An outfit called Brand Finance came out with their comprehensive survey of the value of team brands (not the value of the franchises, just the brand). Seven MLS teams are listed in the top 100 (five in the US and two in Canada). They are: 40. Seattle Sounders 50. Los Angeles Galaxy 53. New York Red Bulls 76. Vancouver Whitecaps 78. Toronto FC 90. Philadelphia Union 94. Real Salt Lake Feel free to peruse the methodology and rankings in the report here. Interesting to contemplate no matter what.
We are not a better brand than Portland in this regard at all Neither is Toronto, Philadelphia, or probably even Vancouver
Disagree, RSL has been around longer and has, you know, won games much less made continental championships.
So, from what I understand, if we get some really big, well-known company to sponsor RSL like Microsoft or Apple, our brand recognition and ergo, our brand value, will jump up the standings. Interesting. Explains why Seattle is ahead of RSL.
This study is basically horseshit. In terms of global brand value, no MLS team even comes close to L.A. New York would be a distant #2. Think of it this way: Pick a random town in a random country...look around until you see an MLS jersey. What team is it most likely to be? That would be L.A. Or another way: Pick a random person from the world's population and ask them what MLS teams they are aware of. Their answer is most likely none, but if you asked enough you would most likely hear L.A. MLS HQ has studied the brand penetration of its teams far more than these yahoos...not coincidentally, the teams with the most brand recognition are the teams they are trying to put in a position to win championships. Seattle? Please. Outside the northwest, nobody on earth even knows they exist.
But everybody recognizes the Xbox logo, ergo, brand value. That's why I don't understand how Xango is so well known about the world. If it was GNu-Skin, I could possibly understand, but Xango? There must be something more to their methodology. Maybe it has to do with star power (Golden Balls for LA, Henry for NY), sponsors (Xbox for Seattle) and number of international games played (RSL's run for the CONCACF CCL). That might explain RSL, Seattle, NY and LA, but Philadelphia and two Canadian teams? I would have thought that D.C. United or Chicago would have been up there before Philly and Montreal before Toronto or Vancouver.
You'd be surprised how far Xango's market reaches, and it all comes down to one pyramid tactic: using LDS church records. Xango reps will get church leaders in other countries to buy into the plan, and then the church leader will sell to the members, they throw parties for their friends, etc. It's an improper use of records, but it's an easy way to get your product into a new area. I had a branch president trying to do it in California on my mission back in 2004.
From the report, the methodology: 1. Assess the Brand Strength – we use ourβrandβeta® Index which in the case of football clubs scores domestic and European honours, club heritage, revenue scale and split, attendances and global reach amongst others to benchmark the brands against each other. 2. Establish a Royalty Rate – we review comparable licensing agreements as well as analysing margins and value drivers to establish a royalty rate range for the sector and revenue stream. The βrandβeta® is then applied to find the correct royalty rate for each brand within the range. 3. Determine the Discount Rate – this allows us to calculate the net present value (NPV) of the brand’s future earnings, therefore putting future benefits in today’s terms. 4. Brand Valuation Calculation – steps 1-3 are then brought together to determine the NPV of post-tax royalties, which is the brand value.
I think that the study was assessing the brand value of the club, not of the brand on their shirt. Xbox vs. Xango shouldn't play into it at all. The question is, how much is the club's brand worth? Another way to put it: If you take away all of RSL's real assets (stadium, players, training facilities, trainers, coaches, etc.), how much could you sell the team for? What is the right to use the name and logo worth? That's the brand value. I'm not surprised to see Seattle on the list. Their brand is worth a lot in the Pacific Northwest. Sure, they don't have as much recognition outside of the Northwest, but they've sure got a lot of saturation up there, and that's worth something.