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The New York Knicks partnered with Translation, a marketing agency founded by Steve Stoute, to help improve their brand.

Stoute is a former executive of several music labels, as well as the former manager of Nas and Mary J. Blige.

In discussing his branding strategy, Stoute said that it was important to separate the Knicks brand with James Dolan's personal brand.

“His brand, and the New York Knicks brand, and MSG, stand on their own. That’s the way it has to be," said Stoute.

Translation has previously worked on State Farm's "Cliff Paul" and Budweiser's "Made in America" campaigns.

“We have a ways to go. People can say what they want, but the world knows when you get it right -- when the New York team is winning -- basketball is better. When the New York Knicks are right, the NBA is a better place. That is the opportunity," added Stoute.

Via Scott Soshnick/Bloomberg

and what can a Marketing agency do to make the Knicks a winning Basketball Team? dolan and his peers need to go for that

Improve the brand? The best improvement for the brand would be for Dolan to sell.

Let’s not actually make the team better but let’s make us look like the coolest losers.

As someone who studies marketing I laugh at some of these comments. This is very important for a team.

The Lakers are a good example of a strong brand despite inept ownership. It doesnt scare free agents and people supported them despite being bad. Lob city is also an another brand that separated themselves from Donald Sterling for a brief moment before the Magic Johnson fiasco. In that brief time they landed solid FAs as well.

Is this supposed to make us forget about you firing Mills at the end of the season?

LOL, stupid **** Knicks. The problem isn't marketing, the franchise has tripled in value in less than 20 years. The problem is product QUALITY. Get some real players here and get some upper management that's worth a damn. Imagine how much faster it would grow with a quality team. The fact that they are one of the most valuable sport franchises despite being terrible for the last 20 years speaks volumes. The only reason they are still afloat is because the NY market is so big, but that's going to change with the Nets out there if the Knicks don't start putting some quality piece together. And for god's sake, sell the team, Dolan. More people buy mech when you actually have good players. Nobody's lining up at the store to buy Randle or Morris jerseys.

bqmuzik wrote:As someone who studies marketing I laugh at some of these comments. This is very important for a team.

The Lakers are a good example of a strong brand despite inept ownership. It doesnt scare free agents and people supported them despite being bad. Lob city is also an another brand that separated themselves from Donald Sterling for a brief moment before the Magic Johnson fiasco. In that brief time they landed solid FAs as well.

Marketing is important, but that's definitely not a problem for the Knicks. Keep in mind that the Knicks are $300m more valuable than the Lakers despite being terrible to mediocre for 20 years. I get that MSG creates some of that value, but the NY marketing is just fine. The garden still sells out despite that. LA has 5 titles in that time and the Knicks still have more value. If the Knicks REALLY want to boost their growth rate any higher, the only way is to start winning and hiring some quality executives, coaches and players.

Right now, the primary thing the Knicks struggle with is merch sales. I don't care if you spend a billion dollars on marketing, you aren't going to convince a large amount of people to buy Jerseys for anybody on the current roster, aside for maybe Mitchell Robinson or RJ Barret for the hardcore homer fans, but I think Knicks fans are skeptical of young players at this point considering the Knicks horrible drafting record. I never buy Jerseys for young guys, 90% of them are gone within 2-3 years.

bqmuzik wrote:As someone who studies marketing I laugh at some of these comments. This is very important for a team.

The Lakers are a good example of a strong brand despite inept ownership. It doesnt scare free agents and people supported them despite being bad. Lob city is also an another brand that separated themselves from Donald Sterling for a brief moment before the Magic Johnson fiasco. In that brief time they landed solid FAs as well.

I have a marketing degree (among others) and yes, marketing is very important for a team. Problem is that the Knicks are not having trouble with marketing. The Knicks have a ton of problems...like a laundry list of them...marketing is not on it though. The Knicks sell out and have fans all over the world. The Knicks have one of the strongest brands in all the sports world. The Knicks have all of this despite the terrible front office and owner. Look at the comments from players who spurn the Knicks...marketing is not going to fix the Knicks problems. Those problems start getting fixed when the owner sells and the house gets cleaned.

bqmuzik wrote:As someone who studies marketing I laugh at some of these comments. This is very important for a team.

The Lakers are a good example of a strong brand despite inept ownership. It doesnt scare free agents and people supported them despite being bad. Lob city is also an another brand that separated themselves from Donald Sterling for a brief moment before the Magic Johnson fiasco. In that brief time they landed solid FAs as well.

i studied markekting as well. and the knicks issues are definately not brand related. literally every player says what a legendary franchise the knicks are. FAs dont join the knicks because of their incompetence basketball wise.

How is the lakers brand so strong, when lebron only joined because of its weather and hollywood. PG and Kahwi wanted to play at home. AD only joined because of lebron. All these years before they didnt get any big names besides Howard and Nash, who both didnt show up on the court. And that one year with malone and payton.

New York doesnt have that. sure they can try to make New York look better as a city, but the knicks brand is really not the problem that translates to the results on the court, which literally is the only reason people dont come here. And the only one to blame for that is the owner and the front offices he hires.

The knicks have a loosing culture and that needs to change. no branding/marketing guru can provide that

The best FAs clearly not sold on “wanting to be a Knick”. So there are 8 guys in the world that have to be sold on the brand. Beyond that they have an amazing brand. Do they need a marketing agency for that? Need some luck in first round picks too.