International Everton – Can we do more to boost our brand?
With all the debate over the Everton crest and boosting our brand we look to finally be on our way to a functional if not outstanding brand. Luckily the forthcoming crest looks to continue the theme of Everton branding through the ages and should be instantly recognisable to residents of the British Isles and Ireland, but will it be known across the world?
The Premier League is a growing beast, but it is a controllable growing beast that looks set to take over the world. Asia now accounts for 31% of the viewership of Premier League football and deals have been agreed for TV rights that come to a staggering £940.8m across a range of countries, including Thailand £204.8m, Singapore £190.1 and Hong Kong £128m.
When you travel to many places across the world you will see an abundance of Manchester United and Chelsea shirts as expected, but you also see loads of Arsenal, Liverpool and now Manchester City shirts too. Lots of this is to do with success (begrudgingly) over the years, but it also has a good deal to do with overseas marketing and boosting the club overseas.
Manchester City are a club that have taken massive strides in boosting their following overseas as they know what a huge source of income it can be. Back in 2008 after Thaksin Shinawatra sold the club to Abu Dhabi United Group, the club immediately spoke to Government departments to help the club plan to develop in the South East Asia region. The club realised that there were massive benefits to promoting in this area, not least the financial benefits of promoting to high growth markets like Indonesia, China, India, UAE and Qatar.
City have even established summer football camps for kids in places like Beirut and have been in talks with foreign football clubs in Russia and America with regards to business opportunities such as feeder clubs and new franchises.
City have formed an amazing overseas strategy in the last 5 years which would rival any club and Everton should take some notes over what they are doing.
Everton as a club have done some things very well to boost their profile in emerging and high growth markets. Many fans will have seen the reality TV show that they took part in taking a bunch of Chinese Youngsters and putting them through their paces at Finch Farm or their sponsorship deal with Thailand drinks company Chang, which comes to an end in a year.
This sponsorship deal has seen the club open a Thai football academy and a link up with Chonburi FC which sees the club send over top coaches to help the Thai youngsters become better players.
The Brotherhood cup match against our friends in Chile
On The Everton Forum we get asked loads of questions about our compadres in Chile – Everton de Viña del Mar or the Ruleteros as they are affectionately known. For those that don’t know, this club was set up in 1909 by some Anglo-Chilean teenagers and wanted to name them after our club. We played them in a friendly in 2010 for the first time and in 2011 we launched a joint war memorial celebrating the lives of players from both clubs who lost their lives in the war.
We are often asked where can fans in the UK get the Everton Chile football shirt from and I think it would be a nice touch by the club to offer a range of Everton de Viña del Mar merchandise in the club shops and vice versa. It may not be an amazing revenue generator but it is a simple step to boost the profiles and brotherhood of both clubs. If ya know ya history and all that.
How else do you think the club can boost their overseas profile and help generate income and exposure? Have your say at www.theevertonforum.com
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Living in Australia – most people outside of Everton think very highly of us – like a well run club operating with smaller resources than the top 5/6. Undoubtedly more success in bagging trophies would gain more fans – but do you really want to end up in the Man U position where so many foreign “tourist” fans cant even sing the club songs.