Spurs - The Global Brand

[ace1]

Spurs the Global Brand

Seen some interesting posts in the transfer section where there is a common misconception that Spurs are big globally.

I am fortunate to have worked around Asia and travelled globally and Spurs are pretty much unknown, at best.

For example, in India. When there is a match on it will be Man U, Real Madrid or one of the small teams like Liverpool Barcelona. You can't watch a Spurs game unless you can get to a specific bar/hotel that has satellite tv and many channels or you watch it on the net. You will never see a Spurs shirt, but will see millions of Man U shirts.

In S Korea, where I watched the team win the Peace cup a few years ago,we are still unknown !? And yet the people remember PSV who had won the cup 2 years before us. You will never see anything to do with Spurs on TV or in the papers, unless we have lost to Man U that is.

In Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Man U and Liverpool are huge. Millions of shirts, cars adorned with stickers, houses adorned with huge lettering on the roof but Spurs, nah, no-one knows us. It is almost embarrasing when I go to a bar to watch the game....especially if Man U or Liverpool are playing at the same time....no-one knows what I am talking about, Ss-pur, mai cow jai (I do not understand). Fortunately I have found some web sites for the cable tv and can tell them the channel number. But I will be watching alone !! And if Man U are playing at the same time you can hear the roars around the town when they score....it's a little quieter when Spurs score but I do my best.

So for me, Spurs desperately need to improve their global brand and recognition as we are not a big team globally.

Thoughts ?

 

[Rob]

Didn't we pay a marketing firm to discover that "3.5 billion people showed "an interest" in Tottenham Hotspur"?

I couldn't remember the number so I made it up, much like they did originally ;-)

It was the most ridiculous thing I ever read but Barber seemed quite pleased with it when he emailed someone about it.

 

[TrueYid]

Well Spurs are big Australia, Most comonly supported clubs will be Man United, Liverpool and then Spurs Arsenal & Chelsea, not neccesarily in that order.

That is without any success... Just imagine

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

It's funny, I was thinking very much about this exact thing this morning ace. Right now I am in China, but I have lived in Taiwan, Vietnam and Italy as well and I can say that even in a massive footballing country like Italy, Tottenham are still very much an unknown entity.

Of course a lot of football fans in Italy have heard of Tottenham (and watching Tottenham is very easy as there is very good coverage of the Premiership on Sky Italia) but if you asked someone to name any football players from Spurs, most wouldn't be able to name 1. I guess it is similar to asking an English football fan to name a Genoa player, but that shows how little impact we have on even the European football stage.

When you expand it to a global market we almost don't make a dent. I am yet to see a single Spurs shirt around since I have been in China (very rarely in Taiwan and never in Vietnam). Of course that will change when I go to Hong Kong for the game next month, and there is a community of Spurs fans there but most are loyal expat fans rather than us having captured part of the huge Asian football interest.

I'm not sure that our preseason trip to China will really spark much interest either. I hope it does, but I have major doubts about that.

For sure we are trying to do things to change the situation and first and foremost that has to be done on the pitch. If we start to compete and eventually break into a Champions League position that will have a major impact. Also a top class signing might go some way to helping (or a massive way if it is a Mr Beckham, the face of global football, with a bigger following than any single team). Of course the club is also working on global sponsorship deals for the stadium and improving international links.

Football is a massive global business now and fortunately for us we are run by very good businessmen. I am sure that they are doing everything they can to increase our global impact. It takes time and of course is not easy when we are not in the top echelons of European football. I would imagine that we are no worse off than any other non-Champions League team in Europe, probably better in fact. It is a big step up though and those teams that are already there are taking full advantage and moving further away.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Thoughts ?

None.

 

[Mullers]

Spurs the Global Brand

Seen some interesting posts in the transfer section where there is a common misconception that Spurs are big globally.

I am fortunate to have worked around Asia and travelled globally and Spurs are pretty much unknown, at best.

For example, in India. When there is a match on it will be Man U, Real Madrid or one of the small teams like Liverpool Barcelona. You can't watch a Spurs game unless you can get to a specific bar/hotel that has satellite tv and many channels or you watch it on the net. You will never see a Spurs shirt, but will see millions of Man U shirts.

In S Korea, where I watched the team win the Peace cup a few years ago,we are still unknown !? And yet the people remember PSV who had won the cup 2 years before us. You will never see anything to do with Spurs on TV or in the papers, unless we have lost to Man U that is.

In Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Man U and Liverpool are huge. Millions of shirts, cars adorned with stickers, houses adorned with huge lettering on the roof but Spurs, nah, no-one knows us. It is almost embarrasing when I go to a bar to watch the game....especially if Man U or Liverpool are playing at the same time....no-one knows what I am talking about, Ss-pur, mai cow jai (I do not understand). Fortunately I have found some web sites for the cable tv and can tell them the channel number. But I will be watching alone !! And if Man U are playing at the same time you can hear the roars around the town when they score....it's a little quieter when Spurs score but I do my best.

So for me, Spurs desperately need to improve their global brand and recognition as we are not a big team globally.

Thoughts ?

Pretty much agree, we need some big success if we are going to put ourselves on the map. When I was growing up I didn't know one Chelsea supporter it was mostly Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and a few Man U fans. Now there are Chelsea fans coming out of the woodwork all over the place.

