When anyone says the word
‘marketing’ the predictable response from others is ‘boring’. It does not
elicit excitement, given its paperwork, targets, design, modelling and consumer
patterns analysis.
However, marketing is a critical
part of any ambitious business, and those who do it efficiently end up growing
hugely, while those who fail to take it seriously or engage it successfully
struggle.
Merriam Webster would define
marketing as:
“The act or process of selling or
purchasing in a market; the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.”
The part in bold is the most
vital part, and sums up the point. In layman’s terms, marketing is every act a
business can carry out to broaden the spread of, and interest in, their goods,
and ultimately increase their revenue.
Ok, all quite stuffy up till now,
and I am quite sure a few of you have yawned already wondering why you are on
an economics article masquerading as a Rangers FC blog.
The reason is this; the Rangers brand is currently a totally
missed opportunity, and the marketing endeavours are non-existent.
The global attractiveness and
popularity of any business or company (or organisation) is in the clout of its
brand. The more familiar and popular its brand is, the more people will be
attracted to purchasing its goods and services.
Brand Finance Football Brands (BFFB)
is a good place to start for analysis as to the current standing of clubs’
global brand value. Originating in 2010, this company use a wide variety of
data collated together with establishing revenue, turnover, profit and value to
ultimately reveal clubs’ positions globally as a brand. I should critically
point out this is not strictly a measure of clubs’ wealth or turnover, nor
exactly how much merchandise has been shifted, but instead it is the
amalgamation of both the results of
these factors plus how much the brand’s consequent popularity promotes and improves these factors
further;
How many shirts is your club’s brand
big enough to sell, and how much does selling your shirt then further boost your brand?
Looking at aforementioned BFFB’s
list, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 make grim reading for those at Ibrox. While
2010 started as the top 25, then expanded to 30 in 2011, then 50 and so on,
Celtic have featured in every list thus far bar one while there is an
excruciating absence of Rangers.
Top 5 May 2012 © Brand Finance
Football Brands:
1 1 Manchester United FC EPL
853 661 29% AAA+ 2,903 29%
2 4 FC Bayern Bundesliga 786 493 59% AAA
2,042 38%
3 2 Real Madrid CF BBVA Liga 600
643 -7% AAA+ 3,013 20%
4 3 FC Barcelona BBVA Liga 580
629 -8% AAA+ 2,995 19%
5 5 Chelsea FC EPL 398 314 27% AA-
1,836 22%
———–
37 NEW Celtic FC SPL 64 49 30%
BBB+ 857 7%
I am not going to lie and say I
fully understand these figures but the first 3-digit number is the crucial one.
It is the one which dictates the position each club holds in this list, and is
the collated ‘brand value’ list. As you can see the top 5 are relatively
predictable with the likes of Bayern, Man Utd and Real Madrid dominating. Rangers
fans will not appreciate my saying this but Celtic’s excellent 37th place is
down to the effectiveness with which the Parkhead side have exploited the North
American markets, the Irish market and in more recent years, the Far Eastern
Market. Rangers’ complete absence from this and all 4 lists going back to 2010
is an appallingly incriminating indictment of the club’s failure to exploit
various markets.
Attempts have been made – at the
beginning of this decade then CEO Martin Bain spearheaded an ill-fated
endeavour to spread Rangers’ brand into the North American market, but it came
to very little. Indeed, the lack of Rangers’ American spread was highlighted in
2010 when instead of touring North America pre-season Rangers opted to go to
that fertile land of football known as Australia.
“We had explored the possibility of a
tour of America,
however, after considering many factors it was decided not to pursue this
further. I am sure this will be a disappointment to our fans across the
Atlantic and while we are sorry the team is no longer travelling in July,
Alastair Johnston, Walter Smith and I look forward to attending the NARSA
(North American Rangers Supporters Association) convention in Las Vegas this weekend.”
There is no way the club would
have missed out on the riches of the USA if a policy had been in place to tap
into that market – instead Down Under was used as that year’s pre-season.
Briefly in 2011 there was a small
flirtation with the Indias,
when two trialists from that region were put through their paces at Murray Park.
Again, it did not materialise into anything. The following might be from that
dubious publication the Daily Record but the piece in bold highlights the big
issue with Rangers and marketing fertile grounds:
“JAZZ JUTTLA still wonders what it
would have been like to become the first Indian to play for Rangers. To break down an age-old barrier and
spark interest in Asia and beyond. Despite
being a regular in the Ibrox reserves, alongside the likes of Barry Ferguson,
he was never given his chance in the big time.”
The Asias
are the ripest and richest market and they are one of the main reasons why the
English Premier League is so wealthy. The Asias, including the two most
populated countries on Earth, India and China, are the most fertile ground
on earth to increase one’s brand to. The recent episode with the Vietnamese
Arsenal fan running alongside the players’ coach was manna from heaven for the
Gunners’ marketing department. Positive PR in a massively dense area of the
world.
Is it any wonder the top English
clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea
and Man Utd almost always tour these places pre-season? While Arsenal’s
on-pitch fortunes are not currently outstanding, their global brand is
absolutely gigantic. Mainly thanks to that Asian market. They are sixth in that
BFFB list – the sixth most recognised team on planet earth. Utd, Arsenal and
other giants of football learned years ago that the Far
East was a burgeoning locale for increasing their brand, and oh
how they have exploited it.
Celtic are currently, on the 2013
list, 44th having slipped 7 places since 2012. Rangers, disgracefully, are nowhere
to be seen on any of the 4 lists since the inception of it.
My point here is that while
Rangers were apparently ‘excluded’ in 2012 on the basis of their financial
turmoil, that Celtic were 25th in the first list in 2010 with no sign of
Rangers shows that even prior to administration Rangers still were not tapping
into lucrative markets as much as 3+ years ago.
A recent report from January last
year by Joseph Sebastian contains evidence that Misha Sher was appointed on the
Rangers board to expand Rangers’ brand:
“Rangers Football Club (FC) has
appointed a global partnership director, Misha Sher, to grow its revenue
streams from strategic partnerships in markets, including Australia and North America.
It states that the football club is following the footsteps of Manchester United, whose sponsors include
Globacom Ltd. and Singha Corp. According to Sher, they are an international
brand, and they are focusing on building their brand in overseas markets.”
Unfortunately Sher’s tenure on
the board lasted a quite abysmal 3 months:
“January 2012 –
March 2012 (3 months) London
Responsible for formulating and executing global strategy aimed at
building the club’s international profile and driving revenue through new
partnerships. Held responsibility for the club’s off-season activities
including first team tours and all associated activities such as commercial
partnerships, marketing, and PR. Managed a strategy aimed at repackaging
existing rights to exploit international opportunities in North America, Asia,
and Oceania.”
I could go on and on but will not
– Rangers absolutely 100%, to increase revenue and their global brand have to
take marketing a lot more seriously than they currently are. The appointment of
Sher was a nod in the right direction but clearly ended up another busted flush
in the club’s futile efforts to break these lucrative foreign markets.
I really do not thrive on saying
this but Celtic’s model, whatever it is, works infinitely better than Rangers’.
The east-enders have clearly taken foreign branding and marketing seriously and
it has resulted in a much healthier financial position. To be in the top 44
clubs in the world in terms of brand power is a testament to them and Rangers
have to emulate it.
With current finances at Ibrox
not being as lavish and healthy as they could, it is high time the club once
and for all cracked the marketing bandwagon and started to ‘sell themselves’ in
rich and lush lands where billions of people are just waiting to latch onto a
new team.
Football is hugely global – it is
about time Rangers exploited that.