Sponsorship of our shirts, asian, african marketing etc etc

[Spike]

Was talking to the lads who I went to the game with today and we were discussing the Parry thing (great / good/ shyte for us) and talk turned to sponsorship and marketing.

 

One lad mentioned that focusing on the far east, africa etc and building upon revenue potential there is pretty much a limited exercise as from their experience of going these places, most of the stuff outside of whatever official outlets there are is knock off stuff that doesn't bring us any money anyway.

 

Conversation then turned to sponsorship and the fact that being sponsored by an alcohol company doesnt help the above point of marketability and that it may in fact be leading to knock off revenue not going to our club funds as our shirts, in these markets, are produced without sponsor endorsement and as a result the combined legal threat / monitoring of both club, sponsor, and kit-maker is reduced.

 

We also wondered whether the above had any impact on the strength of the deal and revenues that we get from Carlsberg as we automatically are reducing the marketability of our brand with our current sponsors etc.

 

Just thought I'd throw it over to the forum to discuss...

Edited July 15, 2006 by Spike Starski

[oojason]

There are a load of official LFC tops without Carlsberg appearing on them - I think the whole retro shirt range, t-shirts, sweaters, polo shirts, the club's own leisure wear, and reebok used to a full leisure wear range without the alcohol sponsor appearing on them. (I think the reebok range had the old style Liverbird logo too.)

 

I imagine the club are losing out on sales re the matchworn shirts or training gear to people who have a problem wearing something with an alcohol brand appearing no them - perhaps the club will address this when the current Carlsberg deal runs out... (next year?)

[cymrococh]

We should get a mobile phone company to sponsor us, kids everywhere love mobile phones.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

which countries have advertising bans re: booze & would we have to play w/o Carlsberg on our shirts if we played there?

[fyds]

There are a load of official LFC tops without Carlsberg appearing on them - I think the whole retro shirt range, t-shirts, sweaters, polo shirts, the club's own leisure wear, and reebok used to a full leisure wear range without the alcohol sponsor appearing on them. (I think the reebok range had the old style Liverbird logo too.)

 

I imagine the club are losing out on sales re the matchworn shirts or training gear to people who have a problem wearing something with an alcohol brand appearing no them - perhaps the club will address this when the current Carlsberg deal runs out... (next year?)

It's very unlikely that we'll have Carlsberg as a sponsor next uime around. I don't know if Caruso was making a joke about mobile phones and kids, but even if he was it's not far from the mark. What LFC have been looking for in recent times is a high-quailty, internationally reknowned brand to do business with, not easy to get hold of as many are already tied in to other clubs or particular events.

 

A lad I know who follows this kind of thing assiduously as it touches upon his own line of business in project sponsorship seems pre-occupied that we may be looking at not only having an adidas kit but having them as shirt sponsors too (I agree it's a possibility as they have done it before some time ago with Bayern), he reckons if you add to that the possibility of adidas buying the naming rights to the new stadium as a twofold thing, then it's tenuous but not implausible. If it worked out that he was right, it could be a good thing.

Edited July 16, 2006 by fyds

[lfc4eva99]

well, this is a good debate, i come from india, where piracy of football memorabilia is at an all time high, shirts, keychains etc are available at knockdown prices and most people end up buying the fake products.

 

a club like ours can definitely make early inroads into this untapped market because we have fan following here, and in asia on the whole, in india personally carlsberg shouldnt be a problem but in islamic countries it might be, so that is one thing that could be considered....

 

opening an academy or two, and some stores, having old legends come over for a PR exercise can be good for us in the long run, because a lot of money is just waiting to change hands, and is already doing incase of piracy. One stumbling block can ofcourse be the forex rates for asian countries and the british pound, which in india is 80 bucks a pound, which is very expensive, that imo can be solved if the shirts were officially produced in india, which is a viable option, WC flags were made here and exported to Germany, and ive seen champions league replica balls in spain which were made here....

 

Liverpool FC can make a lot of money if they come here, a club of our size and stature should be getting more money then what carlsberg is giving us IMO, and more expansive marketting procedures in far off eatern countries can be the way to go, we have one billion indians here, a lot of whom live in the cities and are young, most of whom would love to have the orignal stuff rather than the duplicates....

Edited July 16, 2006 by lfc4eva99

[fyds]

C'mon - we farm enough businesses out to india already!

[Bao]

we have one billion indians here, a lot of whom live in the cities and are young, most of whom would love to have the orignal stuff rather than the duplicates....

How many of the one billion could afford the prices for original gear?

 

Here in Thailand, fans would buy official merchandise but the prices are beyond most. So the market is only a relatively small proportion of the millions of fans here. One thing that does affect the market for licensed merchandise is that some fans believe it is made specifically for the local market and is not up to the quality of what's sold in the UK. I have no idea if that's true or not.

Edited July 16, 2006 by Bao

[Senrab_nhoj]

well, this is a good debate, i come from india, where piracy of football memorabilia is at an all time high, shirts, keychains etc are available at knockdown prices and most people end up buying the fake products.

 

a club like ours can definitely make early inroads into this untapped market because we have fan following here, and in asia on the whole, in india personally carlsberg shouldnt be a problem but in islamic countries it might be, so that is one thing that could be considered....

 

opening an academy or two, and some stores, having old legends come over for a PR exercise can be good for us in the long run, because a lot of money is just waiting to change hands, and is already doing incase of piracy. One stumbling block can ofcourse be the forex rates for asian countries and the british pound, which in india is 80 bucks a pound, which is very expensive, that imo can be solved if the shirts were officially produced in india, which is a viable option, WC flags were made here and exported to Germany, and ive seen champions league replica balls in spain which were made here....

 

Liverpool FC can make a lot of money if they come here, a club of our size and stature should be getting more money then what carlsberg is giving us IMO, and more expansive marketting procedures in far off eatern countries can be the way to go, we have one billion indians here, a lot of whom live in the cities and are young, most of whom would love to have the orignal stuff rather than the duplicates....

 

 

No....

 

 

Fakes will always rule the roost I am afraid, the price differential will never drive the originals market to be anything other than niche

[Guest Wilder]

One stumbling block can ofcourse be the forex rates for asian countries and the british pound, which in india is 80 bucks a pound, which is very expensive, that imo can be solved if the shirts were officially produced in india, which is a viable option

 

Great idea - but there is a stumbling block. There will inevitably be grey market exports of Indian-produced official kit to the UK, which would not be good for short-term profits of Adidas or LFC.

 

The music industry has tried a similar tack to combat CD piracy in China - producing Chinese-edition CD's at low cost (with any controversial tracks removed, natch) for the local market. These turn up as grey market imports in places like Singapore, much to the chagrin of the record companies there.

 

I do think, however, that the 'hearts and minds' approach is worth pursuing - LFC football clinics, meet the fans sessions, etc. When the economies are stronger (and in some cases that won't be long), there'll be plenty of fans waiting to be fleeced uh, contribute...