The Branding of Club Atlético de Madrid: Local or Global Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

The Branding of Club Atlético de Madrid: Local or Global Case Solution

Advantages:

  • Have​ ​a larger audience& fan base across the globe.
  • It provide more​ ​opportunities​ ​for​ ​sponsorship​ ​and​ ​financial​ ​resources.
  • It increases consumer awareness which ultimately results in a increase in sales
  • A strong global image is a symbol of quality, and allows the club to charge premium prices

Disadvantages:

  • It hires expensive​ ​players.
  • Its maintenance cost is high.
  • High risk is associated with buying clubs as different countries as there is no guarantee that it will result as profitable decision.

Strategies in Global football industries

The strategy used in overall Spain was like all businesses, each club negotiates for Instead of contracting and sharing sales as a whole, and the league negotiates and distributes licenses separately.As a result, Real Madrid and Barcelona attracted much more broadcasting revenue than the other clubs in La Liga.

How well its strategies worked?

Its tactics have resulted in global exposure for the club, as shown by the fact that it has fan clubs in 17 countries.It is the pioneer among Europeans to build the close link between sports and academics. Club has won several marketing prizes and has also become international benchmark for sports, marketing and advertising. The club after implementing strategies has become next to Real Madrid and Manchester United. Before becoming club with global customers, club was not even in the list of top 20 football club in the world. But after their global expansion they provide entertainment services all over the world.

 Question 3

SWOT analysis:

In Spanish and European football, Atletico Madrid has long been regarded as a major brand. Despite having far fewer financial resources than any of their rivals, the club has achieved unprecedented success over the last five years, winning several championships.

Strengths:

  • The club luckily has a loyal fan base with a strong emotional connection to the club.
  • The club has considerable visibility & awareness in Spain.
  • The members of the club are dynamic, forward-thinking, and willing to try new things.
  • The brand radiated passion and energy.
  • Atletico Madrid's total assets and liabilities have increased per year since the 1999/2000 season, according to its balance sheet.

Weaknesses:

  • Outside of Spain, their brand was not very well-known, unlike benchmark brands Real- Madrid & Barcelona as they spent extravagantly over their brand recognition in various countries across the globe.
  • The club's capital structure is heavily reliant on debt roughly 96 percent in 2008, resulting in higher borrowing costs and, as a result, reduced operating profits or even net loss.
  • The downside of relying on players for sales development and identity building is that the star players are just too costly to retain.
  • The club was losing money and the earnings that resulted in a net profit came from unusual items rather than the club's primary activity i.e., player transfers.
  • The club's average income is significantly smaller than that of its peers around the world.
  • The Club was still referred to as "born losers" by many of its supporters.

Opportunities:

  • Sponsoring firms are able to pay more for their arrangements because they believe it would give them a place to market their products.
  • International sponsorship is increasing.
  • As the club is performing well in the current season & stands on number 1, it’s high time to globalize the brand & target the sponsors globally.

Threats:

  • The financial stability of the club will be impacted by the relegation structure of the football structure.
  • Tough competition from other clubs in Spain and globally as well like Real Madrid

Question 4

In the modern era Soccer is not just about cheering your local team, it’s about the club that inspires you the most. So, a brand should continue to strive for success on the field and to expand its global brand. This can be done by many factors such as,

  • The atmosphere of the stadium.
  • The league.
  • The coach.
  • The players.
  • The Advertising.

Tactics:

Tactic 1

Since most fans pick a team when they are very young, usually when they are children, and then seldom change their minds during their lives due to a strong emotional commitment to the team they selected previously, the brand should take advantage of this chance and concentrate more on attracting children by funding numerous soccer schools around the world and developing youth training center in order to attract children.

Tactic 2

The best way to attract the international fans is that they should have some (pre-season) game tours in various continents where soccer is in high favor but the teams are not developed well such as Asia &the US. Promoting the brand by opening franchise stores down there will also help in increasing the brand awareness.

Tactic 3

Partnerships with the local clubs should be done & more exhibition matches should be scheduled with the local clubs such as Beijing club or New York soccer team etc. to gain big audience & expansion of brand awareness by targeting globally recognized sponsors.

Recommendation

The Club must be committed to sales growth with a renewed emphasis on promotion and brand creation aimed at increasing brand visibility and attractiveness.

Branded as the “Underdog” and the team’s strong appeal to the lower class can be used as an advantage. They can find creative marketing strategies, using that image to appeal to all classes.

Since the hiring of Diego someone Atletico has improved their performance drastically.

Finishing 3rd place is a big deal because then a team can qualify for champions league (which is a huge tournament involving the best clubs in leagues around the world) When you make champions league you are given around 30-40 million euros which can land you 2 or 3 good players.

In 2014 and 2016 both Atletico and real Madrid (their rivals) met in the finals of the champion’s league. Although, suffering a loss both times they made it to the biggest stage in club football. The exposure for making it this far was great for the club financially.

This success in world football and domestically has given the club a larger fan base which means more money. They pushed themselves into emerging markets like China. Their first team event in China they were greeted by 8000 fans. They also set up a scouting system in China take advantage of the Chinese youth.

They are currently ranked as the 4th best team in the world by UEFA. This ranking includes performance from the previous 5 seasons. Which means since 2008 Atletico Madrid is a force to be reckoned with on and off the field.

Atletico should also learn from other well-known teams; here are a few suggestions:

  • Acquire broadcasting deals in other countries outside of Spain.
  • Collaborate with foreign brands to raise team visibility or spread awareness.
  • Like all other competitor clubs, they should also target the globally recognized sponsors.
  • Create a strong social media presence and interactive ways to communicate with fans (an official website consisting of various language translations)
  • Establishing football schemes in collaboration with local teams in other countries
  • Merchandising (Fan memorabilia).............................
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