story by Dennis Arp’80 / image by Patrick O’Donnel

It wasn't as if the gods of consumer spending one day descended with a swoosh and anointed Tom Boyd as a nationally renowned sports marketing expert.

No, to Boyd, a Cal State Fullerton professor, the journey has been even more intriguing than that.

Twelve years ago, Boyd was teaching cognitive psychology and coaching the women's swim team at Miami University in Ohio when several students asked him how they might forge careers that mixed a love of athletics with an interest in marketing.

"Back then your sports marketing choices pretty much were the NFL or Nike," Boyd recalls. "There really wasn't anything to prepare you for such a career."

So Boyd dove into some research and ended up diverting his own career path. Within two years, he had designed and was teaching his first sports marketing course.

"To my delight," he says, "sports fans turn out to be about the most interesting consumers there are." Sports marketing is a $200 billion-a-year industry, and it seems like everyone wants to get into the game.

Boyd's Cal State Fullerton classes are big, enthusiastic and energizing, he says. Organizations in all of the major sports seek his graduates and often his advice. The makers of shoes and equipment, sports drinks and SUVs, credit cards and cell phones all crave a piece of the action. Along with the beer companies, of course.

"Sports is everywhere and touches just about everybody," Boyd says. "What other industry has its own section of the newspaper? In what other industry do marketers have no control over the quality of the product but are still responsible for selling it?

"It's a fascinating field at the cutting edge of marketing trends."

Many of the latest industry strategies began with sports-related selling, including product placement, affinity marketing and event sponsorship, Boyd says. "A lot of what we do and study isn't in any textbooks yet."

Boyd divides his time between teaching, consulting and research. He recently finished work on two studies; one examines the effectiveness of
Major League Baseball promotions and the other looks at the success of popular athletes as product endorsers.

In the latter study, Boyd and his colleagues unearthed findings that might make companies think twice about hitching their products to a star. The controlled study compared consumer reaction to a product endorsed by a Super Bowl-winning quarterback (New England Patriot Tom Brady) with response to the same product endorsed by an anonymous model researchers identified as a star linebacker for the Patriots.

The product scored just as well with the fake endorser as it did with the real one.

For Boyd and his students, the burning question becomes: Should a company pay an athlete for his fame? Boyd's conclusion: Only when it's an appropriate fit.

In other words, Tiger Woods might be great at helping Nike sell golf equipment, but is Buick getting enough bang for its $30 million?

"Those are the kinds of questions I ask when I lay awake at night," Boyd says with a smile.

Though Boyd has gained his own measure of fame as a voice of expertise sought out by TV, radio and print journalists, he says teaching is still the most fun part of his job.

"No contest," he says. "I'm a ham, and I love the interaction with the students. I also enjoy a good rant, so I appreciate the chance to get up on my soap box."

Unfortunately, a glut of candidates means graduates face the prospect of long hours and low pay at least to start.

After his students find work, they often invite Boyd to games. It's hard to argue against the sports marketing life, Boyd admits, when he's sitting back and enjoying a game as he also does a little field research.

"I almost feel guilty," he says.

Almost.