Indulge me for a moment. There is the football team, and there is the Commercial Operation. The Commercial Operation has an owner, a board of directors, and an operations management structure (PR, Marketing, Sales, Purchasing etc etc). It would be naive to believe that yesterday's proceedings was all a random impulsive act of eccentricity. You do not do anything in commercial operations of this size in terms of strategic change without significant planning. Allam will have engaged heavily with business strategists, brand consultants, PR agencies, legal teams etc etc. The advisors will have accurately predicted yesterdays reaction. The legal teams will have checked out the legitimacy of the rules and regulations of such an act including FA, Premier League rules etc etc. The PR teams will have spent weeks planning for and crafting the responses to the inevitable fallout. And Allams words that he used yesterday (which were obviously used to generate maximum controversy) will have been engineered by marketing consultants who have been given an objective to create maximum media exposure. You only have to look at how orchestrated the HDM photos were a full day before they allowed Hull Daily Mail to publish the interview. HDM will of course have sold their souls to the devil for the exclusivity rights. This is business. Nothing more, nothing less. You should not confuse this with the football team.
If that is true, then why are the Premier League looking to block it? Wouldn't the Allams seen that coming and decided to make it official when they technically were allowed? Why did they lie about it 2 weeks ago on the local radio?
I'm not saying you have to agree with Allam's decision. My point is that this was carefully planned and orchestrated, and it would be naive to think that the reaction was not anticipated and planned for.
Carefully Orchestrated? Can you please explain the marketing wisdom of sending the Managing Director onto local radio to tell lies weeks before the release.
They will have known that it is too late to do anything for the 13/14 season. Just think of Sky TV as one example. No doubt they will spent significant funds on graphic design, logos, filming the players for the team lineup graphics. They will have measures in place that they must be given significant time. Multiply that by then all of the other companies with vested Premier League rights and you have a legal minefield. This is just the Allams given the required notice to re-brand properly in 14/15.
Clearly not quite accurate - read todays HDM - The EPL has blocked the move so certainly they were not consulted in the master plan
The Marketing Director is obligated to speak to the press. He can't control what questions he was asked. All he can do is prepare in advance for all possible questions. There will have been a date set for the future announcement planned months ago. As he was interviewed before this annoucement date, he was in no position to announce the intentions. You will have noticed though that he responded with exactly the same dialogue that was put out yesterday afternoon. This is because what was put out yesterday afternoon was also planned weeks ago.
You seem to have an understanding of how communications work I don't doubt that but you are missing the point. You can still follow a formal communications strategy and execute it poorly. This is what has happened. They may well have had a strategy but they have had a nightmare. You only have to look at the pathetic attempt to organise a pre-season tour to realise that the management of the club is hardly organised. Edit: you are also wrong, Nick Thompson did not have to go on talksport for one hour to specifically talk about the issue. He could have declined.
The objective was maximum exposure. When I was looking for transfer rumours yesterday, I even came across African blogs that were reporting this. Objective was achieved. And I'm not saying this because I agree with the change, but I will keep coming back to this. This was orchestrated.
Do you have the academic or professional experience to justify this opinion because you are well off the mark (IMO). The reason I ask is because you are presenting this as fact rather than opinion.
I dont think it was expected that we would win promotion this season, now we have i think this whole thing has been pushed through much quicker than planned. My gut feeling is allems got a master plan over a few years to prep us for a big sale although clearly it is just my feeling.
I am not a marketing guru but I am a change management consultant. Even mid size companies will not dick around with their brand strategy without significant planning.
The allams stripped out most of the staff when they came in, we might be a massive revenue generator with regards to a TV deal but as an employer it's a small team. I strongly suspect this is Allams gut instinct rather than any tailored brand strategy.
I reckon you're well wide of the mark! The Allams never consulted with the most important stakeholders - the supporters (see Premier League statement, elsewhere). It appears not to have been carefully planned and orchestrated.
