Marketing gets pigeonholed into a series of dos and don’ts. While some marketing basics never become less relevant, some of the most innovative marketing comes from thinking outside the box.
The Savannah Bananas baseball team has been making waves for the past few years for refusing to fall in line. Their unique marketing campaign of brightly colored uniforms, playful dances, and dramatic entrances have made them a legendary presence in modern sports.
Try these 5 marketing tips for small businesses straight out of the Savannah Bananas playbook.
#1: Center the Needs of a Modern Audience
The Savannah Bananas are a sports team for a modern audience. Today’s sports fans not only want to see a memorable baseball game, they want to remain connected through social media or enjoy extra behind-the-scenes content.
How did this sports team meet that demand? They meet their audience right where they are. They make fun dances to upload on TikTok, keep multiple active social media presences, and regularly pop up in digital news cycles.
This tip blends modern tools with an old philosophy: meet your audience where they are. In a world that constantly tries to reinvent the marketing wheel, speaking your audience’s language has never, ever failed.
#2: Color Psychology Still Reigns Supreme
What do you think of when you see Savannah Bananas? If you said bright yellow suits and baseball uniforms, you’ve already recognized the power of color psychology.
Color psychology taps into the subtle, yet powerful emotions we experience when looking at certain colors or color combinations. Yellow is frequently a color associated with happiness. It’s also a color that makes us more alert (hence why yield signs and traffic lights use it).
This baseball team wants you to sit up, pay attention, and have fun. It’s a small wonder why they chose yellow. When coming up with your brand’s marketing materials, think about how you can create a certain mood or encourage a certain response through your colors.
#3: Identity is Everything
One of the worst things you can do for your small business is to make it look like everyone else’s. A unique brand identity is vital to stand out among the hundreds of businesses offering similar spins on the same product or service.
Savannah Bananas didn’t want to be just like every other baseball team. They wanted to blend cheeky humor with a modern marketing touch. As you can clearly see, it’s more than paid off.
Brand identity embodies brand voice, color psychology, logos, public relations, and even the type of content you prefer to make. Instead of constantly asking how you can be more like X or Y, ask how you can be you.
#4: Stay Active in Your Industry
When’s the last time you reached out to a trade magazine to see if they needed a new op-ed from small businesses? One of the key marketing lessons I want you to take away is to stay active in your industry, whether it’s through interviews, features, or brief mentions.
Their public relations team is just as active as their marketing team. The Savannah Bananas have been featured in many news sites and magazines like Sports Illustrated and Forbes features.
#5: Don’t Be Afraid to Try and Fail
All the marketing tips in the world won’t replace a fear-based approach. You can’t achieve great marketing while being afraid to fail.
The Savannah Bananas could have completely flopped in their efforts to be the next great baseball team. They could have lost thousands of followers or a huge chunk of revenue. Instead, they’ve become a shining example of why you should mix classic marketing approaches with digital tools.
Experimentation will always come with the possibility of failure, but it also comes with the possibility of more success than you ever thought possible.
Even if you do fail? That failure is an investment in your future success as long as you keep trying.
This year (and the next), take a leaf from the Savannah Bananas book. Their approach is a much-needed return to form in a marketing world that’s become defined by hypercaution.