Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool FC – brands?

Football is a million dollar industry. The sport has a long heritage in UK and has the most prestigious premiership in the world and has attracted players from all four corners of the globe. Most importantly, football inspires passion and the ‘big four’, Chelsea Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool FC, are among the most valuable brands in the country. How has a little white ball and a green field inspired the most successful brand principles that has led to true brand engagement – but is football an actual brand?  

The concept of a sport being a brand may sound a little ridiculous at first, but the figures don’t lie. In 2005, a Brand Finance survey revealed that Manchester United at a brand value of £197m, Liverpool a value of 156m, Chelsea £137m and Arsenal a brand value of £115m.

Brands profit from revenue generated by added values, increased awareness, and faster adoption rates. They also benefit from cost savings gained from loyal customers and lower advertising.

Firstly, brands are people. People make friends with people when they have things in common, want to spend time together, and find something special in the relationship. Football has millions of followers every year that will wear the merchandise, watch the games, talk about it with their friends and probably know the teams chant (theme song).  

Brands make friends with people in exactly the same way – they send out offers by email, football teams send out scores and direct fans to their dedicated websites.

Premierleague.com, the official site of the FA Barclays Premier League, attracted an average of 1.2 million UK visitors per month during the 2007/08 season. The website of Premiership Champions Manchester United, Manutd.com, ranked as the most popular club site with an average of 912,000 visitors per month. Liverpoolfc.tv ranked second with 887,000 visitors, followed by Arsenal.com (718,000 visitors), and Chelseafc.com (402,000 visitors).

 

Branding is about the totality of a customer’s experience – football is about winning, mostly, but it’s without a doubt about entertaining the audience.

There are plenty of branding opportunities in any mass market place, so long as you do not try to copy the market leader. Brand marketing is about niche marketing. Different messages will appeal most to different groups of people. Every football team has their own colours, song, logo, sponsors – strapline.

Brands are best communicated implicitly and let the customer make the connection. If your father follows a certain football team, you follow that team. If your father doesn’t watch football, fans will often choose a team based on popularity, region or players. It’s different every time!

Brands last forever, if managed correctly. World Cups last for ever, shootout goals last for ever and so will David Beckham.

Brands win when they create a powerful experience that is totally compelling to the customer, and deliver it better than anyone else. In football, every one likes to win. In fact, not winning, just isn’t an option.

Love your fans as they love you. Brands are about engagement, they are about the consumer getting something back in return for their time, effort and money. It isn’t always about publicity, winning and losing – it’s about being unique, loyal and like family.

The ‘brand’ is what makes a team stand out. It an identity and it is why people go to games. When a brand can inspire a consumer to interact, wear a certain shirt, yell, scream, sing, shout, jump up and down, get angry, cry – any sort of emotion – that’s engagement. 

Can you think of any other brand that inspires this type of engagement:

 

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