[Archived] Rovers Marketing.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

They send out Hughesy masks and other things we won't use, so why don't they give us something we will use, ie scarves.

[tcj_jones]

A free Rovers scarf with a season ticket is an excellent idea. They really should put it into practice.

[Hughesy]

Can we all have a free shirt too please? And maybe a free hotdog??

Honestly we get cheap tickets as it is, without giving away freebies. The problem is the lack of official merchandise available.

IF you want one then here you go - Only £5

[American Rover12]

I've found other scarves online too, and on Ebay. There's plenty out there.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

If we want to promote Blackburn Rovers and make money then we need to target a country like India. They have a big passion for football and the population of India is one of the biggest on the planet. Blackburn Rovers could set up training academies and set up sport facilities around India where we can use for scouting purposes as well as making the name Blackburn Rovers an International brand. The best prospects can come over to England and we have a feeder club in Belgium as well which would benefit any person who wouldn't be able to gain a work permit. It would be a long process but we'd be foolish not to take advantage whilst India remains untouched. We've seen the success of teams like Man Utd & Liverpool in China. Blackburn Rovers should make a success of India before anyone else does.

[Russ]

Can we all have a free shirt too please? And maybe a free hotdog??

Honestly we get cheap tickets as it is, without giving away freebies. The problem is the lack of official merchandise available.

IF you want one then here you go - Only £5

Here a nice one, bit more pricey but a touch of class!!

Link

[Guest fernhurstblue]

well they haven't deleted my account as requested - so i'll just say it as i see it

[Guest fernhurstblue]

If we want to promote Blackburn Rovers and make money then we need to target a country like India. They have a big passion for football and the population of India is one of the biggest on the planet. Blackburn Rovers could set up training academies and set up sport facilities around India where we can use for scouting purposes as well as making the name Blackburn Rovers an International brand. The best prospects can come over to England and we have a feeder club in Belgium as well which would benefit any person who wouldn't be able to gain a work permit. It would be a long process but we'd be foolish not to take advantage whilst India remains untouched. We've seen the success of teams like Man Utd & Liverpool in China. Blackburn Rovers should make a success of India before anyone else does.

if it was such a fantastic idea somebody would have done it already!! and if you read the fans forums minutes on the official site, there might be some metion of the fact that the club prefer to concentrate on getting the local support into the ground, rather than pumping loads of money into a venture that would generate about NIL extra people into the ground.

hows that for a reasoned response? ..... although i still stand by my initial response

[Korean John]

if it was such a fantastic idea somebody would have done it already!! and if you read the fans forums minutes on the official site, there might be some metion of the fact that the club prefer to concentrate on getting the local support into the ground, rather than pumping loads of money into a venture that would generate about NIL extra people into the ground.

hows that for a reasoned response? ..... although i still stand by my initial response

There's plenty doing it. Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Manchester United have all been very active in India, setting up academies/partnerships/ deals etc, these past few months. Spurs are playing a couple of games there in May/June as are Bayern Munich. Juventus are expected to visit as well.

There are big, big plans for Indian football and while it may never happen, lots of clubs are positioning themselves to take advantage if it does.

[chocky]

I'll bring a scarf but if we play against them like we did against Liverpool we will get battered....

[Tim Southampton Rover]

There's plenty doing it. Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Manchester United have all been very active in India, setting up academies/partnerships/ deals etc, these past few months. Spurs are playing a couple of games there in May/June as are Bayern Munich. Juventus are expected to visit as well.

There are big, big plans for Indian football and while it may never happen, lots of clubs are positioning themselves to take advantage if it does.

Obviously the idea I suggested Rovers do wasn't so stupid after all then Fernhurstblue, especially if all the top clubs in Europe are planning on doing so.

I'll await a PM from you with your apology and a message saying what great ideas I have.

[Guest fernhurstblue]

i think the phrase "hell will freeze over first" ..... tell you what, lets have a bet about rovers having an official presense (sp) in india within the next 2 years??

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Sadly I don't believe it will happen for Blackburn as like you said, we will focus more on our local community but i'm sure the clubs Korean John stated will benefit from having their clubs active in India.

