The branding lessons of football

10 Jul '06

10 min read

By the time you read this, the Soccer World Cup in Germany will have completed its last stages amid huge anticipation. Now, there is huge anticipation for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It was May 15, 2004, that South Africa was chosen and in two years, while FIFA has been moving forward in its normal highly professional, methodical, Swiss manner, the South African soccer machine is running smoothly in parts, but stuttering badly in others.

We live in a world where sport is big business, which means involving serious business people, not simply sport fundis. Another truism in life today is that in business, government or sport, perception is valued as much as performance and profit. So lets compare the perceptions.

The inaugural World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930, and with the exception of the inter war years of 1938 – 1950, has been held every four years. The 17 World Cups held to date have seen seven countries winning, with Brazil the current holders (see if you can work out the seven, see end of article for answer).

For every World Cup event now, FIFA work with local host country companies. In 2002 the joint hosting in Japan and Korea saw the Interbrand offices in Tokyo, Seoul and London coordinating the whole affair, to huge acclaim. The 2006 event in Germany attempted to impose their solution on FIFA, and soon learned you don't mess with Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA.

A former Swiss marketer, who has always been passionate about sport, Blatter understands better than most, the need to control and manage a brand. Some years ago FIFA was in danger of losing its “properties” to such business giants and marketing savvy companies as McDonalds and Coke. He soon put a stop to that. One of his memorable quotes: “When I started to work in football, I realized that nothing had been done on branding”—that was in 1975.