I told my mate from Bulgaria that they used to play in the championship and he didn't believe me. :lol:

especially if Man U or Liverpool are playing at the same time....no-one knows what I am talking about, Ss-pur, mai cow jai (I do not understand).

:lol:

 

[mil1lion]

Thoughts ?

Sign David Beckham

 

[Mullers]

How much of a global brand did LA galaxy become since signing Beckham?

 

[Coalhada]

How much of a global brand did LA galaxy become since signing Beckham?

Well, you can buy Galaxy shirts in the little football kit and tennis raquets shop down the road from me, in a backwater part of Hong Kong.
You can buy shirts for Real, Barca, both Milans, ManU, Woolwich, Chelsea, Liverpool, national shirts etc.
The only Hong Kong team they have shirts for is SCAA.
You cannot buy a Spurs shirt from them, or any Premier League team outside the Sky 4 (not even Man City yet).

But you can get Galaxy shirts.

From what I can tell from my various travels around China and ASEAN, that's pretty representative. Before Beckham, every team in the MLS was unheard of - now people know who Galaxy are and buy their merch.

 

[Danners9]

When i've been abroad, unless they are knock offs, you can only (usually) buy Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

I went to Montreal in April, found a shop that had everrrrrything. But they only had a Spurs scarf, and an old one with the old badge. I was so amazed that I took a picture of it, first Spurs thing i've seen in all the years i've been going to Canada.

Dare I say it's to do with who makes the kit? Nike or Adidas seem big, Reebok make the NFL and NHL gear.. Puma, shoes maybe but not so much sports wear. Under Armour are probably more of a sell than Puma.

 

[Krafty]

I dont think travelling to foreign countries for pre/post season friendlies really does anything anymore. Apart from getting a big fee to play there, I dont think it raises the profile of the our club much, as plenty of teams have been there before.

There are four ways we could increase our global brand - success (and even then it would have to be sustained success, buying David Beckham, or buying the best, preferably young, players from that country.

There other option is tie up with clubs in different countries, I imagine we are quite well known in South Africa as we have been there quite often, before others had, we have charities set up there and a link to one of their top clubs.

 

[striebs]

Went into one of the sports shops in Heathrow , took off a handful of Spurs shirts off and put them back at the front of other racks so they covered up the sky 4 .

It's ridiculous that Chelsea can be so big oversees yet are smaller in terms off support in London than West Ham .

 

[Banny]

i went to mexico last year and got chatting to some of the hotel staff. when i mentioned i support spurs they looked at me as if i just posed them a difficult maths equation. i was a little suprised to be honest.

 

[SlickMongoose]

Of course we're not as big as the top clubs. But we are pretty well known relative to our league position, particularly in Scandinavia, the US (surprisingly) and South Africa.

 

[KILLA_SIN]

Football in general in India is not widely followed at all other than in a few states where there was Portuguese settlement, or among some of the richer folks in the city trying to act 'western'.

 

[Chinaspur]

When I was in China in 2006 I hung out with loads of Chinese students who were interested in football. Spurs' recognition was not in the same league as the Sky four, however whenever I mentioned I supported spurs I would always get the same excited response..."Robbie Keane" (or "Lobbie Keane" depending on their accent!). It seems he brought recognition to the club in a similar way that Beckham would do (although not as massively).

 

[Rob]

SC visitors this year so far are from:

UK
US
Australia
Norway
Ireland
Canada
Singapore
Sweden
Hong Kong
France

That's the top 10 only but to illustrate a point, UK visits are well over a million, US ones are 77K, Australia is 35K and France is 11K. The US ones are probably very biased by ISPs appearing to be US-based when they're not.

In total this year we've had visitors from 157 countries. Since we started tracking it we've had 175 countries visit and that's pretty much the whole word apart from a few African/S.American countries. I imagine however that's a lot of ex-pats.

Which language they speak is also tracked and might be better represenative..?

I'll do a big post on all our stats in a few weeks as people seemed to find it interesting last time.

 

[spurious1]

In twenty odd years of travelling around, I can only recall twice seeing a verifiable local wearing a spurs shirt - once in France and once in Nigeria (!). Never seen one for sale anywhere outside UK as far as I can recall (not systematically checked, of course). In the same time how many thousands upon thousands of ManU/Pool then Arse and now Chelsea shirts have I seen. I can't recall seeing shirts from any other PL teams, actually (have seen Newcastle shirts but they're not PL, are they?)

World tours - very little effect. Signing stars from those countries, small ephemeral effect. Being quite successful - negligible effect. You have to be REALLY successful, which means winning the league or the Champions league. Only then do you get the fair-weather fan following.

 

[llamafarmer]

It's ridiculous that Chelsea can be so big oversees yet are smaller in terms off support in London than West Ham .

I went to Sydney a couple of years ago during the Mourinho years. Most sports store I went to had more space dedicated to Chavski shirts than any other footy shirts. :roll:

My experience in Thailand was that most people knew of Spurs, but I never met anyone who claimed to be a fan or even named one of our players. They were all obssessed with Rooney!

 

[MR_BEN]

i watched the carling cup final (when we beat chelsea) - in the Man United Bar in Jakarta - all the 'man united' staff.... were supporting bloody chelsea!