I'm going to write a dissertation next semester and I want to base it on Arsenal in the Marketing context. My first problem is what to write and I need to write about their problem, but that is hard! Do they have any problems? Generally, they're already successful in their market. The only two problems I can think of so far are their plans for the new stadium and competing with Manchester United for attracting International fans like you guys (lol), so they can generate more money. Which content is better to write about, or do you guys have any better ideas?
What about that issue with changing the team crest so that it can be copywrited in order to prevent people from copying it? There has to be more than enough material in microfilm newspapers to write about that. And if you have to come up with a hypothetical, you can write about a similar situation.
Football and marketing go hand in hand, but marketing in football will always be a little different. Yech... marketing in football. The dark side
Goonerette, I don't see how you could write more than 2 or 300 hundred pages on something like this Here are just some thoughts, some mentioned above: 1. old crest v. new crest 2. That guy who sells stuff outside THOF just won in court 3. New media 4. TV rights 5. foreign fans 6. market floatation v. privately held 7. Shirt sponsorships 8. Champions League 9. Club v. country 10. Ambush marketing There are many, many books that have been published in the last 10 years regarding the business of football, they all probably have some relevant information worth footnoting. I would look to speak with the following people at Arsenal: Jill Smith - Supporters' Liaison Chris Bevan - Marketing Richard Clarke - arsenal.com Andy Exley - Arsenal publication Try to find somebody at Nike as well.
I haven't thought about the crest idea (good idea though!), but no. 5 is a similar idea to my current issue. My teacher says I have to compare Arsenal with another club or two. I know Manu has more International fanbase than Arsenal (in countries like Japan and China, etc), so I thought about writing how Arsenal can catch up with them, so they can compete financially; as well as the league competition. I can also connect this to the public limited v privatised football clubs, but I'm not sure if that is narrow enough for my teacher. If I do this topic, I'm going to use the title of International Marketing Strategies: Arsenal 'v' Manchester United. LOL I like this. I reckon this is the best title I have thought of so far! I told my teacher that I don't want to write about Man United, but she said I'll have to, so I can compare Arsenal with the other clubs! She's American (I think she's Finnish-American because of her name), so I don't think she knows about the fans' rivalry, since she doesn't like football. Do you know those guys personally? I've been emailing to this guy in the marketing department via their website and he said he can arrange a meeting with me in February. That's when I'll be writing up my dissertation fully. It's only for one hour interview, because they're busy, but hopefully that's enough for me. I don't know which day yet, since my timetable is still provisional for next semester, so I'll have to tell him when I'm free in January. His name is Joe Cohen. Do you know him?
Arsenal does Market to east Asia. We had the first east Asian player playing in EPL. Arsenal.com also has a website in Chinese.
Man Utd also has a website in Chinese, BTW. I think you should compare Arsenal to other clubs including Man Utd. I am not sure if Man Utd does a lot of marketing in Japan since Japanese people are already obsessed with Backham. http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html Check Japan search top men of 2002 on the bottom. I don't know how easy it is to get hard data on shirt sells or such in Asia. Since most people buy bootlegs. But TV rights and viewing does play a big part. I know around 15 million in China saw Fan Zhiyi playing for CP for the first time. (don't quote me on the figure) Also, you can talk about all the Asian players playing in EPL, their contrebution or lack of it to their teams. About stocks, do you remember Davor Suker buying Man Utd Stocks when he was with the gunners? You can do some research on that. Of course, being in the states, I am behind on a lot of facts. If you have and question about EPL's marketing in Asia, go to the Asian board and ask. I think some of the people there can help, or offer some more ideas.
Let me see if my neighbor's sister in law still works with Nike. I'm sure she wouldn't mind lending a hand.
Remember that ManUtd signed a multi-million dollar marketing scheme with the New York Yankees, another marketing juggernaut. This in its self propel United 10 times beyond what Arsenal could do in the States. This would be illustrated in the fact my wife finds a ManUtd hat while walking through the mall and Ive never seen an Arsenal piece of merchandise except through internet sources. Of course she buys that hat and supplements the ManUtd lifestyle. I made her take it back.(See the Dumb Question thread.)
