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Touchline issue 23 | April 2016 | 29
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T
here is nothing new about brand management,
but it would seem that the community of sports
are yet to fully embrace the theory. For many, a
brand is simply the emblem of the club: but this
would be taking the word at its most literal. In
actual fact, the brand is an intangible feeling
that a supporter has towards their club or player.
This feeling, ideally, should be innate for the supporter: they should
be able to define the brand, but they should not be aware of where
this found its genesis. For the club, the way the brand is managed
should occur at every layer of the organisation and should be very
carefully and strategically managed. Sport is already huge business,
and brand management will become increasingly central to how
clubs make their money in the future.
Clubs should aim to become something more than just a place
where people kick a ball or a person runs fast. They should come to
represent the values that the fans want to see in themselves. The
term used in brand management is “religious”. They should reach a
point where they are loyal despite fluctuations in form and during
the inevitable scandals. They should be attempting to gain and
maintain strong brand equity.
Brand equity is the value of the name of the brand. When a club can
capture a solid and well-defined chain of values, then the equity is
high. In the business world, Coca-Cola has the highest brand equity
in the world. This does not mean the highest profit, but it shows that
the brand is very clearly defined in the minds of consumers.
The biggest teams in the world come with high brand equity by
default. But that equity should mean something if the clubs are to
maintain that value.
Barcelona FC has impeccable equity. Not only are they one of
the most consistently successful clubs in world football, but their
success actually means something. Fans around the globe keep
supporting them for a number of reasons.
First, they have a stated vision that determines how they play. No
Barcelona team will ever play on the counter or via the long ball:
their brand presents them as a slick passing, attacking team. This is
a tradition founded in the 1970s and helps makes the club different.
Then there is the outward appearance. Packaging in brand
management is crucial as it should press certain buttons for the
consumer. Barcelona rarely change the design of their red and blue
stripes. This season has seen a small but significant change, but one
that touches on their skillful manipulation of branding.
They have changed their away kit to red and yellow stripes, which
is pointedly the same as the Catalan flag. Barcelona has therefore
aligned itself with the pro-independence movement, which is
complex within Spain, but is undeniably fashionable outside of
Europe. It speaks to a club that believes in personal rights and
independence.
Speaking of which, Barcelona spent decades without a shirt sponsor.
This too created a difference between them and other clubs, adding
an element of purity to an already over-commercialised sport.
When they finally did adopt a shirt sponsor, they added Unicef,
suggesting their concern for human rights. In the pragmatic and
mercenary world of football, Barcelona stood out as a club that
cared about values and people.
This may have been a skillful manipulation, but essentially, this is
what brand management does: it uses the prejudices and desires of
supporters to create equity.
Sporting clubs are limited in managing their brands by points of
parity and points of difference. Effectively, they are defined by
traditions and history, but contained by the fact that they all do
pretty much the same thing: seek to win. Some have won more, and
this floats their equity. Some had a golden era, and this is frequently
reflected and sold on as brand equity.
Another case of brand management can be seen in Rugby League.
The holistic branding of the sport as played in Australia is based on
its working-class roots. In the past, Manly-Warringah was reviled as
“silver-tails”, as they were based in the richer northern suburbs of
Sydney.
In 1996-8, when the National Rugby League went to war with Rupert
Murdoch’s News Corporation, supporters were in a state of deep
flux and anxiety. Clubs were axed or amalgamated, players and
coaches poached, and many life-long supporters were permanently
disillusioned regarding the sport. A new team had no innate brand
identity, no defining point of difference. It simply became a team
that played in a certain place.
Worse, amalgamated teams would play their home games
spread over two stadia. Their colours changed, their badges were
altered. Rather than having no identity, teams like the Western
Tigers or St. George Illawarra Dragons had fractured identities.
The entire process hurt the game immeasurably from a branding
stand-point.
Looking at the two cases, it is clear that handling a brand in sports
is not easy. It takes constant reflection, care and a very clear vision.
The challenge of making each club different is hard enough, but
getting them to reflect the values of their fans? That is the challenge.
CLUB BRANDING:
HOW SPORT IS COMMODITISED
By Timothy Mottram