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Post by gashead1981 on Jul 7, 2019 17:31:28 GMT
You know, I agree on some levels, and everything is still very much a work in progress and TG is doing a great job IMO in increasing revenue and introducing new marketing formats and he hasn’t had it easy in the last year. I also think the supporters club could do so much more, but they are suffering from a lack of vision also and predominantly the reason for that is there is no young or dynamic minds driving it. Most of the initiatives revolve around dinner and dance evenings. It’s so old school and unimaginative. As an example, Just look at their new website. It’s atrocious. It’s a copy and paste Wordpress site with absolutely no ranking behind it. It’s clunky, disorganised, full of content which is out of date which has been dragged across from the old site. My wife who is marketing and PR at director level for a big company was actually stunned that a professional had not only designed it, but thought it was good enough to go live. And yet they all seemed rather chuffed with it. Which is a shame because they could do so much more promotion via SM and the website. Not sure the supporters club website really has anything to do with the OP criticising the club's own media channels? As far as shirts are concerned a few fans my buy them to go on holiday but I bet the vast majority are sold once the season actually gets underway. Perhaps you should have read my first post topper....I agreed with the OP. I also pointed out another channel of the clubs officialdom, that being the supporters club with an 8% shareholding, also do a mediocre to crap job in this department.
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Post by Westy on Jul 7, 2019 17:50:12 GMT
It’s funny how it divided opinion so much. I loved it - quarters with a bit of a twist. Agree that we shouldn’t stray too far from the quarters though. I’m led to believe next seasons shirt will honour the 30th anniversary of the title winning season. So expect V neck, ‘proper quarters’, solid blue back & who knows, the old badge might even make a seasons cameo. This could all be rubbish of course, but an exciting idea to consider nonetheless. That could be quite a good money spinner for the coffers too! The 125th Black Arabs stripe was nice a few years back I'm wondering whether our shirts being out later could be to do with budgets.. If there are a handful of jersey manufacturers then there might be a premium to get the first run of shirts? Saying that though, what would stop an earlier design, run and delivery, that could wait on the shelves and be out early. To some it could be easier buying a new season's shirt when there aren't full price matchdays on every week?
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Post by gonzales on Jul 7, 2019 18:06:37 GMT
While I agree with the sentiment there’s a reason for that. It’s because Pauli’s merchandise started off as an organic thing that became cool with the politics and the totenkopf. That’s been jumped on by the likes of under armour and Levi. Rovers will never, ever get to that stage so the comparison is similar to that of Rovers and the yankees. We can certainly learn from Pauli and their use of the totenkopf. Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand. I mentioned this four years ago in the merchandising committee but it was pretty pointless. Annoyingly so - "Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand." I've been saying it and thinking it for years, time to Make Rovers Cool Again! Last merchandise I brought was the Adigas t-shirt from Crossed Swords.
I would love a t-shirt with the old square logo, I would love a smart polo top, I could go on and on.
We sell tat, sorry but it's crap, just like the shop website. The merchandise should be totally revamped.
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Post by legas on Jul 7, 2019 18:35:41 GMT
While I agree with the sentiment there’s a reason for that. It’s because Pauli’s merchandise started off as an organic thing that became cool with the politics and the totenkopf. That’s been jumped on by the likes of under armour and Levi. Rovers will never, ever get to that stage so the comparison is similar to that of Rovers and the yankees. We can certainly learn from Pauli and their use of the totenkopf. Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand. I mentioned this four years ago in the merchandising committee but it was pretty pointless. Strangely, when I drive to work in Leicester I always pass by a car parked up with a massive St. Pauli’s sticker in the back window (the skull and crossbones one).
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Post by Parrot on Jul 7, 2019 18:42:20 GMT
While I agree with the sentiment there’s a reason for that. It’s because Pauli’s merchandise started off as an organic thing that became cool with the politics and the totenkopf. That’s been jumped on by the likes of under armour and Levi. Rovers will never, ever get to that stage so the comparison is similar to that of Rovers and the yankees. We can certainly learn from Pauli and their use of the totenkopf. Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand. I mentioned this four years ago in the merchandising committee but it was pretty pointless. Annoyingly so - "Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand." I've been saying it and thinking it for years, time to Make Rovers Cool Again! Last merchandise I brought was the Adigas t-shirt from Crossed Swords.
