Spurs - The Global Brand

[Chaplain]

Having lived in India, China and Singapore, of the 3 the most people knew of spurs was in Singapore (and had most of its fans in the asian region), and knew the least of was, quite obviously, India, even among the football-interested. In fact, before we sold him, the only spurs player most anybody could name was Berbatov. However, ESPN and Starsports do regularly show spurs on television (as long as it doesn't clash with a top 4 game or any other vaguely important game) and one of the commentators calls himself a spurs supporter (though I've yet to see him support spurs in any way).


So really, compared to like West Bromwich Albion, we are pretty global. Compared to the top 4 we are completely unknown, and then compared to Everton and Aston Villa and Manchester City, we're about the same level (with Manchester City overtaking the rest of the "best of the rest" in popularity abroad quite quickly).

 

[Coalhada]

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.

I reckon that's got to be part of it.
Puma shops seem to mostly be about flogging Ferrari merchandise.

 

[Danners9]

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.

I think the emphasis has changed from raising awareness of your club to giving the TV audience a chance to see them live.

The good will goes a long way; community events in South Africa with the kids in townships, shirt signings, stopping for photos at friendlies. That sort of thing. But it still comes down to who the TV companies pick up and what gear the shops sell.

Hull in this Asia Cup thing, hmm, really? how many Hull games on asian tv? Hull shirts? not so much, unless against one of the established brands.

 

[myhartlane]

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.

Yes, I rekon that's due to the fact that these countries have a fairly strong tradition of following English football so football fans in these countries are aware of our historical status. There have been Scandinavians coming to WHL for as long as I can remember. In the less mature markets we are unknown because we have done nothing spectacular for the past 25 years and they have only been into English football for max 10 years.

Clearly the best way to raise our profile is to win stuff!

 

[GLUESODA]

The good will goes a long way; community events in South Africa with the kids in townships, shirt signings, stopping for photos at friendlies. That sort of thing. But it still comes down to who the TV companies pick up and what gear the shops sell.
.

Spurs in South Africa is relatively strong, definately the 4th/5th most supported team, probably on a par with Chelsea.
Obviously the 2 tours over the last decade were well received - i went to the last game of the last tour and was amazed how many fans had a spurs shirt on. In SA the coverage of the premiership is brilliant, and atleast 30 of the 38 spurs games gets televised live in a top slot.

A spurs shirt is not really too difficult to come across, there are a few shops who will have maybe 1 or 2 of the home kit, but its surounded by hundreds of Manchester kits.

The only problem here though is that most of the spurs fans are well past 40.:think:

 

[Eric_s]

There are Spurs supporters club in hong kong, singapore, japan and korea. There isn't any for man city or villa in those countries.

 

[Knarf44]

I live in Brazil, actually the SE state of Santa Catarina. EPL games are shown live here on a national TV channel but knowledge of Spurs is limited. Those who follow the EPL know of us but if I ask them who they follow it's usually ManU or Ashburton Grove, the latter simply because of the Brazilians they've had in recent years.

In my almost 3 years here I've only seen two people wearing ManU shirts, by far the most popular foreign teams are Madrid, Barca, the two Milan Clubs and Bayern Munich. This despite Puma and Adidas both being strong brands here.

 

[CrazyConrad]

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.

Well Spurs is quite big in Norway. If we remove the 2 biggest (in a league of their own) Manu and Pool I'd say we are roaming on third with le scum. But Norway is kinda special though since we have watched English footy on telly for several decades now.

 

[chris]

In Canada, we have the largest official supporters club of an EPL team behind Man Utd and Liverpool.

 

[Coalhada]

Hull in this Asia Cup thing, hmm, really? how many Hull games on asian tv? Hull shirts? not so much, unless against one of the established brands.

They've organised that one badly. According to the Standard this morning they've only flogged 20,000 tickets out of 120k.
Partly that's because Beijing Guo'an are rumoured to be only sending their reserve team.

I think the other reason is this. First round:
Beijing Guoan vs Hull
West Ham vs Spurs

They've seeded it to give Guo'an a good chance of getting to the second match, but they've forgotten that no one is going to want to see that first one.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Having lived in India, China and Singapore, of the 3 the most people knew of spurs was in Singapore (and had most of its fans in the asian region), and knew the least of was, quite obviously, India, even among the football-interested. In fact, before we sold him, the only spurs player most anybody could name was Berbatov. However, ESPN and Starsports do regularly show spurs on television (as long as it doesn't clash with a top 4 game or any other vaguely important game) and one of the commentators calls himself a spurs supporter (though I've yet to see him support spurs in any way).


So really, compared to like West Bromwich Albion, we are pretty global. Compared to the top 4 we are completely unknown, and then compared to Everton and Aston Villa and Manchester City, we're about the same level (with Manchester City overtaking the rest of the "best of the rest" in popularity abroad quite quickly).

Shebby! Shebby! Shebby!

What a total arseloch that man is. When we nearly finished 4th he called for Jol's immediate sacking. Then went on and on about Robinson and even during Gomes' awesome second half to last season continually trotted out "Spurs have a good defence but the keeper is shaky so they will always concede" cue yet another clean sheet. :roll:

And if I had a quid for every time last season he said "The only man who doesn't think Liverpool can win the league is Rafa Benitez", I'd be a rich, rich man.

There's also Jamie Reeves, who's a yiddo and the whole panel are generally fairly good to Spurs.

