The University of Kansas men's basketball team had secured its win against the University of Colorado long before scoring its 97th point. But one Jayhawk fan still felt anxious waiting for the game's final minutes to tick away.
"I didn't realize how many points KU could score," said Jamie Bossert, owner of Jersey Mike's Subs in Lawrence. "It made me nervous."
The Kansas versus Colorado match on January 27 was the debut of Jersey Mike's promotion for men's home basketball games, which takes 10 cents off any sub for each point the Jayhawks score over 50.
With the final score of 97 to 74, customers received a discount of $4.70 if they showed a KU student ID or ticket stub from the game. Bossert said regular sandwiches range in price from $4.95 to $6.25.
"People basically get a free sandwich," Bossert said. "We lose money on it."
Though costly in the short-term, offers like Jersey Mike's give a boost to sales by gaining fans' goodwill and getting them talking.
"It's a win for them," said Denise Linville, associate professor of journalism who specializes in marketing. "It creates buzz and gets people talking about their brand. They're hoping to have some type of association with the excitement and fun of KU basketball."
Jersey Mike's discount lasted for one week, and Bossert said it brought in more business than usual, with about 80 customers using the discount by its sixth day.
Linville said she believes discounts like Jersey Mike's are more effective at getting people into a store than running a print ad or buying ad space inside Allen Fieldhouse. She referred to Jersey Mike's discounted sandwiches as a loss leader: although the business loses money on sandwiches, it gains complementary sales like chips and drinks.
"There's a psychological principle there," Linville said. "A lot of people donít feel right just getting something for free."
Ashley Durkee, Manhattan junior, had never been to Jersey Mike's, but went after hearing about the promotion from a friend. She bought chips and a drink with her discounted sandwich because she felt bad paying less than a dollar for the sub.
"I felt guilty," Durkee said. "Especially because I didn't even have to go to the game to get the discount."
Linville said that although a promotion like Jersey Mike's costs a business money in the short-term, it puts the company in a favorable light in customers' minds, which likely increases future sales.
Jason Hupp, manager of Advanced Auto Parts on 6th Street, said the "Clean the Glass" promotion that his business does at men's basketball games is successful in bringing in future sales. If the team snatches 40 rebounds during a home game, fans receive a free gallon of wiper fluid at Advanced Auto Parts by showing a KU student ID or ticket stub from the game.
"People come in and just get the wiper fluid, but then come back when they need something else," Hupp said.
The "Clean the Glass" promotion has made Advanced Auto Parts a well-known presence in Lawrence. Hupp said that wiper fluid regularly costs 98 cents a gallon, and about 50 to 75 people come in for wiper fluid per game, though word of the promotion reaches over 16,000 people in Allen Fieldhouse.
Jamie Woods, sports marketing manager for Advanced Auto Parts, said the company does its "Clean the Glass" promotion for six other college basketball teams, and does similar promotions for college football teams, minor league baseball teams and minor league hockey teams.
Sports fans are an especially loyal market according to Max Utsler, associate professor of journalism who teaches Sports, Media and Society. Initially losing money by offering a discount can end up being advantageous for businesses if in return they gain sports' fans loyalty.
"It's a very popular thing to do at sporting events," Utsler said. "You're not going to see a promotion like this for who's voted into the House of Representatives."
Utsler said the Kansas City Royals' "Krispy Kreme Dozen for a Dozen" promotion is an example of effective sports marketing through offering free or discounted products.
"I thought it was one of the smartest things to do," he said. "They should've done it at every ballpark in the country."
For four seasons, whenever the Royals batted 12 hits on their home field, fans could redeem their ticket stub for a dozen Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts. The Royals reached the 12-hit mark during 80 home games over the four years, which Utsler said is about as often as most other major league baseball teams.
"Once it got rolling, it gained a kind of pop culture attraction," Utsler said.
Fans would begin chanting for doughnuts after the eleventh hit, and a giant pulsing doughnut would appear on the JumboTron each time a batter stepped up to the plate. The Kansas City Star ran a photo of Royals fans cashing in their ticket stubs for Krispy Kreme doughnuts on an August 2003 cover page.
"You can't buy coverage like that," Utsler said.
Despite the heavy exposure, Royals president Dan Glass announced January 19 that the promotion would not continue for the Royals' 2007 season.
"It completely baffled me," Utsler said. "I think the Royals were surprised, too."
If the promotion was hurting Krispy Kreme financially, Utsler said the solution would have been to restrict the times and the locations where fans could collect the doughnuts, or to raise the number of hits required for the promotion to take effect.
Bossert of Jersey Mike's did exactly that. Instead of 40 points, the discount now begins after the Jayhawks score 60. Instead of a one-week promotion, the discount is now good for two days.
The promotion has become more popular despite the new stipulations. In the two days following the Jayhawks' win over Kansas State on February 7 -- once again with a score of 97 -- Bossert said about 100 customers used the $3.70 discount, over triple the number of customers per day from the first discount.
"I knew the high score was a good thing because we were going to have a lot of people in here," Bossert said. "And we believe that if someone tries our food, they'll come back."