They will continue to make much more money than us and the gap will get bigger between clubs who have a large international following and clubs who only rely on the local community as they will have the money to afford the better players. There will be a time when we will no longer be able to keep pace with them unless we get some kind of investment. Unfortunately that doesn't look likely at the moment.

[ABBEY]

would you rather have ppv indians tim or local fans coming in?

[yoda]

If we want to promote Blackburn Rovers and make money then we need to target a country like India. They have a big passion for football and the population of India is one of the biggest on the planet. Blackburn Rovers could set up training academies and set up sport facilities around India where we can use for scouting purposes as well as making the name Blackburn Rovers an International brand. The best prospects can come over to England and we have a feeder club in Belgium as well which would benefit any person who wouldn't be able to gain a work permit. It would be a long process but we'd be foolish not to take advantage whilst India remains untouched. We've seen the success of teams like Man Utd & Liverpool in China. Blackburn Rovers should make a success of India before anyone else does.

Every time I go to China and India, I have to take Rovers gear for some of the locals (there are Rovers fans that I know in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik) I have previously taken shirts etc to Malaysia where you often see Rovers shirts walking round in KL.

Rovers are missing a huge opportunity in these countries, Laioning Fushun are crying out for a tie up with a premiership club

[stuwilky]

would you rather have ppv indians tim or local fans coming in?

Did Tim suggest we didnt continue to hammer the advertising on a local level?

I have a feeling we'll get even further left behind on this ever increasing global stage.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Of course we still need the support of the local fans. They are the most important fans we need to consider however we all know that football isn't just about supporting your local team anymore and the only way to see a game is at the stadium.

Now that TV is playing a major role in football, we need to consider how to increase the amount of money coming into the club, especially when ours is just a small town in England and not a major city so we won't be able to attract that many local fans.

IF we invest in the overseas market then it needs to be somewhere where we can put our foot down first and be ahead of other teams. If we invested in China then it wouldn't work because teams like Manchester United and Liverpool are major players in the Chinese market. So surely it makes sense to market Blackburn Rovers into a country such as India which has over 1 billion people who love football but don't have the facilities to help make Indian football better than it is.

If Blackburn invest into the country, set up training academies, maybe form an affiliation with a club and help promote the game then I don't see any reason why Blackburn wouldn't gain from this. If Blackburn got the best young Indian footballers over to England and we managed to get a great player, just imagine the impact that one player alone would have.

We've seen Amir Khan have an enormous impact on the Indian market and he's British. God knows what would happen if we managed to come across the Gerrard/Rooney of India.

You may call me stupid, crazy or in one case a tit but surely it's better than waiting for teams to over take us when we're in a fantastic position to do something about it.

[SAS]

Every time I go to China and India, I have to take Rovers gear for some of the locals (there are Rovers fans that I know in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik) I have previously taken shirts etc to Malaysia where you often see Rovers shirts walking round in KL.

Rovers are missing a huge opportunity in these countries, Laioning Fushun are crying out for a tie up with a premiership club

An old story but before abramovich i went to australia with my family

my brother being a chelsea fan wore his shirt and me wearing the blue and white halves

and walking around malaysia a lot of locals commented shouting shearer , hendry etc,

my brother got nothing and we asked why, and they didnt know much about chelsea

having won the premier league gives us a huge boost amongst tapping into a market over teams like villa, everton etc

[Paul]

however we all know that football isn't just about supporting your local team anymore and the only way to see a game is at the stadium.

Pardon? What is about then?

[RevidgeBlue]

Rovers have really been hammering the season ticket ad on Talksport recently, it was hardly off last week.

BTW is it me or does it sound like Bentley is having a bit of a lark and saying super "loos" instead of super "news" at the end?

[Korean John]

Every time I go to China and India, I have to take Rovers gear for some of the locals (there are Rovers fans that I know in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik) I have previously taken shirts etc to Malaysia where you often see Rovers shirts walking round in KL.

Rovers are missing a huge opportunity in these countries, Laioning Fushun are crying out for a tie up with a premiership club

That's exactly right. There are a host of Indian and Chinese clubs who would be very interested in developing links with Rovers.

There is some serious money that is starting to be invested in Indian football.

A club like Mumbai FC has only just come into existence, is backed by one of India's biggest companies and has already been visited by 3 or 4 Premier League clubs.

