WHATARETHESUCCESSOFMANCHESTERUNITEDBRAND’SFORINTERNATIONAL?

Historicalapproach

• Founded in 1878 by employees of the railway company ofLancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company who agrees tosponsortheirteamunderthenameNewtonHeathLancashireandYorkshire Railway. He played in the stadium of North Road inNewtonHeath.

• Late1940s,theclubwontheFACupin1948andfinishingwithinthetopfourleaguepositionsduringeachofthefirstfiveseasonsimmediately following the SecondWorldWar. Furthermore the1950s,weremarkedbytheleadershipofmanagerSirMattBusby,who built a popular and famous team based on youth playersknownasthe"BusbyBabes."

• February1958 ,anairplanecrashresultedinthedeathofeight

ofthefirstteamplayers.Globalsupportandtributesfollowedthisdisaster as Busby galvanized the team around such popularplayers as George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law.Rebuilding of the club culminated with a victory in the 1968European Cup final, becoming the first English club to win thistitle.

• In 1986, the club appointed Sir Alex Ferguson as manager. In

1990,ManchesterUnitedwon theFACupandbeganaperiodofsuccessthathascontinueduntil thepresentday.Since1992, theclubhavewonthePremierLeague13times.Intotal,theclubhavewonarecordof20EnglishLeaguetitles,arecordof11FACups,4LeagueCups,3EuropeanChampionsCupsand1FIFAClubWorldCup,makingusoneofthemostsuccessfulclubsinEngland.

OLD TRAFFORD THEATRE OF DREAMS

• OldTraffordstadium,commonlyknownas"TheTheatreofDreams,"wasoriginallyopenedonFebruary19,1910withacapacityofapproximately80,000.

• DuringtheSecondWorldWar,OldTraffordwasusedbythemilitaryasadepot,butin1941thestadiumwasdistroyedbyaGermanbombingraid.

• ItwasrebuiltfollowingthewarandreopenedonAugust24,1949.

• Afteraseriesofadditionsduringthe1960s,1970sandearly1980s,capacity

atOldTraffordreached56,385in1985.

• Theclubstartedtoexpandcapacityofthestadium,bringingcapacityto58,000in1996,68,000in2000,andapproximately76,000in2006.NowadayscapacityatOldTraffordis75,635.

I/STRATEGYOFDISTRIBUTION

Manchesterunited isa trademarksince1968.Thisbrand is present in130differentcountrieswhere theproducts are sold. Despite this brand isBritish, there aremorefollowersinAsiathaninEurope.The"RedDevils"haveoldlinkswithChina,whereMUcurrentlyhas108millionfans,or "followers".ManchesterUnited,whose lastvisitwas inAugust, came there for thefirsttimein1975.ButwhytheclubhavestronglinkswiththeAsiancontinent?TheAsianstrategyofmanchesterUnitedwasborninthe1980’swhentheclubstartedtovisittheregion.FurthermorewiththevenueofasianplayersinManchesterUnitedlikeParkJi-Sung,thepopularityoftheclubincreased.Nowadays,theclubhavedifferentswaystomaintaintheirrelationships:

• Asia tour before the season in order to conect with their fans and promotetheirproducts.

• ClubmerchandisewiththesupportofcompaniesinAsia.• Website promotion with a translation in chinese which attracts over 25

millionsviewspermonthandcontributetothee-commercemarketoftheclubinChina.

• Soccer schools opened by the club to developp football in China and meetyoungplayersandhelpthemtoraisetheirskillsintheworldoffootball.

Manchester United is the international football clubwhich shirts are themostseeninChinesestreetsandalsotheteamthemostshowninnews.Theclubhavea lotofpartnership inAsia forexempleWahaha, the«Danone»Chinese,Chinaconstructionbank(CCB),oneofthefirstfourChinesebankinggroups.TheEnglishclubhasasponsorshipmega-contractwithChevrolet($559millionoversevenyearsfromthe2014-2015season).TheAmericanautomobilebrand,whichwantmore internationalizeandmadeChinaapriority country, are thensponsoredalocaltournament:theChevroletChinaCup.Furthermore, thebrandhas thesamepositioning for thedifferentcountries. Infact this is universal, the kits are the same, logo aswell and all the differentsderivativesproducts.Regarding typeof shopswhere theproduct ismarketed, it is verydiversified:officialshopsofManchesterUnited(MacaoinChina)officialshopsofAdidas,anda lotontheonlineshopsthankstotheE-CommerceonAdidasandManchesterUnitedwebsite.Nowit’sessentialforManchesterunitedtoexploittheChinesee-commerceplatformstoreachthebestwaysthelocalmarket.ThebrandofManchesterUniteddistributemostof thisproducts thanks tohisAdidasPartnership.