I would love a t-shirt with the old square logo, I would love a smart polo top, I could go on and on.
We sell tat, sorry but it's crap, just like the shop website. The merchandise should be totally revamped. Agree with you on this , apart from the Macron gear some of our merchandise is dreadful and the website for the Clubshop looks like something from the 1980s
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Post by Topper Gas on Jul 7, 2019 18:45:26 GMT
Not sure the supporters club website really has anything to do with the OP criticising the club's own media channels? As far as shirts are concerned a few fans my buy them to go on holiday but I bet the vast majority are sold once the season actually gets underway. Perhaps you should have read my first post topper....I agreed with the OP. I also pointed out another channel of the clubs officialdom, that being the supporters club with an 8% shareholding, also do a mediocre to crap job in this department. Suggest you read mine as well, as I said I can't see the OP criticising the club's media is really relevant to the SC being stuck in the dark ages, as I understand it the SC have been crying out for some young blood to help them but nobody shows any interest in wanting to help them out. Although not sure them having an all signing and dancing website is suddenly going to make fans join the SC.
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Post by axegas on Jul 7, 2019 18:49:43 GMT
While I agree with the sentiment there’s a reason for that. It’s because Pauli’s merchandise started off as an organic thing that became cool with the politics and the totenkopf. That’s been jumped on by the likes of under armour and Levi. Rovers will never, ever get to that stage so the comparison is similar to that of Rovers and the yankees. We can certainly learn from Pauli and their use of the totenkopf. Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand. I mentioned this four years ago in the merchandising committee but it was pretty pointless. Annoyingly so - "Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand." I've been saying it and thinking it for years, time to Make Rovers Cool Again! Last merchandise I brought was the Adigas t-shirt from Crossed Swords.
I would love a t-shirt with the old square logo, I would love a smart polo top, I could go on and on.
We sell tat, sorry but it's crap, just like the shop website. The merchandise should be totally revamped. Didn’t we start selling Crossed Swords merchandise in the club shop a while ago? Completely agree that it needs a revamp, the shop in general actually looks quite good now it’s been refurbished but some of the items sold in are unfortunately pretty awful. I know that Tom Gorringe has been keen to survey the match day experience, perhaps he needs to look into surveying the fans opinions and suggestions for the club shop too?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2019 19:04:30 GMT
So easy to say we should be selling more stuff, selling better quality stuff etc....but we're a league 1 club, not marketing to fans in Asia. We cant sell 50m shirts a season and reinvest profits into selling a new collection of gas tankards to satisfy Ken and Julie
I'm imagining the reason our merchandising has appeared to be bad for so long is because it's difficult to actually turn a decent profit at this level, managing stock, catering to niche needs
It just screams we're living on a shoestring and simply dont have the money to throw at a mechandising expert (apart from TG) to come in and sort it all out, let alone start up new lines (wyhhb)
Would be interesting to see what profit we make on merchandise compared to other clubs our size. What clubs get it right, and what are they doing?
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Post by Icegas on Jul 8, 2019 5:06:41 GMT
Think the club need to look and replicate there branding like in America, New York yankees for instance a global brand that people wear and see as fashionable, same for other nfl, nba etc. When you look at our branding and badge it’s pretty crap to be fair. I think our badge is one of the best in football and I wouldnt change it at all.Sure a few years ago we won awards for it? It .Still looks new and fresh and its 20 years old now. The branding of our club and the lack of use of Irene, the quarters, the Gas,the pirates nicknames etc... is awlful tho.
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Post by Henbury Gas on Jul 8, 2019 5:21:26 GMT
Annoyingly so - "Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand." I've been saying it and thinking it for years, time to Make Rovers Cool Again! Last merchandise I brought was the Adigas t-shirt from Crossed Swords.
I would love a t-shirt with the old square logo, I would love a smart polo top, I could go on and on.
