Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole discusses his journey with marketing students on Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Fletcher Hall. Photo by Angela Foster
The man in the yellow hat made a virtual appearance to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Gary W. Rollins College of Business, and he wasn’t monkeying around.
On Oct. 28, Jesse Cole, owner of the American sensation Savannah Bananas, discussed his journey of owning the baseball team with UTC marketing students over Zoom.
Donning his iconic yellow top hat and tuxedo, Cole recalled his humble beginnings and the perseverance it took to build a business from 200 fans in the stands to selling out college football stadiums.
“There was no money,” he said. “$268 in the bank account, but I was really hungry as a guy who played competitive Division I baseball. I wanted to win and my winning was to make a team successful that was failing. You can see behind me; I just started reading every single book I could—from Walt Disney to P.T. Barnum, to Apple, to Jeff Bezos, to the Grateful Dead, to SNL, to ESPN, to Cirque du Soleil, to WWE.
“I just started reading about some of the best customer service, most entertaining brands, and started testing and learning.”
UTC Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship Associate Lecturer Ryan Russell is known for organizing celebrity guest speakers. He believes hearing real-world success stories from industry leaders provides students with a unique opportunity.
Through numerous selfless donations to Bananas Foster, the Savannah Bananas’ nonprofit that educates and inspires people about foster care, Russell secured Cole for students.
In past years, Russell organized speaking events featuring billionaire businessman Mark Cuban and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy.
Now, Russell has added the founder of Banana Ball to that list.
“The number one thing I wanted especially for celebrity guest speakers is to bring value to the class,” Russell said. “Their marketing and entrepreneurship knowledge is going to invest in their futures and give them things they can take away that are really, really good tactical things.
“A second important component is joy. If all my kids get out of college and it’s just the stuff that they learn, that’s not enough. This needs to be fun. This needs to be memorable. This needs to be exciting. Our celebrity guest speakers can be a great part of not just learning things but having fun while they’re doing it.”
Russell said the guest speakers have all brought different lessons for the marketing students. Cuban brought practical advice about starting a business. Portnoy discussed tactics he employed to grow his business.
Cole always prioritizes the consumer experience.
Ryan Russell and students listen to Jesse Cole speak.
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Click here to watch Jesse Cole’s visit. Click here to watch Mark Cuban’s Zoom visit to Ryan Russell’s class. To see Dave Portnoy’s appearance, click here.
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“We were obsessed with making the show better,” Cole said. “We made the show better to sell out every single game in traditional baseball, but what we realized is that fans were leaving games early. There were still parts of the game that were boring. Mound visits, stepping out of the box, walks, all of these are parts of the game that drag a nine-inning game. With a blowout, it could be a three-and-a-half-hour game and fans were leaving early.”
Starting with traditional baseball games, Cole used attendance data to identify when the Bananas were losing their audience. From there, he implemented rules that would keep the audience engaged.
Enter in-game dancing, playing on stilts and the ability to influence the game from the stands.
Russell said all of these changes incorporate the “four Ps” of marketing: product, place, price and promotion.
“It’s grit and then the purpose behind the grit and the way that’s influenced the product, the places that they go, the price point of all of the tickets, the concessions that they offer, and the way that they promote. Who better to speak to my students about the four Ps of marketing?”
UTC junior Blake Holligan, majoring in business management, wasn’t familiar with Cole or the Bananas but was excited to hear from someone so successful.
“It was really cool how set on himself and set on his plan he was,” Holligan said. “He always wanted to do what he wanted to do to the billionth degree and give it 100%.
“It was very helpful seeing real-world scenarios and how they correlate with the concepts in our marketing class.”
For junior Isaac Durby, who is majoring in business finance with minors in economics and ROTC military science and leadership, it was a day to meet the man who often appears on his social media feeds.
“He said, ‘It’s not about chasing your passion. It’s about doing what gives you energy,’” Durby said. “That resonated with me because I always looked at my life to see where I need to follow my passion. People give that as advice all the time but I’ve never heard about what gives you energy.
“I enjoyed listening to him say that and go on about how baseball was his passion. But what gave him energy was how he coached the team, how he marketed himself, how he became part of this multimillion-dollar franchise.”
Durby, like Holligan, saw the connections to his marketing courses.
“It helps because he mentioned a lot of things about what we go over,” he said. “Whether it’s the customer is always right, how different marketing things correlate, and what Jesse’s saying—how they need to price their products and promote them.”
While Russell hopes students will take away business lessons from their time with Cole, he wants them to take away something more significant—the moment.
“What a blast,” he said. “It’s a core memory that I’ll never forget and hope my kids don’t forget either. I hope it’s tactical, strategic and emotional for all of them.”
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Gary W. Rollins College of Business
UTC Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Jesse Cole speaks with marketing students during a Zoom call.
