The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Recently got the Great Deals Magazine in the mail. Lo and Behold the athletic dept bought the front page of it to advertise this year's football schedule. The brown and gold cover was pretty dark looking but it had the schedule on it and a slogan "GET TO THE GAME!" on it in big letters under the Bronco logo. Then under that... "See Inside For Special Event and Ticket Ordering Information!"

Okay, so this Great Deals thing is a COUPON magazine. This issue has about 60 pages and it's chock full of businesses offering special deals and coupons for their products and/or services.

Leaf through it far enough (about 2/3rds of the way thru) and sure enough there's the Bronco page. Full page. Same dark color scheme as on the cover. Same schedule info repeated from the cover. Same info at the bottom for broncos.com and the ticket office #.

So what's missing? A COUPON!! People open up these magazines for one and one reason only: To clip a few coupons and get a good deal or two on something. 99% of the advertisements in Great Deals have coupons! ...except the Bronco one. Fail.

The only thing different inside is some offer to attend a variety of WMU athletic events where you buy vouchers and get a discount in doing so. Call xxx-xxxx for more details. Are you kidding?!

It's a COUPON MAGAZINE! Throw some decent deals on there and give the casual community a reason to give it a try. That's who the target audience is. Very, very few people opening that magazine are going to be interested in season tickets or some involved voucher scheme.

Marketing Outreach Fail.