Last week Liverpool Football Club was finally crowned Champions of the English Premier league at the end of their last home match of this season.
It was a particularly emotional event because this is the first time they lifted the cup in 30 years.
"For the younger ones among us, before Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson was Liverpool. In the 1970s and 1980s they won 11 of their 19 league titles...
Despite their long wandering in the wilderness, they continue to be one of the most supported sports teams world wide and last year, as a result they were among the highest earning teams in soccer. Last year Liverpool earned Euros600m (sh2.6trillion) and is valued at $2.2b (sh8.1 trillion).
Winning the premiership has added $182m( sh670b) to their coffers and you can be sure the managers are going to maximise the commercial potential of their winning the premiership.
However
even in the dry times Liverpool has been a high earning team and this is because of a deliberate and systematic brand building strategy, which all businessmen would do well to learn from...
Having a company emblem with a clever design and flashy colours is not all branding is about.
A brand is built though creating awareness, managing associations, ensuring positive experience, which, if all done well, will lead to loyalty to your business.
Here is a quick and dirty list of how Liverpool has done this over the 128 years of its existence.
1. CREATING AWARENESS
It helps that Liverpool plays in the Premier League, the most popular league in the world. So on every given weekend during the season, in more than 100 countries around the world, Liverpool is being watched.
"You have no brand if no one knows about you...
One of the quickest ways to create awareness for a business is to link up with existing networks, these could be physical, as in having a business on Kampala road or soft networks like social media.
The days of the Indian duka where all the businessman had to do was open his shop for business, seat at the counter and wait for clients to flock to him are all over.
Creating awareness may not create sales immediately but over time will begin to help ring the till.
2. MANAGING ASSOCIATIONS
What are you associated with, good things or bad things?
Liverpool has worked hard to create the association that the team plays exciting, attacking football, never gives up and is a large community --- they never walk alone, that everyone wants to be a part of.
When you think of a Mercedes Benz you associate it with luxury, good workmanship and reliability. Those associations have been promoted by Daimler Benz, the company that makes the Mercedes, for years to the point that the association is seared into our collective consciousness.
"Every business, beyond creating awareness should be actively creating positive associations in the mind of its clients, current and potential....
Is reliability a good association, in the case of a delivery services for instance or durability in the case of household appliances or outstanding service in the case of the hospitality industry? What associations are you promoting for your business.
3. ENSURING POSITIVE EXPERIENCE
You can talk all you want in creating awareness and associations but the tasting of the pudding is in the eating.
When you go to watch a Liverpool match you are guaranteed to see first flowing football, not the ponderous, passing games of some lesser names. You can expect that even when they are down they will fight to the end – their Champions’ League victory against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005 cemented that reputation .
This is important because it means the
branding of your company or product is not the business of the marketing department alone but of every worker in the company....
It doesn’t help that you are trying to promote a welcoming and happy association for your hotel and yet you have a grumpy waiter or surly housekeeper; It doesn’t help that your trying to promote your garage as reliable operator but you can't fix the cars on time or as promised.
You rather under promise and over deliver than the inverse.
4. LOYALTY
The loyalty to your brand will determine whether you have done well with awareness, conjuring associations and creating positive experiences.
The Liverpool faithful have suffered heartbreak and doubt – they have even been branded Looserpool, during the last 30 years, but the fans have remained steadfast.
The club has remained true to its brand of soccer, continued to promote their sense of community and maintained the hope in their fans that winning ways are just around the corner.
"Even if it takes Liverpool another 30 years to win the premiership again, you can guarantee that their fans will still be there a testament to the building of a great brand....
Will your clients be with you 30 years from now?