My two cents are: 1, perhaps look at other sports how overmarketing may have backfired (NFL, viewership has gone 2, Man U. are a publicy traded company with sexy faces to market them lets face it Ray Parlour is no David Beckham & Henry is no Rud Van .... they literally have good looking people to work with. have you noticed Man U. pushing the image of the Neville's or Luke Chadwick? , no they are not sexy. Also, alot of their players are home grown and will do more for the image of the club than ours would. Don't get me wrong I love Arsenal and have done since I was six, but I know that while Freddy is paid to play, that is it for him, he is not going to push his sexy (some say gay) face around town to market the gunners. Also see this link to The Times (the London Times for those that are used to imitations!) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-514888,00.html which discusses the O2 sponsoring and why they chose Arsenal. Good luck, it sounds like a realy interesting project, be sure to put it on the web for us to see it when it is done.
Thanks guys for those ideas! At the moment, I'm writing a short intro for each issues from here, so I can pick the best/easiest one to write about. Went to my local reference library today and they have a lot of sport journals! Most of the news are based on boring golf though. At least they've got a good-long artical about the survival of small clubs, which could be useful. I can use those Google statistics as well. I can always email my report to you guys before I give it in, so you can give me your comments about it By the way, Freddie dyed his hair red last season and when I went to the Arsenal pirade after they won the double, I noticed all the kids (including some adults) dyed their hair red as well! I thought that was wierd, but it was funny when you first see them together!
I presume your talking about Inamoto. He didn't make a single appearance in a league game. He had two starts in the Worthless Cup and about 15 minutes total as a sub in two Champs League games. Yes, technically he was the first but he won't be going into any record books.
Some problems Marketing might not be the right term, but Arsenal, like most clubs in England, has a problem in bringing out the more pounds per visitor. If you look at an American sports fan, they spend something like $13 (on average) in extras per game. I don't think UK fans are at this level yet, though many clubs would like to see a great number of "post-ticket" purchases. Many UK stadiums are small and ill-suited to commercial endeavours (i.e. foot courts, bars, multiple souvenier stands). In addition, the concept of selling "inside" a stadium (aka "the beer man/pretzel man" etc) has not really taken hold in England. Arsenal has a few problems that are Arsenal-specific. Have you ever wondered why ManU has something like 15 or 20 merchandise stores and Arsenal has 3 (two of which are at the stadium). Perhaps a certain shirt maker has some prohibition on selling their products in certain areas (more than perhaps). I also think Arsenal misses a massive opportunity in selling on the street. There are so many vendors, but many purchasers don't want second-rate scarves or knock of products. It's just the lines at the official places are pretty long and they are forced to goto the guys on the street, etc. Anyway, I'm not sure if this is marketing, but it does relate to the commercial aspects of Arsenal.
Re: Some problems Well, it doesn't have to be marketing, because I'm studying (BA) Business Studies with Marketing at Middlesex University (Hendon, north London) and my dissertation module is a Business Studies module, so it can be anything on business I've read their club's Charter info on their website and they say because they already have people who are willing to spend £30 for every match, they are willing to sell tickets at lower price for those people who couldn't afford it. I've chosen my topic now and it's about how Arsenal can increase their International Marketing Strategies to the line with Man United. So far, I've got annual reports of 9 different clubs: Sunderland, Manchester United, Spurs, Chelsea, Hearts FC (Scotland), Juventus (I'm just glad they've got the English version!), Leeds, Leicester City and Aston Villa. I've got Ajax report from the Internet, but it is dated as 1997-1998, so I've emailed them for the latest issue. Sorry, but I have to say, the most interesting reports are as Man United, Juventus and Chelsea! It's interesting to see where most of their revenue are from. I don't think you can get Arsenal's annual report, can you? They're not a public limited company yet and they're always very secretive.
I would take a look at what kygunner had to say. The signing or partnership of MAN U and the Yankees deal is huge. Especially with the potential market in the northeast then spreading from there.