We sell tat, sorry but it's crap, just like the shop website. The merchandise should be totally revamped. Didn’t we start selling Crossed Swords merchandise in the club shop a while ago? Completely agree that it needs a revamp, the shop in general actually looks quite good now it’s been refurbished but some of the items sold in are unfortunately pretty awful. I know that Tom Gorringe has been keen to survey the match day experience, perhaps he needs to look into surveying the fans opinions and suggestions for the club shop too? I think one of the quickest and simplest things they could do is a proper size chart for the new tops. i'm sure its not beyond one the shop staff to take a tape measure to each shirt top and measure the chest size and put it on a piece of A4 card near the tops. would save them and us the customer a lot of time in returns alone
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Post by burnthewitch on Jul 8, 2019 8:34:31 GMT
Appreciate your point of view, but I have some issues with that. Firstly you absolutely cannot compare Bristol Rovers to the New York Yankees, as only if we became a footballing powerhouse in the Champions League would we ever have the potential to be "fashionable" on the world stage like the Yankees are. Secondly I genuinely think our badge is very professional and slick. It's neat, clean cut, modern, bold and not cheesy like some. My opinion of course though. We could do with advertising better to the youngsters in Bristol but let's face it, with the riches and audiences the PL gets, the likes of a second rate 3rd tier club of attracting fanfare because of rebranding are very slim and would be far secondary to actually being successful on the pitch. Tell that to 2nd tier St. Pauli who are the fourth biggest club in Germany in terms of merchandise revenue after Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke. thesetpieces.com/world-football/st-pauli-punk-club-commercial-appeal/Ironic that an anarchist/left-wing/anti-establishment/anti-capitalist Club has such a slick marketing department with a global reach. St Pauli are just so passe these days. For maybe a better template for Rovers to copy - see Union Berlin. 21,000 capacity but only about 3,000 seats. The poor relations of Berlin in the east.
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Marshy
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Post by Marshy on Jul 8, 2019 11:31:16 GMT
Annoyingly so - "Our merchandise is the same as every other club despite having such a strong brand." I've been saying it and thinking it for years, time to Make Rovers Cool Again! Last merchandise I brought was the Adigas t-shirt from Crossed Swords.
I would love a t-shirt with the old square logo, I would love a smart polo top, I could go on and on.
We sell tat, sorry but it's crap, just like the shop website. The merchandise should be totally revamped. Agree with you on this , apart from the Macron gear some of our merchandise is dreadful and the website for the Clubshop looks like something from the 1880’s Sorted that for you parrot.
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Post by baggins on Jul 8, 2019 11:43:02 GMT
Agree with you on this , apart from the Macron gear some of our merchandise is dreadful and the website for the Clubshop looks like something from the 1880’s Sorted that for you parrot. Your home shirt is about to come back into fashion. Result!
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Marshy
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Post by Marshy on Jul 8, 2019 11:44:28 GMT
Sorted that for you parrot. Your home shirt is about to come back into fashion. Result! Yes, and my hairstyle.
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Post by baggins on Jul 8, 2019 11:51:21 GMT
Your home shirt is about to come back into fashion. Result! Yes, and my hairstyle. You've got hair? And a style? Get outta here.
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Marshy
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Post by Marshy on Jul 8, 2019 11:56:54 GMT
You've got hair? And a style? Get outta here. Yep and I’ve still got all my own teeth, not bad at my age!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2019 12:24:25 GMT
You've got hair? And a style? Get outta here. Yep and I’ve still got all my own teeth, not bad at my age! Who else's teeth could you have.
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Marshy
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Post by Marshy on Jul 8, 2019 12:26:54 GMT
Yep and I’ve still got all my own teeth, not bad at my age! Who else's teeth could you have. Red Rums.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2019 12:32:42 GMT
Who else's teeth could you have. Red Rums. That's some smile to be saddled with.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2019 12:33:03 GMT
I think the club does a good job on the social media front especially from where it was back in the conference days where the match highlights were such poor quality you couldn’t actually work out who’d scored. Now we’ve got videos teasing signings that are very good and constant streams of interviews from the players and the manager. We do as good a job as any team in this league or even the championship
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