BAM! (shhhh) wrote:Another thought that's occurred to me as I read... the AFL and it's clubs are turning people off with their "big business" approach. While the AFL can genuinely claim to be a relatively large enterprise in the context of Australian business, the clubs (including interstate financial powerhouses and Melbourne clubs like Collingwood and Essendon) by both scale and consumerbase are much more in line with SME.
While SME (small and medium enterprise) are corporates, my experience is that those who run them successfully borrow both from big corporate strategy and small business approach. If we take supporters as demographics, and members as loyal customers, then the vibe of these threads seems to be that people aren't getting the extra value that small businesses are expected to provide to keep their niche.
If we take bookstores as an example, some local stores thrive, and there are a couple of minor chains that succeed in spite of cheaper options (Borders) or internet ordering (Amazon) - the key to this is the "3rd place" approach that made starbucks such a monster (idea is that we've all got home and work as our main 2 venues, so what's the next place we'll choose to spend time when we're not in one of these 2 places?). St Kilda and other AFL clubs may be both missing an opportunity and disenchanting their key customers by ignoring such a fundamental marketing concept.
By scale, AFL clubs are not in line with their European and American counterparts. Their turnovers are miniscule in comparison (witness the salary cap, where individual players in MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL frequently exceed what an AFL team is paid) . While pursuing this success is both natural and a good long term strategy, perhaps there's a key message to these threads...
At the moment the club is not taking people with it on that journey.
That's a really good point.
In order to survive against big businesses, small businesses need to differentiate themselves. Offer something that the big businesses can't. Because clearly the big businesses offers customers stuff that the small businesses can't. That's generally price, and variety.
If a small business can't compete on cost and variety, which generally they can't, they need to offer something else to stay afloat. That 'something else' is often a 'personal touch'. Friendliness, an emotional connection, a sense of community. They know your name. Ask how you are, and are interested in the the response.
That's just an example.
AFL clubs used to offer this sort of feeling. The AFL had no connection with it's 'customers', that was clear some time ago. However the clubs still had it. The Saints definately did.
The Saints definately do not now. In my view.
If they don't offer that, and are offering simply 'entertainment' as a soulless brand, they need to be very, very careful And this is where the area of 'attractive footy' comes into it.
Those who have an emotional attachment to the club, don't care. Doesn't matter how you win, just win. You could tuck the ball down the back of your shorts and run the length of the ground for they care - it's the club winning that matters. How attractive it looks doesn't matter. The diehards aren't there to be entertained.
However the ones who aren't overly 'connected' to the club, want and expect to be entertained. If you're selling entertainment, you need to be entertaining. This is why it's such a dangerous tact for AFL clubs.
The reality is you're only entertaining for roughly a 3-4 year period if you're lucky. Then you're an easy beat for the next 3-4.
You better make sure you have enough cash in the bank when the tough times come around. Because the money will naturally dry up and the interest fade, if your core product is shiit (ie. entertainment).
