Be Proud. Be Barnsley. - More from the official site... 13-11-2013 10:55 AM <a href="http://wall.barnsleyfc.co.uk/Event/Barnsley"></a>
One thing I'm glad about is that the club are finally looking to build a brand. That's what this is all about - asking your current customers to engage with a new brand by letting them have control over some of the elements. I'll be watching the brand development with interest, because one issue of asking your current customers is that you end up attracting the people you already attract. Hopefully the club have some understanding of the opportunities out there such as immigrant football fans, dual-branding initiatives and value-adding schemes that should help the club to get a foothold in a saturated market. So far though, it's a thumbs up from me. I just hope they can push through the development stage and actually get to implementation without any oversights.
Isn't the starting point not attracting 'new' customers but bringing back the lapsed that we've lost over the past few years with daft ticket prices, poor results and a poor experience? Ben's done some good things in the background to start that (TVs, CRM system to keep people up to date from a marketing perspective and the pub tours) which will help but do they go far enough? Talking about developing 'a brand with premier aspirations' turns off, in my opinion, the traditional football fan. When, until the last ten years, has a football club ever been referred to as a brand? I know things change, I know things move on, but this corporate board room ******** is exactly what people complain about. The introduction of all this money has led people to believe that their Football Club is the same as a FTSE 100 company and it's not. At all. I'll be interested how much we've paid Fantastic Media to develop and deliver this new 'brand'. PS - to be clear, I'm not against the changes being made to bring us up to date which we've needed for a while. But referring to us as a brand is just f.cking daft.
I think by including the fans in part of the development (albeit a small part) is an attempt at win back some people who are disenfranchised. I'm not totally sure what else they could do that would help to do that - apart from the actions you mention. Obviously a quality football team would help! A brand strategy is essentially a way of formalising what you stand for, what you want to achieve and how you want to get there. I can't see how that could be a bad thing. The club has been criticised a lot in the past decade, mainly for doing things like lying to fans, being linked to players with 'dodgy' pasts, going too far with budget cuts, not giving value for money...etc. For me, the brand is a way of the club telling us what we can expect from them for our hard earned...and therefore it's a positive step. Like I mentioned earlier, I just hope they actually implement it and it's not just marketing ********. Regarding paying someone to do this, I'm fully in support of requisitioning specialist help when required. I'd be interested to know how they selected the agency, as I've never heard of Fantastic Media - but I assume Ben isn't daft and got agencies to pitch. Marketing is certainly a specialist skill though, and particularly when it comes to strategic marketing (such as brand building). Tiny mistakes get magnified over the long term. If they do it right, this initiative will not only make money for the club, but also save money on marketing costs. I agree, clubs shouldn't be referred to as a brand - but until we know what the the club stands for, what else can we say we are? We're just a work in progress.
Ben sez from t'chron: He said: "When I first started looking at averages attendances, I saw that they were about 18,000 in the season after relegation from the Premier League whereas now they're around the 10,000 mark. "For the vast majority of people, they might have stopped attending for economic reasons but I want to get out and about in town and be truly visible, firstly to our current supporters to thank them for staying with us but also to the 8,000 or so who have stopped coming." Average attendances around that point: 96/97 11356 97/98 18449 98/99 16269 99/00 15412 00/01 14465 He'll do well to find the missing 8,000 supporters, they'll be feeding Shergar apples.
I agree we need to define what the club stands for. But isn't that what supporters should've been engaged with rather than picking a badge? The 'values' of the club is what is important, not the badge on the shirt but it just smacks as a gesture to get people on side with no real benefit. I remember a couple of years ago that the club came out and said we would reduce our costs, not rely on loan players and focus on youth and a brand of football that will bring people back. Then two years later we've got 5 loan players with no home grown players in the XI or on the bench. If we have a philosophy, we stick to it and that's where our board are so important. If they had spoken to supporters and developed a set of core principles that the club (and first team) would stick to then I'd support it. But I don't think that's what we'll see. We'll see a new badge and some other stuff like this 'Be Barnsley' wrapped us as a rebrand that will have no lasting impact in my opinion.
Thats who the ex works for and who's been working for Dean Hoyle since his early days, done a cracking job for Hudders off the field, the owner of FM is a huge Town fan. They're also major sponsors at the Leeds Road/McAlpine/Galpharm/John Smiths Stadium. If we could be owt like Hudders off the field then l'm all for it, don't want to be wasting the wages they do on the field though.
Totally agree - the last thing I want to see is a blue-sky-thinking rebrand that doesn't actually achieve anything. I'm not bothered by a new visual look, but I am interested in the core principles. However, if you've ever tried to create anything by committee you'll know that you'll end up pissing off every faction by not following their idea through to the letter. You have to compromise everything, which leads to disengagement from the start. You pay a marketing agency to bring together all of the different opinions, before interpreting the data and turning it into something that the fans can accept. In the words of Henry Ford "If I'd listened to my customers, I'd have built a faster horse".
Understand that completely mate. But make it anonymous. Run a survey of supporters and then take it from there. I know of a company that would probably do it for free and has approached the club before. I don't see why we need a 'rebrand' to decide what the club is about. And if this is just a means to get there calling it a rebrand is ridiculous.
They did run a survey at the end of last season I think - whether they used the findings in this remains to be seen, but I remember noticing that some of the questions seemed to be related to branding.
'This' is one of my main issues with the club/management, and one I've had for years to be honest. It's all short term. We're told we're going to stop the reliance on loans, yet as soon as a manager starts bricking it we allow him to ignore the myriad youth players, or players he's signed permanently, and let him recruit a batch of loanees who usually prove to be no better than owt we already have. Hence my disappointment/anger at the farming out of Reuben yesterday. Buck stops with the manager. They make out they're doing the best for the club, when it's quite clear they're doing the best for their career. If Flitcroft had stuck to his word and played Reuben, had he not recruited Fox and instead played Digby, and instead of using Scotland from the bench he used Rose/Clark, I'd be more accepting of his so called 'plan'. Best way to describe this season so far? Same old same old - but worse. You Reds, etc.
Dyson i agree with you on a few things, not all but a few but on this i think you need to see the bigger picture of it. We do need to bring in this new brand and I think almost a new Barnsley which i made a post about last week. We need to get away from the real ale or bitter image, flat caps and whippets........ It's a real turn off for people and company's wishing to invest money for sponsorship opportunity. You keep mentioned Ben Mansford and whilst hes on the fans mind and seems to be the one in the media at the moment for Barnsley and hes the one you will see at the youth matches talking to fans it's the likes of the business brains of Mr Cryne and Mr Watkins who will be the one driving this. In 1984 Manchester united weren't a Football club ready for 100 sponsors but him and a number of other people worked on that and they know are and are expected to get a sponsorship income of 420 million a year next year. Now i'm not saying Barnsley could ever reach that number but theres room for improvement and this could bring more money into the club. More money into the club more better players. more better players will hopefully mean more fans. More fans means more money. More money better players. Better players move up the league. Move up the league more sponsorship opportunity and repeat ................
That's when you need a board strong enough to say 'no' but reassure the manager if things don't go well we'll stick with him as long as he's working to a longer term plan. And supporters patient enough to recognise it.
I get that Phil. But let's be reight, in 1983 Man Utd had won the European Cup and were one of the biggest clubs in the World already. If you think this rebrand is the first step to our World domination then I reckon you're a bit mistaken, mate. I know we need to generate more cash. But the harsh reality is that we should be trying to attract the flat caps and real ale back. I guarantee the vast majority of folk who go today were introduced by such men. Why do we shy away from that? Shouldn't we be proud of that type of heritage? I know I am.