Overseas mate, Sky sell a host of games overseas, most games will be televised in multiple countries.
Not really, mate. We are constantly competing against 19 other clubs in this league, for new support. I can think of selling points for both Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea and Leicester. What's our selling point? What can we do to promote ourselves and gather support above that lot, without being successful on the pitch?
Asking me is no good, I'm a procurement expert, not a marketing expert... nevertheless I'll give it a go. I think you're confusing marketing with selling merchandise which is an outdated way to look at bringing in money to the club. Every club is being shown all over the world, just like any other platform, something that is viewed so widely is inevitably going to be an attractive business partner to global and even national brands. The football and players doing well, would obviously help, as Leicester have shown, but to say the footy is **** so therefore you're unmarketable in today's day and age, is just a weak excuse. You have a bigger audience being part of the PL than many, many companies who are taking their 'product' to market successfully, on every scale.
Ok, well if you're not, I think you've certainly underestimated the potential of a Premier League commercial platform which reaches a massive global audience. Attempting to justify poor returns because you play crap football won't wash. It's like a designer saying he can't sell his jeans because Levi's and Armani are making better jeans. I'm not saying you have to go out and get deals with Nike, Pepsi and Facebook but millions of companies will buy into official partnerships, sponsoring etc. I don't need to prove it to you, look at your own website... Carling, Betfair, South African Airways, Satsuma Loans, Acacia, that's just the start... the deals need to be better, and more of them. You've 1.5m followers on Facebook, good marketing can multiply that by 10 in a year. Companies will throw money at stuff like Facebook nowadays, everything has to be covered. I'm not an expert like I've already said, but I think there's big potential for any club in this league. We're playing our worst football (on paper) in 30 years more or less but we're doing bigger deals than ever, obviously a hell of a lot of work has gone into that (or luck if you're Nos) but still.
Not only that but I look at clubs like St Pauli, Dortmund, Athletic Bilbao, Deportivo ****a, Villareal, not all of whom do well on the pitch, but who have exploited their own unique identities to gain international reach. And I'm sure there are other examples. Admittedly, this is a reflection of my own tastes which might not stand up to scrutiny in the real world, but I think it shows that with a little innovation, it is possible to carve your own unique and widely recognisable identity. Edit: FC 1. Nürnburg. Known as 'der Club' in Germany are another example, making a big deal about their history.
I've argued for a while about this, cos chopping and changing (as much as it's worked to keep you where you are) has robbed you of an identity, other than your identity being a team that just panics and drops bombs every year. That's probably been destructive, as far as marketing goes and that's part of my point, you need the best team to get the best deals and guide you to a more lucrative future. Quinn wasn't the man, he just wasn't... make him ambassador, fine, he's a legend and I can't argue that but he's not got a clue at MD level, at this level. You do need an identity, which I think is possibly what Bain is going for, so it wouldn't surprise me to see Moyes stay if you go down. Bri's said it bare times on here, the chopping and changing has to stop to enable some sort of growth.
Oh yeah, no doubt there has been no identity to the team because of the revolving manager's door. On top of that the lack of attention-grabbing players, whether that be big names, or exciting players (such as Lens, Khazri, Giaccherini) not getting extended runs in the first team has prevented interest being generated in us outside of our traditional supporter base. This is where missing out on M'Vila is a big let down; his profile would by extension have raised our profile and his presence may have made us a more atteactive prospect to other players. The identity of the club as a whole, rather than just the first team, hasn't been developed either. You can see West Ham attempting to do the kind of thing that I mean with their use of Union flag motifs on kits, other merchandise, and programmes etc in an attempt to emphasise links between the Olympic stadium and the feel-good factor of the 2012 games on the one hand and Victorian-style patriotism on the other (particularly through the use of a copy of the old Thames Ironworks kits as a third kit). They're trying to sell themselves as the most British of clubs. And that's on top of that excruciating Bubbles song, the bubble machines all round the pitch, and the claptrap about being the academy of football that they trot out. Its nauseating and some are bound to dismiss it as gimickry but it gets them attention. SAFC could go down similar routes, perhaps trying to reinvigorate the 'Team of all the Talents' and the 'Bank of England Club' nicknames would be a bit hollow given current circumstances, but there's plenty of material that a marketing department could base such a campaign on in the history of the club.
I'll see if I can help out here. Maybe for modern Sunderland it would be: "The Team of all the Twats" or "Bankrupt Club of England" Just brainstorming here. Help me out
As much as I don't like the situation we are in I like the transparency that is emerging. We have a good enough team to get higher than three other teams this season. If we have to sell.....well sell just like Southampton and other teams have done. We have some great young kids coming through and at last some are getting game now. Yes, I was one who thought Moyes should have gone after 10 games and two points but I'm more than comfortable with him getting us through this mess. The past is what it is....let's move on in the best way possible to get it right. I laughed at the Anichebe free transfer.....but hey if he can pull a few more out like that we are well on the way!!! Hopefully we can survive and get a nice lump of tv cash at the of the season which will help the coffers a bit....
The Team of all the Twats" whose neighbors are ****s "Bankrupt Club of England"and the hoss punchers and rioters from up the road now that sounds about right
A lot of assumptions BUT will Moyes want to stay with new owners or would they want him more to the point.
Oh well that's just one more disappointing thing you'll have to live with. FYI... The Glazers put us £800m in debt with their takeover, this club is stronger than any one man.
