Man U brand still a hit

Despite making their worst ever start to a Premier League season, business is booming for Manchester United as efforts to promote the club&#...

Despite making their worst ever start to a Premier League season, business is booming for Manchester United as efforts to promote the club’s brand begin to pay dividends.

With 54 million fans worldwide, all but 10 million of whom are outside Britain, United has in the past few years linked up with leading partners such as US sportswear manufacturer Nike and telecoms giant Vodafone.

Their greater experience in global marketing has helped United better tap into its commercial markets, Patrick Harverson, director of communications at the club, told a European Football Finance Forum.

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“With the partners’ help, clubs can develop a better understanding of their fans,” Harverson said at the two-day conference which was due to close later on Friday.

“The key to growing existing business and developing new revenue streams is the fan base. Our global fan base represents our best growth opportunity as a business,” Harverson said.

United are languishing in 10th place in England’s top flight and did not win a trophy last season as rivals Arsenal took the honours with the domestic double of Premier League title and FA Cup.

But the richest club in the world’s current economic plight is unlikely to cause too much concern for investors looking forward to United’s full year financial results at the end of the month.

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Business is thriving from sources such as sponsorship deals, media, financial services, hotels and restaurants, which do not depend solely on success on the pitch.

“In spite of our least successful season in recent years our business is doing well,” Harverson said.

The club has been criticised in the past for exploiting its fans by trying to sell too many products and has been particularly lambasted for constantly altering its strip design.

But as a 300 million-pound partnership deal with Nike came into force this season changes have been made. “We probably did in the past change our kit too often — you have to stop short of exploitation but realise the potential (of the market),” Harverson said at the Euromoney conference.

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“We are selling less products instead of more — we were stretching the brand too far,” he said. “Nike has helped the club improve its sales technique so the club now has a better quality offering on a wider scale, he added.

The Nike partnership also meant United was able to launch this season’s new kit simultaneously at outlets all over the world.

“It is the best-selling, most successful kit ever,” Harverson said.

Despite progress made in developing football as a business, fans remained fans and should never be considered as customers, whatever the advice of marketing experts, Harverson said. (Reuters)