That the Yankees-ManU deal is huge is one of the great marketing fallacies. In what way is it huge? Are Yankees fans buying ManU merchandise? Uh, no. Is showing ManU games on the YES Network going to draw huge ratings? No, and besides they can't because Fox owns premiership rights in the US. So what are the Red Devils getting from this deal exactly? Similarly, this summer's ManU tour of the states is a colossal waste of time for ManU if they think they are going to create all kinds of new ManU fans. The people going to see these matches, for the most part, fall into the following groups: 1. Pre-existing ManU fans (preaching to the choir) 2. Fans of the other team 3. General soccer fans who want to see a match. Who from that group is going to become a permanent ManU fan? Who from that group is going to buy more than a souvenir t-shirt? The tour is a nice gesture for the EXISTING ManU fans in this country and if they get money from the gate receipts, that's fine. I hope that is their expectation level. But if they think they are going to play four matches here, then sit back and wait for the request for lifetime fan memberships to come rolling in I think they are mistaken.
I would disagree. If ManU were to show up for this tour in a city of 7 million, I can see a large number of people jumping on their bandwagon. Any exposure is good exposure and far more than the Gunners are getting. Also, it goes both ways. The Yankee hats are big in the UK and ManU would certianly be making money from any sales of Yankee merchandise. More money keeps pouring in. Again its an avenue the Gunners cant exploit.
Re: Re: Some problems I think you can. If you do a search at altavista.com for "arsenal football club plc" you'll find several libraries that list the club's annual report in their collections. I thought I had a report in PDF format, but it's either at home or I've deleted it. -G. Rex
.. Are you kidding? Van Nistlerooy looks like a mangled mutt whilst Henry is the face of Renault Clio over here!!
my suggestion would be that you address the single biggest (in my opinion) marketing problem facing clubs like arsenal all over england. that is the fact that contemporary marketing strategies are designed to take maximum pounds off of every consumer. and this inherently rejects the traditional financial base of english football - the working class - in favour of a more lucrative middle-class consumer with greater disposable income. contemporary marketing has set the english game at war against itself, with potentially dire consequenses. the culture of english football is being wrested from it's base by moneymen who often know (and more often care) little or nothing for the game, itself.
My understanding of the agreement was that they would use each others marketing streams to market their products. Both of these teams are HUGE in Asisa which is where they would want to push their crap, oops I mean products
ManU don't need the Yankees to exploit the asian market. I see where the Yankees are benefitting from this deal, but I don't see what ManU are getting. I'd like someone to show me a significant uptick for ManU from this deal. Now, if ManU are smart they'll do all sorts of things off the pitch. They need to get Derek Jeter in ManU kit for a kickaround. They need to put Becks in Yankees gear and let him take batting practice. That sort of stuff will get them on Entertainment Tonight and into the mainstream.
I'm sure that deal would have benefited Manu more than NY Yankees. Manu has at least a million fans in America, but I don't even know anyone who follows one single baseball club in England. We all think it's boring - including me lol. The only time we watch baseball is when they appear in American movies. The fans that NY Yankees can attract are their existing American fans who lives in England, but apart from them, there's no British NY Yankees fans. I know some friends who went to a baseball match while they were on holiday in America and they said it was crap lol. We watch cricket instead but that's boring as well! I prefer rugby and football. At least I know how to play by their rules! By the way, I've seen people wearing Nike baseball caps (with that famous tick) more than Yankees. I still can't find Arsenal FC's annual report At least I've found Liverpool's report though, while I was looking for Arsenal's one. I've also found another report which has more details about that Reed's copyright case. So far, I've found nearly all of the annual reports from the Premier League's PLC clubs and I've contacted the owner of the Arsenal's Asia Supporters Club in HK, so he's going to help me by sending my fans' questionnaire to his members. I'm still not sure which part of the world to concentrate on though! Should I do all countries, or shall I just concentrate on China and the Far East? If I do all countries (including USA), I've got a feeling that my teacher will say it's not narrow enough!
Goonerette- I've searched high and low for the PDF file, to no avail. From what I remember, it looked as if it was scanned from a printed copy, rather than being an original - the graphics were kinda rough. As to concentrating on a particular segment of Arsenal's overseas market segment, you could just concentrate on us Yanks. Oh, wait - this is a business class, not psychology. Bummer. -G. Rex
Yea, Arsenal support and being American...That is a psychology test...It took G. Rex getting hit by a train to like the Arsenal...