The Rochester Chapter of the American Marketing Association (I am a member of the Board of Directors and publicity chair) hosted B. Thomas Golisano, who is the owner of the Sabres and founder of Paychex, Inc. The title of the presentation was "Reinvigorating the Sabres Brand" where Mr. Golisano focused on their turnaround story. He walked us through the strategies and tactics used to bring the bankrupt Sabres back to being financially stable... and eventually profitable.
Most of Mr. Golisano's tactics were well received except for one. His decision to change the team's logo and color design did not go over well.
"An on-line petition against the new logo had eclipsed the 30,000 signature mark, indicating that growing numbers of Sabres fans hadn't accepted the logo (thanks to Wikipedia)." The press continued to beat on the Sabres for nearly 6 months over this decision.
After researching this further on Google, it looks like the media kept the negative buzz going amongst the fan base. This blogger leaked the story three months before the design was finalized - click here to view.
Golisano claims that his decision to change the logo paid off. Clothing sales of Sabres' attire were up 900 percent last year. This is unheard of in NHL history!
My guess is that it got so much media attention (or shall I say a media slam), that the fans become more and more aware of the Sabres' clothing and product line. It may have been a headache in the short term, but paid off in the long run... thanks to the media's dedication to this topic.
A great man once said, "the only bad publicity is no publicity." That great man was Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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