Which brings me to my point that this region (SEA) really does know Tottenham. I've met scores and scores, possibly hundreds of randomly unconnected people who follow Spurs. The EPL (yes, I know) is huge and thanks to the counterfeit markets, loads of shirts are worn. You often see a Spurs kit (even away strips), and in fact, I've seen Southampton, Sheff Wednesday, Burnley, Hull, Middlesboro, and even this tiny tinpot club with a shirt that has black and wihte stripes and this Magpie bird thing on their chest, weird, eh?

 

[piedpiper]

Spurs in South Africa is relatively strong, definately the 4th/5th most supported team, probably on a par with Chelsea.
Obviously the 2 tours over the last decade were well received - i went to the last game of the last tour and was amazed how many fans had a spurs shirt on. In SA the coverage of the premiership is brilliant, and atleast 30 of the 38 spurs games gets televised live in a top slot.

A spurs shirt is not really too difficult to come across, there are a few shops who will have maybe 1 or 2 of the home kit, but its surounded by hundreds of Manchester kits.

The only problem here though is that most of the spurs fans are well past 40.:think:

In the late 80's and early 90's Pool and Man U were the teams to be supported here in SA. Arsene wengers success at L'arse and his imports of african/french player got their profile up a notch or two. they are the third best supported team out this way. Chelsea after Abramohovic (sp) millions and them signing (mikel/drogba and Essien) has increased their profile.

My beloved Spurs on the other hand are just as well known as these clubs and we do have a large fan base. the difference here is our fans know all our player whereas the likes of gunner and chelsea supporters cannot even name some of their own players. you have so called supporters other clubs and the faithful who support spurs out here. I love my club and we have the support in South Africa.

 

[ace1]

Well, it's a year later and I'm really glad that things are slowly starting to change, in Thailand at least.

Spurs are being shown on TV in their News Sports sections especially when the CL is played, and they are showing the Spurs games live on local channels too, great coverage. Fortunately, due to our tremendous run in the CL, the news is of a winning team and people are remembering them.

I certainly don't get as many blank faces when I mention Spurs and I've even seen a local wearing a Spurs shirt, and that was because he supported them not because he thought it looked cool.

Here's hoping we are succesful in gaining a CL place for next year.

 

[michaelden]

When I was in Mauritis I spoke to a fair few Spurs fans. Seems we are liked there. In Zims we are well behind Liverfool, ManUtd, Chelski & Arsenal. I expect that to change as I've been getting all my mates kids spurs baby growers even if they support another team :up:

 

[michaelden]

In Spain we are known. In fact 3 ears ago I was asked who I supported and after saying Spurs the group laughed and called me a romantic. They used to liken us to Real Betis, good on our day but not consistant enough.

 

[tRiKS]

simple we'll give becks a loan deal and then when twitchy goes to england Jose Mourhino will bring his own publicity.

Right whats next on my to do list...

 

[michaelden]

simple we'll give becks a loan deal and then when twitchy goes to england Jose Mourhino will bring his own publicity.

Right whats next on my to do list...

1. Organise my diary and training days
2. Liaise with developers to get system use included in contract
3. Find me a tux for my masked ball
4. Order a dimmer for lounge lights
5. Shop around for a deal on a fore rib roast for xmas

I'll send the rest when you've finished that lot ;-)

 

[Shanks]

When I went to Brazil for my holiday earlier in the year, not a single person I spoke to (and we spoke to a lot), had heard of Tottenham Hospurs.

When I asked which teams they knew from England, it was Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Even more baffling when I was explaining that the Brazilian keeper Gomes plays for them, they hardly recognised his name either, just kept talking about Cesar.

So, probably, just me being unlucky to meet dimwitted football fans than anything else.

:-D

 

[gibbs131]

It's a great point.

I've mentioned it in profit based threads.

The more eyes that see Spurs in glory nights, the more money we will make. If Bale, VDV keep doing their thing, the small pockets of Spurs Supporter Clubs that are in every country will start growing.

It's not coincidence Man Utd are obsessed with Asia etc on pre season tours.

Just playing Europe is not enough. You have to be a mainstay, play with flair so you get the good coverage. Overseas, not all games are in HD. Not all games have build up and aftermath. It is the Man Utds vs Barcas that get these type of games. And these are the games where millions watch. So everything goes up. From simple things like advertising hoardings, to stadium naming rights because you become a global entity.

You don't want to be the team that is played on delay at midnight because the big boys get the live coverage.

We are bang on track. We could not have had a bigger impact.

Gotta trust ole Mystic Sid.

 

[leffe186]

It's a great point.

I've mentioned it in profit based threads.

The more eyes that see Spurs in glory nights, the more money we will make. If Bale, VDV keep doing their thing, the small pockets of Spurs Supporter Clubs that are in every country will start growing.

It's not coincidence Man Utd are obsessed with Asia etc on pre season tours.

Just playing Europe is not enough. You have to be a mainstay, play with flair so you get the good coverage. Overseas, not all games are in HD. Not all games have build up and aftermath. It is the Man Utds vs Barcas that get these type of games. And these are the games where millions watch. So everything goes up. From simple things like advertising hoardings, to stadium naming rights because you become a global entity.

You don't want to be the team that is played on delay at midnight because the big boys get the live coverage.

We are bang on track. We could not have had a bigger impact.

Gotta trust ole Mystic Sid.

Agreed, the style of play definitely has an impact.

I've seen a handful of Spurs shirts out here in Ohio and had an extensive conversation with a Croatian Modric fan who was wearing the shirt in a supermarket. That said, when I go to Columbus Crew games I've only ever seen one. That's a problem, because that's the discerning part of the US audience, one that will spend money on merchandise.

Most games are televised here, and I'd like to say that we're impinging on people's consciousness, but in truth I think the best way we could do so would be to sign an American.