[Martin]

The time to develop the 'Blackburn Rovers brand' was in the summer of '95.

Our success has tailed off since then and so did the oppotunity to create a worldwide brand.

India is theory sounds like a winner. But I'm not sure India has the strength or growth in it's economy that China has. I'm sure somebody will correct me if that's utter rubbish.

I think any 'investment' in any of the developing countries would be worth a punt, but would no doubt have huge set-up costs with no short term returns - and no guranteed long term returns either. The money is best spent on improving the starting 11 and ensuring we receive the TV cash year after year. Perhaps, not the most exciting strategys but it is a means to exist and survive.

Also, I guess in the majority of instances football takes a backseat in India to cricket - that's me guessing.

This may be selfish, but part of me likes the fact the Blackburn Rovers in not a worldwide brand. I have seen my team win the PL, win a cup, play in europe and we still are a family club. I feel close to the club, I feel as though I'm part of the club. I'm not sure Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool can say the same.

[yoda]

The time to develop the 'Blackburn Rovers brand' was in the summer of '95.

Our success has tailed off since then and so did the oppotunity to create a worldwide brand.

India is theory sounds like a winner. But I'm not sure India has the strength or growth in it's economy that China has. I'm sure somebody will correct me if that's utter rubbish.

I think any 'investment' in any of the developing countries would be worth a punt, but would no doubt have huge set-up costs with no short term returns - and no guranteed long term returns either. The money is best spent on improving the starting 11 and ensuring we receive the TV cash year after year. Perhaps, not the most exciting strategys but it is a means to exist and survive.

Also, I guess in the majority of instances football takes a backseat in India to cricket - that's me guessing.

This may be selfish, but part of me likes the fact the Blackburn Rovers in not a worldwide brand. I have seen my team win the PL, win a cup, play in europe and we still are a family club. I feel close to the club, I feel as though I'm part of the club. I'm not sure Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool can say the same.

Stand still and we fall further behind, this is the time for inovation! the world gets smaller everyday.

It does not have to cost a fortune to set up.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Pardon? What is about then?

I might have worded it wrong but basically before TV deals were the norm, the only way to see your team was to attend the game yourself as we didn't have TV or the internet to rely on being able to watch games. Nowadays you can see more of the game by watching it on TV than when you're at the game due to the multi-angles and the many cameras being able to pick up every incident that happens and then an indepth analysis of the incidents from experts in the game.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

The time to develop the 'Blackburn Rovers brand' was in the summer of '95.

Our success has tailed off since then and so did the oppotunity to create a worldwide brand.

India is theory sounds like a winner. But I'm not sure India has the strength or growth in it's economy that China has. I'm sure somebody will correct me if that's utter rubbish.

I think any 'investment' in any of the developing countries would be worth a punt, but would no doubt have huge set-up costs with no short term returns - and no guranteed long term returns either. The money is best spent on improving the starting 11 and ensuring we receive the TV cash year after year. Perhaps, not the most exciting strategys but it is a means to exist and survive.

Also, I guess in the majority of instances football takes a backseat in India to cricket - that's me guessing.

This may be selfish, but part of me likes the fact the Blackburn Rovers in not a worldwide brand. I have seen my team win the PL, win a cup, play in europe and we still are a family club. I feel close to the club, I feel as though I'm part of the club. I'm not sure Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool can say the same.

It would have been ideal to devlop the 'Blackburn Rovers brand' in 1995 but I don't believe people knew then just how successful the Premier League would become and how much money would be in the game in 10 years time due to TV money and sponsorship money.

The great thing about Indias economy is that it's expected to boom in years to come and Goldman Sachs (world's largest global investment banks) predicts that India will become the 3rd largest economy of the world behind US and China. A lot of people think of India being in poverty but in the last 20 years it's percentage of population below the poverty line has halved and still dropping at a good rate. I don't think football playing 2nd fiddle to cricket is a bad thing because there are many countries which favour other sports above England but it doesn't mean that football wouldn't be successful. Correct me if i'm wrong but Chinas most popular sports include Basketball and Table tennis.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge on the subject might be able to say whether it's a good idea or not but as a fan i'm hoping Rovers can remain competing with the best of the clubs in the Premier League.