Download Manchester United x AIK

Manchester United x AIK
Task: The first case will be an analysis of the given Firm from different perspectives from
International Marketing reflecting the literature. The second case will also analyze the given firm
from similar perspectives but will also make a comparison between both and apply results of the
first firm on the second one.
1st step: Analyses of international marketing strategy of Manchester United
2nd step: Find options for local club to use it as an example
3rd step: Concrete marketing project
Schedule
Theoretical background
1st step
1. Finding sources
2. Putting data together  sorting them out
3. See the business background
4. Analyzing marketing strategy based on the concept of the value chain
5. Summing up
=============== 2 weeks
2nd step
1. Finding sources
2. Analyzing current situation of the company and the environment – SWOT
3. Comparing situation in both clubs
4. Comparing Man Utd. Strategy with options
5. Recommendations
=============== 2 weeks
Theoretical background
The best way to explain international marketing strategy was a concept of a value chain from the
textbook GLOBAL MARKETING by HOLLENSEN.
THE VALUE CHAIN
Provides systematic means of displaying and categorizing activities. Shows how the value is
created. Simplified, the primary activities performed by a firm in any industry can be grouped into 4
main categories. As seen at the slide a distinction is also made between the production-oriented
“upstream” activities and the more marketing-oriented “downstream” activities.
At each stage of the value chain there exists an opportunity to contribute positively to the firm’s
competitive strategy by performing some activity or process in a way better than the competitors.
All internationally oriented firms must consider an eventual internationalization of the value chain’s
functions. The firm must decide whether the responsibility for the single value chain function is to
be moved to the export markets, or is best handled centrally from head office.
R&D
Production
Upstream
Marketing
Sales and
services
Downstream
1st step
Finding sources:
Vyrocni zprava Man. Utd.
Internet: browsers like msn.com, google.com, yahoo.com
Cnn.com
Bbc.com
Manutd.com
Ft.com
Putting data together  sorting them out:
From about 60 articles we sorted out all the articles interested only in sport results and personal
affairs of David Backham left with approx. 40 articles about Man Utd. Business activities.
Those articles we devided into groups concerning different activities or markets as follows
Us market
Japanese market
Partners and sponsors
Others
Get to know the business background of Manchester United
•Established in 1878
•14 times winners of the league
•The most well known soccer club in the world
•Successful 90’s
•Turnover over £130 mil
•Traded on stock exchange
Business activities
•Football-team
•Cable network - MUTV
•Financial/banking institution
•Merchandise souvenier shops
•Museum
•Conference and catering
•Popular free-email service
Analyzing marketing strategy based on the concept of the value chain
Manchester United uses its name as a brand and his marketing strategy is based on promoting the
brand covering all his other activities beside soccer.
Co-branding
Partnership with sponsors
Manchester
Large fan
base
Partners
Promotion together
Sharing customers
Marketing worldwide
Well known
consumer
brands
In case of ManUtd partnership with Budwieser.
For increasing the brand awareness internationally as well as for higher profit the Manchester
United uses mainly those 4 ways:
•Outlet stores
•Broadcasting
•Preseason games
•Internet
In different markets ManUtd. applies specific strategies. I have analyzed strategies used to enter
Asian, mainly Japanese market and US market from which the one for US market would be closely
described for further use.
Partnership with New York Yankees
Increasing the brand awareness
Plan to work together to develop a Manchester United pre-season tour of North America in 2003
To satisfy the increasing demand from fans for information, products and services
•Sharing marketing information
•Developing sponsorship
•Exchange in merchandising
•Developing cross promotional programmes
•Sharing sporting knowledge
Summing up
United is not only a soccer club but also a business
It is all about the brand
Different strategies in different continents
Outlet stores, Broadcasting,
Preseason games, Internet
-
Partnership with market-leading companies in different fields
difficulties to find player with certain qualities on bareable wage level
Financial plans and development
2nd Step
Finding sources
Internet: browsers like msn.com, google.com, yahoo.com
Cnn.com
Bbc.com
Ft.com  not so useful
Official webpage,
personal interview with assistant Chief of commercial and sponsor and expert in sportmarketing
Conterporary history
•AIK = Allmänna Idrottsklubben
”The public sport club”
•Founded 1891 by Isidor Behrens
•1896 began to play soccer
•1900 won their first premiership (winners for 10 times)
•Hockey, soccer, bandy, bowling, floorball
The club has been quite successful in football during the past few years. In total, they have won the
Swedish league ten times, the Swedish cup seven times and represented Sweden in the European
cups several times. Nowadays, they are known as one of the best teams in Sweden.
As football has become very popular in Sweden since 1994 when the National team finished third
in the World Cup, “Gnaget” has a lot of opportunities to increase their popularity and enter the sport
business.
SWOT analyse
First of all, we have done a SWOT-analyse to see good and bad sides of AIK in order to better
understand the club’s situation and from that, come up with new ideas and recommendations to
them.
Strengths
Weaknesses

