What can Everton do to improve the Commercial aspect of our club?

[blukaku]

I think that its all about raising the clubs image, making the club aspirational. If we could relocate to London, that would probably do it, but we cant. Instead what the club needs to do is focus on the brand of football. I think with Martinez, phase 1 is already in place, we are starting to play an attractive football and we should reap financial reward from that.
The other thing we need is to keep hold of our best players. As nice as it is too see good team performances, football fans want to watch individuals. Fans watched Tottenham to see Bale, Liverpool to see Suarez and hopefully fans will watch Everton to see Barkley (and maybe even Lukaku). TV revenues and the commerciality of the club will massively increase.

 

[Prevenger17]

I've been through this before on other threads. The potential market here is too small, our population is less than that of London and football, while very popular, takes a back seat to our national sports in quite a few regions, particularly in the west. I really think we should be looking farther across the Atlantic and it's a shame our marketing department didn't seize on Howard's heroics with a little more enthusiasm.

Also, I wouldn't want too many Everton fans sprouting up in Ireland. I'd get territorial like a cat, scratching and biting at anyone with an Everton jersey wandering into my garden.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Loads more than we are

 

[Deleted member 28206]

So the Annual Accounts have just been released, and basically there are a lot of things to be positive about in them. But the glaringly obvious thing that stood out to me as well as others, is the commercial performance of the club.
According to the official statement from the club, "The Club’s sponsorship, advertising and merchandising revenue also increased from £7.6m in 2013 to £8.4m in 2014, boosted by the long-term support of key partners such as Chang and Kitbag."
In the greatest scheme of things, how does £8.4m stack up when compared to our competitors for the Top 10 and European placings?
As a measure of comparison, I've taken details from this ESPN article around kit deals in the Premier League.
Aston Villa's relative kit deals consist of a total of £9.1m. While parts of this total may be dependent on performances, this is still more than our total commercial income.
Newcastle's shirt sponsor deal with Wonga rests at £6.5m per season, which is more than we get from Chang. While their deal with shirt manufacturer Puma is undisclosed, again it is not unfeasible that their kit deals alone exceed our entire commercial income.
QPR. Premier League newbies, returning from a one season exile in the Championship. Kit deals worth £12m
Spurs. £26m from kit deals. Sponsorship, Corporate Hospitality and Merchandising Revenue in 2012-13 sits at £48m.
Meanwhile Arsenal, United, Chelsea and Liverpool sit at much higher levels of Commercial input, making a comparison to be frank pointless.
Given that clearly we don't stack up well in this area, what can we be doing and should we be doing to raise the level of this currently unacceptable performance in the commercial arena?
Please note that this is not a "abuse the board" thread, I know that this is a frustrating area for
many posters, but there is a thread to talk about the failures and successes of the board. Instead this is more for a constructive discussion around what can and should be done to improve this area of the club we support.

Sack Elstone.

 

[Lacina]

Like most others have said, bin kitbag would be the starting point. They are the reason most shops dont stock our kits e.g sports direct because kitbag has sole rights to selling 90% of our merchandise.

 

[mrb85]

Everton's whole commercial approach is what you'd expect when you have it determined and run by people without any previous record of significant success. From the executive to those required to chase potential commercial partners and sponsors. The fact we have been unable to find match sponsors for 3 of our PL games this season says it all.

And we are also constrained in our commercial income potential by the Soderex and Kitbag deals which mean that bigger sales by these companies do not translate into bigger revenue for Everton.

 

[Joey66]

On the Ground tour I went to on my Birthday about five years ago - sadly missed the Cannonball Kid Mr D Hickson, as he was very ill - I went with a wallet full of money expecting to buy books food etc - I could not even buy a cup of tea - In fact I came away with a load of freebies programmes charts etc a fantastic tour -, but I came away concerned as a local non league club by me would have seized the opportunity to provide catering open the merchandise shop etc - BK should appoint Sir Terry Leahy in some sort of capacity to replace the deadwood who imo made are club too charitable on that day - A fantastic day for me and my son - financially a missed opportunity for our club!
If its happening at a simple level of income like this what's happening on the big deals of sponsorship etc????
After a fantastic morning I came away totally bemused with a full wallet and not even being able to purchase a cup of tea!

 

[Lids1978]

Real Madrid tried to charge me 20euro for a photo with a lifesized cardboard cutout of Kaka on their stadium tour. This was after paying thirty euro for the tour for me n the bird at the time. Obviously i told them to get stuffed which they seemed quite offended by as loads of others seemed to be taking up their "kind" offer. If everton did something similar with say Eto , id probably be willing to pay five quid. (im a tight git) Just a small if unconventional idea of how to generate extra commercial income

 

[Khalekan]

...win something.

In simple terms.....this.

 

[Khalekan]

Form a cheerleading team of large-breasted women to canvas in congested urban areas.

Close the thread.

This suggestion cannot be topped

 

[Kiwi]

Hiring Competent commercial and marketing directors would be a start

Big thing for me is changing how and where we advertise. America is a big market, growing hugely with the NBC tv deals. Need to harness that, use Timmy Cahill, and Tim Howard to front that, while promoting the sleeping giant, school of science and peoples club brands. People need something they can grasp onto when picking a team, and we need to give them something that makes them want to pick Everton.

Secondly, getting out of the Kitbag deal which holds back the club significantly, limits the output we can have with kit sales worldwide. This limits the exposure the Everton name and brand gets.

Looking to build a new stadium with up to date corporate facilities is the next thing if we are looking to grow our incomes so as to compete under FFP.

 

[SerenityNigh]

@RaleighBlue

 

[Khalekan]

Real Madrid tried to charge me 20euro for a photo with a lifesized cardboard cutout of Kaka on their stadium tour. This was after paying thirty euro for the tour for me n the bird at the time. Obviously i told them to get stuffed which they seemed quite offended by as loads of others seemed to be taking up their "kind" offer. If everton did something similar with say Eto , id probably be willing to pay five quid. (im a tight git) Just a small if unconventional idea of how to generate extra commercial income

How the heck would anyone get a life size cardboard cut out on the plane home?

 

[riddick]

We literally had something like a 10 page thread about this after the World Cup. We knew there was a huge market in the States and that the board was doing a big f-all to capitalize on it. Its astounding that we can come up with (much) better ideas than people who are paid huge sums of money.

 

[Lids1978]

How the heck would anyone get a life size cardboard cut out on the plane home?

Nah mate it was literally JUST for a photo they take on a polaroid camera!
I tried to take a sly one on my mobile but security came over n told me off