II/STRATEGYOFCOMMUNICATION

Thanks to the rapid shift of media consumption towards internet, mobile and socialmedia platformsManchester united is one of themost popular club in theworld. Thebrand use digitalmedia platforms, such asmobile sites, applications and socialmedia.Thesesplatformsareoneoftheprimarymethodsbywhichtheclubengageandtransactwithhisfollowersaroundtheworld.The launch of MUTV (Manchester United Television), in collaboration with the cablechannelBSkyB,increasetheglobalvisibility.Theclubhasauniqueandexclusivemediatospeakabouthishistoryorhisplayerslegends.MostofthefollowersofManchesterUnitedareonFacebookwith69,9million,morethanbaseballamericanclubslikeNewYorkYankees.The Club has beaten all the records in terms of communication for examplewhen theclubopenedhisintasgramaccount,itbecamethebiggestpremierleagueclubsin22daysonthissocialnetworks.CommunicationofManchesterUnitedismadeallovertheworldwiththeimportanceofAsia.Wecannotice thatonWeiboa chinesepostamessagesaying«That’swhy I loveManchesterUnited»and therewere13millionsofcommentsononlyonepost.This isincredibleand it showthat thebrandofManchester isverywell implantedonChineseterritorywithaneffectivecommunication.

To communicate in the world, Manchester united use differentssupports:

• Socialnetworkswhichisthemostimportantpart

• Notorietythankstohisfootballplayers

• Matchesofcoursesthatarebroadcasteverywhereintheworld

thankstopartnershipwithlocalchannel

• InternshipsinChinatopromotefootballandmeetchildrensatschool

• Fans who participate in that communication. Since they have

supporters in all over theworld itmake it easier for the clubbecausefanspostphotos,tweetsanddiscussabouttheclub,theperformance, the products and the players. The club receivefromtheirfansfreeadvertisement

Bibliographie

• Ir.manutd.com• www.ecofoot.fr/manchester-united• marketingweek.com/brands/manchester-united-fc• lesechos.fr• adweek.com• GlobalisationandsportsbrandingthecaseofManU:JohnS.Hill&JohnVincent

III/STRATEGYOFTHEPRICEIV/STRATEGYOFTHEPRODUCT

All over theworld,Manchester United offer the sameproductswithkits,shirtswhicharethebestsellers.Then they canpropose limitedproducts for espaciallycountrybutmosltythesearethesameforeveryone.In China for the Chinese New Year they realese newproductsrelatedtoanimalschinesenewyear.They try to createand imaginenewproducts, goodieseveryyearforaspecialevent,competition,player.Thepackagingcanbedifferentfromdifferentcountriesbutthecolorisalwaysthesame:theredwhomakethepopularityofthebrandintheworld.

In term of price, Manchester United doesn’t need to make astrategyonitwithallthefanswhogotoOldTraffordduringthegamesandthenumbersofproductssoldeveryday.Thepricesarethesamebecauseweonlycanbuyproductsonthewebsiteoratamegastore.But to satisfied and to retainmore the fans, theymake somepromotionsforexamplefortheofficialmembership:-Promotionontickets-50%offMuseumandTour--10%offonlineandintheMegastore-10%offattheRedCafe-FreeentrytoUnder21homegamesThen the club lowered tickets for europa league which is areally good news for the fans and people who want to see amatchofthiscompetition.

To conclude, Manchester United becomes firstbillion-dollar football brand. The club’s brand valuegrewby63%yearonyear,despitetheclubmissingouton Champions League football this year and failing towinatrophy.Man United last topped the rankings in 2012when ithit$853minvalue.TheclubplacedthirdintheBrandFinance report last year, its lowest position since thestudyoriginated.