Marketing Doctor pays it forward to Holyoke Sporting Goods

Oct. 20, 2021 | Miasha Lee

Founder and President of Marketing Doctor Janet Casey and Owner Betsy Frey of Holyoke Sporting Goods.
Reminder Publishing photo by Miasha Lee

HOLYOKE – Marketing Doctor hosted a press conference on Oct. 15 to announce Holyoke Sporting Goods as the winner of their 30K advertising contest.

Marketing Doctor is a media planning and buying agency in Northampton working with clients in 44 states and nationally in public health, economic development and consumer products. They are recognized as one of the fastest growing advertising agencies in the United States.

“We want this to be a celebration of women-owned small businesses and also our Western Massachusetts local business community,” said Senior Content Writer Dawn Heiderman. “This is our first time having this contest. We’ve been very grateful that our agency has been growing. Thankfully we’ve won a lot of awards and normally we would have a party, but this year given the circumstances it didn’t feel right to host a big party. Instead, we wanted to celebrate these awards by paying it forward to our community and sharing our knowledge with another deserving local business.”

Located on 1584 Dwight St., Holyoke Sporting Goods is a traditional hometown sporting goods store that sells equipment and clothing to schools, leagues and businesses.

The store was established in 1928 by James Cleary. When Cleary passed away in 1954, Ernie Brunault bought the business. By 1984, Brunault's daughter Betsy started working at the store and when he decided to retire in 1994, Brunault sold the business to her.

“I saw the contest advertised on MassLive and thought I’d give it a try,” Owner Betsy Frey responded. “During this pandemic, I learned that without being able to have my retail business opened I need to rethink my business in terms of what I do, what I do best and what I need help with, so I thought having a professional to guide me might be the way to go. They told me they have great ideas and big plans. I don’t know what they are, but I'm eager to find out what they are.”

Marketing Doctor’s President and Founder Janet Casey told Reminder Publishing what made Holyoke Sporting Goods different was that there was an uphill battle that Frey has to climb. She is competing with Amazon and other online vendors niching in schools. She’s a small business in Holyoke that has been there many decades, but has never got on the electronic platform in a meaningful way. She needs help with the technology and marketing side. They didn’t think it was going to happen unless someone like them jumped in to help get her there.

“Betsy met all of the criteria beautifully. We fell in love with the mission and the story,” Casey replied. “She has strong community ties, a family-owned business and a business we felt we can help with the services that we provide.”

So far, Casey said the manager of Marketing Doctor’s Client Services department, Michaela Schwartz, led a team meeting with Frey to go over goals and preliminary ideas. The Marketing Doctor team is now in the strategy building phase and will work closely with Frey to align the goals of Holyoke Sporting Goods with a marketing plan that includes digital and traditional media platforms.

Casey concluded, “We’ve been in business for 18 years and other companies who are either just starting or struggling through COVID we knew we could help them. We wanted to pay it forward and knew we could make a difference for another business.”

For more information about Marketing Doctor, visit their website at mymarketingdoctor.com

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