Marketing communication: principles and practice

Figure 8.7
An example of a perceptual map for a higher-education
course

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T H E B R A N D C O M M U N I C A T O R
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There is a mail-order business, a full-time office in Hong Kong, and a department
specializing in developing new products and services under the Manchester United brand
name. The commercial operation employs 115 people. In 1991, some 168 new trademarks
were registered. In the nationwide Birthdays greeting card chain, some 40% of football
merchandise sales are related to United. An international subsidiary has been established
to build the business worldwide, including a major push into Asia, beginning with the
People’s Republic of China, Jakarta, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Old Trafford Megastores
will stock merchandise, recruit new club members, run soccer schools, and operate Red
Cafes to show matches live. Manufacturing of merchandise in China will follow. Sales of
counterfeit United goods are estimated to already exceed $1bn per year. A chain of Red
Cafes is to open throughout Britain and Ireland, too. United have their own subscription TV
channel, MUTV, and an Internet facility called the Worldwide Manchester United Fans
Webring. A new official hotel is opening as part of a leisure complex development in the
shadow of the Old Trafford ground. Fans can pay for their stay with the official MU credit
card. Pay-per-view TV coverage could be worth £1m per game to the club.
In recent years, the brand has secured several big commercial deals:
•
Umbro sportswear – merchandising worth £40M over six years 
•
Sharp Electronics – sponsorship worth £10m, replaced by Vodafone in 2000 for £30m over
four years
•
VCI media – videos and fan magazines worth £10m
•
Debenhams are adding MU merchandise to their stock throughout the UK
•
Sun Microsystems has recently become a Platinum Sponsor
When News Corporation bid $1bn for the club, they saw football not as a sport, but as a
consumable and as content for their broadcast systems. So what is MU? Certainly a pre-
eminent football team, but also much more – a highly valued brand. Using Crainer’s (1995)
brand element analysis, we can try to understand what makes the MU brand so powerful.
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