255- Que blog o do Kevin Spraggett!!

Tem um blog que visito todos os dias que acho sensacional: é o do GM canadense Kevin Spraggett (na lista de links de Maiakowsky)! tem xadrez de alta qualidade, composições, exercícios de tática e muito, muito humor!! Recomendo!!

Abaixo posto uma reflexão do GM canadense sobre um recente estudo brasileiro de marketing esportivo: "carência de visibilidade e prestígio no xadrez". Esse é o tema em pauta nas discussões dos blogs e remete, obrigatoriamente, a correlações com a gestão em entidades oficiais, posturas de jogadores,etc.
Estão faltando seminários, reuniões, etc para se discutir aspectos relevantes da gestão da produção da atividade enxadrística. Mas, a quem interessa isso? no amado xadrez local passamos pelo pior momento dessa nossa "Teoria dos Jogos": cada "jogador" só pensa em maximizar seu interesse e o ponto ótimo de equilíbrio está cada vez mais longe.

Bem, lembrei que estou de férias! bom domingo e boa semana a todos!

Chess lacks ''visibility and prestige''; MARKETING STUDY

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Yesterday ,on the highly respected portuguese website http://aladerei.e-xadrez.com/ , appeared a small article about a recently published sports-marketing study in Brazil. The company responsible for this study was a brazilian company: J.Cocco Sport Marketing.

This study is very interesting because it approaches sports marketing from a purely business/sponsorship focus. What does the sponsor get in return for his investment? What is the sport that is best tailored to each sponsor's individual needs?

This company is the industry leader in Brazil with more than 30 years experience in the field of administration, sports and marketing.

It has created http://ranksportmarketing.com.br/index1.php the only reliable tool/indicator available (according to the company) for the evaluation , assessment and modelling in the area of sports marketing in Brazil. Keep in mind that Brazil is the 5th most populated country in the world (estimated 190 million) and there is plenty of sunshine and leisure time.

J. Cocco Sport Marketing uses PhotoMind, a process that photographs, measures and evaluates the degree and quality of recall by sports event spectators. It is similar to Visual Impact Methodology (VIM). It is all greek to me, but rest assured that it is well respected by industry specialists! There are hundreds of millions of dollars (even billions!) of sponsorships at stake, and these marketing tools have to be proven effective.

As the study took place in Brazil, only those sports practiced in Brazil were considered. (Clearly, for Canada the list of sports would be slightly different .) Out of the 55 sports considered, Chess ranked 38th, having fallen 2 places since the last study in October of 2006.




At the top of the list is, clearly, soccer (everyone in Brazil plays!) , followed by volleyball, car racing, tennis, gymnastics,golf etc.

The study is based on 20 different criteria, taking into account sex, economic and geographic factors, as well as visibility/ coverage in the media, popularity among different age groups amongst other elements.

The study is revealing about the place of chess in Brazilian society (chess is more popular in Brazil than Canada, so you can draw the appropriate conclusions!) . In essence, according to this study, chess is seen to be a marginal activity , both by the general population and the potential sponsors. In particular, chess lacks both visibility and prestige.

We Canadian chess players can relate to this study from our own personal experiences. Especially in Toronto, Canada's biggest city, chess has zero visibility and the chess community that exists is fighting a losing battle. What few clubs can be found are being quickly pushed farther and farther from the city centre.

We sometimes get excited when chess elements are found in the occasional advertizement, but we forget that there are hundreds of thousands of advertizements.

In these circumstances, it should be clear to all that the only ones who can help improve the situation are the chess players themselves. The chess organizations in Canada today (CFC, CMA, and the provincial associations) do not have any community-wide visibility . Any future that chess might have in Canada will likely not be connected to these weak and ineffective organizations. The stereotype is dead.

There are fewer chess columns than at any previous point in Canadian history, for example. The CFC is on the verge of bankruptcy and is cutting back both services to its dwindling memberships and promotional activities. The CMA organizes nothing for the average player and its school program is stagnating. The provincial associations are impotent.

I think that the worse thing any organizer can do, given the results of the recent study, is to continue to organize chess events in church basements and vacant community centres and school cafeterias: chess needs to improve its visibility!

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS