Cardiff City's 'whimsical' rebrand gamble on red

Cardiff City's 'whimsical' rebrand gamble on red
By Peter Shuttleworth
BBC Sport Wales

Cardiff City may be gambling their international marketing strategy on red - but a sports finance expert thinks the Championship club are "dreaming" if it will get them into the black.


Cardiff's controversial rebrand from blue to red, a dramatic U-turn as their Malaysian owners initially insisted the plan had been dropped , is because their backers think red will make the Bluebirds more attractive in the Far East market.

Blue is the colour for Champions League winners Chelsea and Premier League champions Manchester City but principal investor Tan Sri Vincent Tan wants his Bluebirds to turn red to "exploit and maximise its brand".

A £100m 'investment strategy'- including an upgrade to the Cardiff City Stadium, new training facilities, paying creditors and strengthening Malky Mackay's squad - has been promised for a club reportedly losing £1m a month.
" HOW CARDIFF CITY BEGAN "

The club was initially formed as Riverside FC by Bristol-born artist Bartley Wilson in 1899 to keep the players of Riverside Cricket Club together in the summer
The early team played in a kit of amber and chocolate quarters
The club changed their name to Cardiff City FC in 1908 after their club was officially give city status and the club was promoted to the South Wales League
The club moved to Ninian Park in 1910 and in the same year the club first played in blue and went professional as it was promoted to the Southern League
In 1920 Cardiff City successfully apply to the Football League and become members of the newly reconstructed Division Two
It is not just their home shirts that have turned red - some of Cardiff's fans have too and professor Tom Cannon, a strategic development expert at the University of Liverpool Management School, thinks the "radical change" is "whimsical".
"The big question is what is the evidence that this kind of change will produce the commercial benefits which are being talked about, especially in Asia," said Cannon.



"Red is popular in Asia and in some Asian countries is seen as lucky.

"But Cardiff, making this colour change, are in an environment where Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, to name just three teams, already play in red and have a massive profile and powerful Asian fanbases.
"I don't see any evidence that Cardiff playing in red will put them in position to compete against those giants who have the advantage of being successful in the Premier League.
"The logic is to build on success - and evidence suggests there are three things that drive your market in Asia.
"That is success on the field and Manchester United have built up their Asian business because of their 12 Premier League titles while Liverpool were successful during the 1970s and 1980s.
"The second element is television exposure but that is closely related to success.
"The third important element is the development of academy programmes in Asia and taking a longer-term view and United have an academy in China while Liverpool are in Indonesia."
Use accessible player and disable flyout menus

Cardiff's owners have already personally kick-started grassroots football structure in their homeland using the Cardiff City brand and started a Malaysian youth league in Cardiff's name.
"But there are clubs that don't play in red that are successful in Asia," Cannon continued.
"Real Madrid, for example, grew their profile partly by signing celebrity players like David Beckham and partly by league and European success.
"If there was a strong existing Welsh connection to Asia, that could be an avenue but competing against established teams with Asian franchises will be amazingly difficult in the short to medium term.
"The numbers of a potential Asian fanbase are very intoxicating but generating revenue from that fanbase is a wholly different issue - and no-one in English or European football has successfully monetised that vast base.
"Reports suggest there are 300-400 million Manchester United supporters in Asia but how do you monetise it?
"There is a lot of declared interest in English clubs but the trouble is even the giants struggle to turn that fanbase into a revenue stream.
"A senior person at United told me recently, if we could only generate £1 of profit from every United fan in Asia then we could outspend Manchester City.
"Asian football fans wear a lot of shirts but an awful lot are not copyrighted so don't generate any finance for the club involved.
"Many workers in Asia are poorly paid and face enormous increases in food and energy prices as well as all the inflationary pressures we do. So if anyone that thinks they are going to get a £1 of profit from those fans in Asia, I think they are dreaming.


Who is Vincent Tan?

On the Forbes billionaire list with an estimated worth of $1.3bn (£800m)
He is chairman and chief executive of Berjaya Group and it is a portfolio which includes golfing, property, resorts and gambling
Owns social networking site Friendster.com and has shares in Facebook
Operates Malaysia's MiTV pay-TV service
Bought Malaysia's McDonald's franchise in 1982 and in 1985 bought Sports Toto lottery agency
"Commercially the core revenue is gate receipts from a full stadium and making sure the club succeeds because if it succeeds it gets a bigger share of the relatively small amount of TV money available in the Championship.
"Seeking to replace fans at the Cardiff City Stadium who feel alienated by the rebrand with Asian fans on the basis of a shirt change is not a strategy I would recommend and seems rather whimsical.
"The last thing you want to do is alienate your current funders for some hypothetical fanbase which is not there yet."
Cardiff, who have suffered three successive Championship play-off disappointments on their top-flight quest, want to settle their substantial debt to Langston, owned by former owner Sam Hammam.
They also want to upgrade their infrastructure as well as bolster their squad with their £100m financial injection.
Cardiff rarely sell out their current 26,500-capacity home and their current training facility is three years old but Tan hopes the upgrade can attract "new partners and investors" as well as attract a worldwide fanbase.
"I am surprised that this proposal investment is so heavily dependant on shirt colour," said Cannon.
"If you are making this kind of radical investment, it would be nice to see a breakdown of where the £100m will go.
"Investors in British football have traditionally talked long and delivered short. The first test they must demonstrate is the willingness to spend serious money on serious players."

No I did not make my questions from this.

As I said even the experts agree with me.

Cardiff City's 'whimsical' rebrand gamble on red
By Peter Shuttleworth
BBC Sport Wales

Cardiff City may be gambling their international marketing strategy on red - but a sports finance expert thinks the Championship club are "dreaming" if it will get them into the black.


Cardiff's controversial rebrand from blue to red, a dramatic U-turn as their Malaysian owners initially insisted the plan had been dropped , is because their backers think red will make the Bluebirds more attractive in the Far East market.

Blue is the colour for Champions League winners Chelsea and Premier League champions Manchester City but principal investor Tan Sri Vincent Tan wants his Bluebirds to turn red to "exploit and maximise its brand".

A £100m 'investment strategy'- including an upgrade to the Cardiff City Stadium, new training facilities, paying creditors and strengthening Malky Mackay's squad - has been promised for a club reportedly losing £1m a month.
" HOW CARDIFF CITY BEGAN "

The club was initially formed as Riverside FC by Bristol-born artist Bartley Wilson in 1899 to keep the players of Riverside Cricket Club together in the summer
The early team played in a kit of amber and chocolate quarters
The club changed their name to Cardiff City FC in 1908 after their club was officially give city status and the club was promoted to the South Wales League
The club moved to Ninian Park in 1910 and in the same year the club first played in blue and went professional as it was promoted to the Southern League
In 1920 Cardiff City successfully apply to the Football League and become members of the newly reconstructed Division Two
It is not just their home shirts that have turned red - some of Cardiff's fans have too and professor Tom Cannon, a strategic development expert at the University of Liverpool Management School, thinks the "radical change" is "whimsical".
"The big question is what is the evidence that this kind of change will produce the commercial benefits which are being talked about, especially in Asia," said Cannon.



"Red is popular in Asia and in some Asian countries is seen as lucky.

"But Cardiff, making this colour change, are in an environment where Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, to name just three teams, already play in red and have a massive profile and powerful Asian fanbases.
"I don't see any evidence that Cardiff playing in red will put them in position to compete against those giants who have the advantage of being successful in the Premier League.
"The logic is to build on success - and evidence suggests there are three things that drive your market in Asia.
"That is success on the field and Manchester United have built up their Asian business because of their 12 Premier League titles while Liverpool were successful during the 1970s and 1980s.
"The second element is television exposure but that is closely related to success.
"The third important element is the development of academy programmes in Asia and taking a longer-term view and United have an academy in China while Liverpool are in Indonesia."
Use accessible player and disable flyout menus

Cardiff's owners have already personally kick-started grassroots football structure in their homeland using the Cardiff City brand and started a Malaysian youth league in Cardiff's name.
"But there are clubs that don't play in red that are successful in Asia," Cannon continued.
"Real Madrid, for example, grew their profile partly by signing celebrity players like David Beckham and partly by league and European success.
"If there was a strong existing Welsh connection to Asia, that could be an avenue but competing against established teams with Asian franchises will be amazingly difficult in the short to medium term.
"The numbers of a potential Asian fanbase are very intoxicating but generating revenue from that fanbase is a wholly different issue - and no-one in English or European football has successfully monetised that vast base.
"Reports suggest there are 300-400 million Manchester United supporters in Asia but how do you monetise it?
"There is a lot of declared interest in English clubs but the trouble is even the giants struggle to turn that fanbase into a revenue stream.
"A senior person at United told me recently, if we could only generate £1 of profit from every United fan in Asia then we could outspend Manchester City.
"Asian football fans wear a lot of shirts but an awful lot are not copyrighted so don't generate any finance for the club involved.
"Many workers in Asia are poorly paid and face enormous increases in food and energy prices as well as all the inflationary pressures we do. So if anyone that thinks they are going to get a £1 of profit from those fans in Asia, I think they are dreaming.


