Five Questions: Sarah Dutchik

Q: What does your new job entail?

A: I take care of selling the company to the public without doing sales – I do promotional (efforts) and community interaction. I’m also in charge of advertising and choosing where those advertising dollars go. So I’m here to take everything that this bank has to offer and put it out to the community and let them know what’s going on here and why people should come here to us.

Q: How is marketing for a bank different from marketing for sports?

A: Money is more of a necessity in life – financial investment is something that you have to have. So I think a bank reaches people more on a more personal level. Sports are not a necessity. They like to go to the game and be energetic about a particular team, but it’s not a necessity.

Also, the bank industry is quite a bit more reserved than the sports industry. I kind of felt like it was time to grow up and get a big-girl job, coming over to the bank from doing sports all day.

Q: Are there similarities between the two jobs?

A: The similarity is that it’s all about dealing with the community. Two important things to any community are money and entertainment. That’s what everybody is looking for. A lot of what I did there is similar to what I do here – getting people involved. There it was getting people to come to the stadiums, having tailgate parties and setting up player appearances. Here, I’m getting people to come to the bank.

Q: Why do you think a bank hired someone from the sports world? Have you been asked to scale back any of your ideas?

A: Most banks are more reserved. But there are so many banks out there, and my job is to make this bank stick out like a sore thumb. So far I have not been asked to scale down any suggestions. I always tell my vice president, ‘Don’t tell me what you did last year. Let my mind run wild and let’s see what we come up with, and then if you have to scale it down, that’s fine.’ In sports, we could get away with anything – we’d have people come in full red body paint trying to get tickets to a game. I don’t think we’ll see much of that in the bank, but you never know what my mind will come up with.

Q: Do you have to be a sports fan to be successful in sports marketing?

A: No. Honestly, I got into sports radio through an internship out of college. It’s not something I ever thought I would pursue. I’m a St. Louisan, so I’m born and bred to be a die-hard Cardinal fan. But I can’t say I was an overall sports fan. I’m a people fan, and sports bring in a lot of people. So I don’t think you have to be a huge sports fan to work in sports marketing. But when you’re working in it, your love of the sport grows – you get to know the players and you’re right there, being hands-on.[[In-content Ad]]