Marketing strategy in football

Even just 15 years ago, the financial power of majority of the football clubs were limited. In fact their source of income was majorly based on winning trophies and occasional cash inflow of the owners. Even though domestic shirt sales and limited television revenues provided some source of income for the big clubs, the smaller clubs struggled.

Football, nowadays, has changed dramatically most of which can be attributed to the successful marketing campaigns of different football clubs. You have probably seen all those football commercials nowadays of brands like Nike and Adidas associating themselves with the best players to sell their products. For example, watch this one below:

One particular example of this dramatic change can be showed by closely following Real Madrid’s marketing campaign over the last 10 years.

Real Madrid, voted the “club of the century”, is more than a just a football club, it’s one of the most powerful business entity. Even though, Real Madrid had always historically been a rich club, it was only after the arrival of Florentino Perez in 2000 that marked Real Madrid’s status as a business brand.  Their marketing strategy was to portray themselves as the most entertaining and popular team in the world. So they simply bought the best players in the world namely Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, David Beckham, Micheal Owen, Ronaldo etc. Famously known as the “galacticos”, with these acquisitions Madrid marked a near double growth in their shirt sales which rose to $1 million sales in one year.

In my opinion, this move was a part of a planned management strategy intended to transform football into the Olympus of imagery and advertising. The idea was simple: It is no longer sufficient just to score goals; you also have to sell jerseys. This idea can be clearly seen by Madrid’s signing of David Beckham. Miguel Angel Sastre, professor at University of Madrid described Beckham as, “a sociological phenomenon, with more than 60,000 web pages of information about his movements. His popularity is greater than that of the British Royal Family”. Just after two years of forming this galactic team, as Sastre claims, “revenues from his advertising campaigns have totaled 21 million Euros.”

Addidas, which is Real Madrid’s official sponsor, made tremendous amount of money through star-studded commercials. For example, watch the video below:

Its 2010 now, and Real Madrid still follow the same policy of getting the best players in world. During the last few years, they have acquired the new galactic additions namely Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Oezil, Alonso etc. The fact that they have the highest revenue when compared to other clubs shows how successful marketing can be of value.

The fact that many of us are regular consumers of products like Nike and Adiddas or buy products/shirts because of some of our favorite players shows how marketing influences us everyday. Lets say, we watch a game between Real Madrid and Barcelona; we are surrounded by advertisements in players’ shirts, boots, banners around the ground, and television commercials. I believe marketing is kind of a win-win situation for everyone because the consumers become more aware of the product that the producer is trying to sell.  Let me know what you guys think about the advantages and disadvantages of marketing in football.