Who is Vincent Tan?

On the Forbes billionaire list with an estimated worth of $1.3bn (£800m)
He is chairman and chief executive of Berjaya Group and it is a portfolio which includes golfing, property, resorts and gambling
Owns social networking site Friendster.com and has shares in Facebook
Operates Malaysia's MiTV pay-TV service
Bought Malaysia's McDonald's franchise in 1982 and in 1985 bought Sports Toto lottery agency
"Commercially the core revenue is gate receipts from a full stadium and making sure the club succeeds because if it succeeds it gets a bigger share of the relatively small amount of TV money available in the Championship.
"Seeking to replace fans at the Cardiff City Stadium who feel alienated by the rebrand with Asian fans on the basis of a shirt change is not a strategy I would recommend and seems rather whimsical.
"The last thing you want to do is alienate your current funders for some hypothetical fanbase which is not there yet."
Cardiff, who have suffered three successive Championship play-off disappointments on their top-flight quest, want to settle their substantial debt to Langston, owned by former owner Sam Hammam.
They also want to upgrade their infrastructure as well as bolster their squad with their £100m financial injection.
Cardiff rarely sell out their current 26,500-capacity home and their current training facility is three years old but Tan hopes the upgrade can attract "new partners and investors" as well as attract a worldwide fanbase.
"I am surprised that this proposal investment is so heavily dependant on shirt colour," said Cannon.
"If you are making this kind of radical investment, it would be nice to see a breakdown of where the £100m will go.
"Investors in British football have traditionally talked long and delivered short. The first test they must demonstrate is the willingness to spend serious money on serious players."

Yet more evidence that this rebranding really is whimsical. Vincent likes the colour red...therefore his new toy has got to be red...tell me it ain't so

Read this a few weeks ago...makes you think .

obviously we wont be challenging the likes on man u arsenal & liverpool in shirt sales ...................YET ! the Malaysians come in and everyone loved them with their talk of building for the future and this is just another part of it ,they want us in the prem and are planning for it , whos to say in 10 years we aint in there challenging for Europe or even the tittle ??? with our fan base getting bigger overseas everything is in place , these guys are business men and are rebuilding our club (which apparently is on the edge of collapse) from the ground up due to past twats running it into the ground.I want to thank the owners for coming in and trying to get us where we all want to be and ill be buying the home and away shirt , not to piss people off but to support the club i love.

EVIDENCE - no sign of any here,its just someones opinion,someones guesswork.After all its not as if hes come to his conclusions after a rigorous examination of the clubs accounts.

The key word in the whole thing is "exploit."

I don't see how it's a gamble when there is really nothing lose. Is there?

Everyone as an opinion , but the only opinion that counts is the man who is willing to back his opinion with his money.
Whimsical or not ,but a brilliant business man a $ billionaire , who as made millions in everything he as bought into . Wants to turn his hand to football , so perhaps rather than bite the hand that feeds us , we should give him ago . After all its his money , and at the moment his club.

Everyone as an opinion , but the only opinion that counts is the man who is willing to back his opinion with his money.
Whimsical or not ,but a brilliant business man a $ billionaire , who as made millions in everything he as bought into . Wants to turn his hand to football , so perhaps rather than bite the hand that feeds us , we should give him ago . After all its his money , and at the moment his club.

God these posts are getting so fuckin boring . change the record and move on. no one including myself is happy about the rebranding, but what we gonna do. Keep going over and over it again. ffs. its doing the fan base no good.
Shit some of you remind me of her indoors, going over things again and again. how long can you keep it up.
Move forward for gods sake.

This is boring I read this article last week.

Lets move on, we are Cardiff City.

From Facebook


Gareth Jones
I live in Malaysia now and this article is spot on. They won't make money in this part of the world unless they win a lot and get on TV. Championship football is not shown on TV. It's EPL (English Premier League as they call it) or nothing.
By the way it isn't a Malaysian thing, red and the dragon are good luck symbols for the ethnic Chinese. Tony Fenandez at QPR is Indian whis is why he doesn't care. Only 30% or so of Malaysians are Chinese but they are looking at Singapore, Hong Kong and China money too.
To me this decision only has logic after they get Cardiff to the big league.

Gareth Jones

To me this decision only has logic after they get Cardiff to the big league.

My new best mate Vinny agrees with you Gareth which his why he said in his statement;

"To sit and wait for the possibility of promotion before carrying out any groundwork would make little sense. To this end the decision to begin the hard work now will only serve us well in the long term, maximising our chance to capitilise on our presnt endeavours if and when we reach the Premier League"