Good organization

Negative revenues

The biggest club in Sweden

Previous bad reputation

The highest avg attendance

Bad hockey team
per game

Not enough qualifications

Good team - good scores

Sponsorship - Nissan

Popular only in Stockholm

First sport club with own

Sponsorship - Åbro
website
for Int. league
Today, the club has very well structured organisation. Taking the example from big soccer clubs,
they are implementing new methods how to work with and train the youth teams. Although they
have negative revenues they invested huge sum into their training field in Karlberg and they have
bought very expansive players over last few years. Still they are popular mainly in Stockholm.
Opportunities
Threats


Good relationships with
football
media


Possible decrease interest in
Use of players in media

Bad results
promotion

Not the most popular Swedish
football team abroad
Increase in popularity of
soccer
 Attracting families, first time
It is very important for AIK to have a good relationship with the media. As we can see with the
Manchester spectators
United that is the communication channel that influences public perception of the club
the most. Without publicity in media such as newspapers, TV, radio and the internet Manchester
United could never be so successful like they are now. The Manchester United commercials proved
that use of players in media promotion is vital. However, good results are essential.
Manchester Global, AIK Local
"To compare AIK with Manchester United is like comparing an apple with an orange.”
Peter Johansson – Assistant Chief of commercial and sponsor
For the first sight, the British club is so much bigger than the AIK, if it comes to economic policy
as well as to sport. Manchester United started developing itself and obtaining successes many years
ago and consequently they are today one of the most famous teams in the world. One of the main
reason which allowed them to grow that much was the cultural background of England with a long
tradition in football. Comparing to AIK’s situation in Sweden, the popularity of football increased
just recently and together with global increase of popularity opens to AIK options to profit form it.
We can see those two clubs in two different stages of development. When Manchester United can
focus on the downstream activities like global marketing strategies, AIK has to put firstly effort into
the upstream activities, which means mainly into training and obtaining good results on the field.
After managing those they can drive their attention off-field. It is cheaper to train own players than
buying them.
Recommendations
Increase awareness of the brand
Partnerships with Scandinavian Clubs
Good results
Improve image in media
Using the experiences of Manchester United and after analyse of the situation of AIK we came up
with these recommendations.
As far as we are concerned, the most important thing right now is to increase the brand awareness
of the club, not only of the football team.
One way how to achieve this objective is to cooperate with the two other biggest football teams
in Scandinavia – Bröndby and Rosenborg. This partnership can make interest for media in all three
countries. Further more, they might also cooperate on the upstream and downstream activities.
Perhaps,








Sharing marketing information
Developing sponsorship
Exchange in merchandising
Developing cross promotional programme
Sharing sporting knowledge
Cooperation of youth teams
Camps
Preseason games
Although AIK doesn’t qualified to International leagues, this way can be introduced abroad and
spread its popularity outside Stockholm.
Nevertheless, the most important thing are the games, without good results AIK will not ever have a
chance to expand abroad.
Another big step to take is to move from sponsorship to partnership and choice of the right
sponsor/partner. The biggest sponsor of AIK is Åbro, which is a Swedish brewery. Since the
Swedish alcohol policy is quite strict, it is hard for AIK to do good advertising campaigns together
with Åbro. In Sweden it is not quite accepted to mix sport with alcohol and such advertising could
give them bad fame. As Manchester United developed suitable strategies for each market, AIK
should follow the specifics of Swedish market. There has to be further research done to choose a
good company as a partner/sponsor.