, Theory and Practice, Sage Publications, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi.
Doctors Without Borders http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
FAVORITO, J. (2007) Sports Publicity, A Practical Approach, Elsevier Inc.
HANNINGTON, T. (2004) How to measure and manage your corporate reputation, Gower Publishing Ltd.
MARSEN, S. (2006) Communication Studies, Basingstoke, Hampshire; Palgrave Macmillan.
NBA Cares Mission Statement (2009) http://www.nba.com/nba_cares/keyissues.html
NBA Green Mission Statement (2009) http://www.nba.com/green/mission.html
SEITEL, F. (2007) The Practice of Public Relations, 10th Edn, HarperCollins, New York.
STURKEN, M and CARTWRIGHT, L. (2001) Practices of Looking; Image, Power and Politics IN ‘CONTEMPORARY COMMUNICATION’ South Melbourne, Oxford University Press.
VAN RIEL, C.B.M and FOMBRUN, C.J (2007) Essentials of Corporate Communication, Implementing practices for effective reputation management, Routledge, London and New York.
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