LFC & India – a relationship on simmer…

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What does it take for a club to click in neutral territories? Of the top of my head I would try and list some factors:

1. Success – Of course nothing succeeds like success. New followers, converts, youngsters develop interest in watching the recently successful teams and ultimately become fans.

2. Marketing and Promotions – Promotions either directly or thru the kit partners or other partners help increase visibility and awareness. There are instances where people simply just buy a jersey or a bag or bottle or something because they like the design and then start discovering about the badge on the merchandise and thus become fans.

3. Family tradition – Like me, most parents like their children to share the passion they have for their favorite club. My 4 year old doesn’t even know if there’s any other club on planet. Even to his friends, I like to talk about LFC, show them the logo etc. Needless to say, my son would be an LFC fan at least until I am paying for his tuition and food. Jokes apart, this only succeeds if there is a tradition for following football in the family in the first place.

4. Television – At an international location, people need to be aware of the club and watch them regularly to follow them. As good as the football may be, if there are no viewers, there are hardly any followers.

5. History of the Club – Some clubs have a history or tradition strong enough to keep inviting interest. At times, even without the other 4 supporters listed above.

6. Stars – The more one follows a club, the more this point becomes irrelevant. For hardcore supporters the stars, or simply the players, are plain names. However, the new football viewers/ followers like to follow the progress of a star name they take their fancy to. Stars definitely have some sort of pulling power. Although it’s usually complimentary. In my humble opinion, I don’t think the Torres Chelsea shirt or the Carroll Liverpool shirt would be as successful as the Torres Liverpool shirt (atleast until Carroll establishes himself as a Liverpool ‘star’). [That said, of course Abramovich can buy 100,000 Torres shirts for himself to make it #1].

7. Friends: Watching games with friends of a particular allegiance tend to incline the newbie towards that club.

Of course what finally matters is the football, but these factors act like catalysts in hastening the process of directing a football lover to club.

In my opinion and experience, India doesn’t have too many Liverpool supporters. At least not as many as there should be (then again, in my opinion, every football supporter should be an LFC fan). Of course, we didn’t do too well recently apart from the CL2005 and PL2008-09. Since there are very few football and LFC supporters in the first place, the onus of promoting the club rests on marketing and history. History too, cannot promote itself. It has to be heard. Some stars have either not performed or left. Only real red who has high marketing power is Gerrard (and now Suarez probably but it is early days).

That brings us to the disappointing fact that the LFC partners have not done anything worthwhile to promote the club in this country. Adidas uses it’s marketing space to promote Chelsea apparently because some youngsters follow Chelsea owing to their successes in the past 7-8 years. The Liverpool 2010-11 away shirt wasn’t available in most Adidas stores till much later, and is still not in some. Standard Chartered has done nothing of note except sponsoring an interview column in one on of the national dailies. Even Carlsberg don’t promote LFC events or the club. Surprising since liquor advertising in India is illegal and these companies and brands look for fronts to market their products. There was a competition on the official website some months ago for Indians but all the marketing was from the website; nothing from SCB India. Jack Wolfskin, 188 Bet et.al. don’t have an Indian presence so I don’t expect anything from them.

I think when a brand associates with a club or a sporting entity, the idea is not just to tap the existing base commercially but also to develop the base. The relationship can only work if it is symbiotic. Hence, the rights to use the logos are ‘exchanged’. LFC have the right and responsibility to use the Standard Chartered logo and Standard Chartered Bank have the right (and responsibility) to use (and market) the LFC logo.

India, with a population of 1.2 Billion doesn’t have a huge domestic structure. Hence, the market for foreign clubs is huge. Almost the entire market is available for the foreign entities. With TV channels now airing Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Eredivisie, Champions League, Europa League the need to establish the demand for football is not required. Manchester United have (as far as I know) three or four bars already in the country. From some reports, Bayern was trying to tap into the market and setting up an academy with a national footballer. Adidas promotes Chelsea. Barcelona anyway have a huge following in Messi supporters. What’s keeping Liverpool?

I, as a fan, would try my best to promote the club to all and sundry. But, over a period of time, I have realized that efforts from other quarters are required. There is no reason why Nike should sell more jerseys in India. The relationship between LFC and India has been on a perpetual simmer but is waiting to explode.

YNWA!

@kaushal__

32 Comments

  1. truly said.. I am a red ever since i started following football in our cricket crazy nation. But hardly have any fellow reds as companions.. In india its difficult enough to find a football fan with a red being far and few.. It will take some time but the job is not impossible. With time and the potential that india has got, it can be a huge market. Also the idea of a LFC cafe is excellent way to start tapping into.

  2. Hey Kaushal, nice article on the lack of LFC presence in India in a Big way…. There are growing number of youngsters who have an interest or play football in India and as you pointed out the scope of HUGE for any football club ready to seize the initiative. There are a lot of Man U and Chelsea Fans obviously because of their recent successes in the PL and CL to a certain extent. The average indian football follower falls in the age bracket of 18-25 and most of them have not seen OUR club achieve consistent success so that is a BIG factor and as you rightly mentioned when a new follower in initiated it’s more coz of stars in the team or success, as success guarantees more local press coverage. However there’s a sizable number of LFC fans in India and the club might not be required to make that big an effort to grow its fan base in here. The 2 important things things that should be done are A. Open an Official Club store to at least make sure genuine club merchandise are available on time, and B. Maybe have a friendly game at Salt lake stadium in kolkata to boost the visibility. The fans here are Hardcore and not fickle it’s time the club paid a bit more attention to us.

  3. Nicely said kaushal. At least there is a start with seagrams or now pernod-ricard fuel vodka partnering lfc in India. They are giving away tickets to the ManU return fixture at anfeild in march. Its a baby step in marketing the club, but its a step nonetheless.
    Being a fellow red in India I can tell you that the primary marketing of the club is done by word of mouth. I promote lfc as much as I can but I am just one man.

  4. Hi! You are not the only one facing this dilemma. I am in Pakistan, and its the same case here as well. Manchester united, barcelona or arsenal are the only ones being promoted by their sponsors nike and addidas the reason being that their merchandise sells quickly. Its sad we don’t have any supporters club here as well. I have supported LFC for life irrespective of their success and hope they qualify for champions league this season!

  5. Liverpool are the 3rd biggest merchandise sellers in world football, 1) Madrid, 2) Barca, 3) Lpool……mancs only 6th. This is from a German marketing company, without trophies for 5 years we remain a huge brand worldwide, with huge on-line sales and hits to the website. India will see a push from Liverpool over the next 2 years for sure!!!

  6. Of course there are fans in India Bhaskar but as I said – not as many as there should be! Moreover, the new blokes are falling prey to Chelsea and United and now there’s Spanish interest too. I don’t see a friendly coming anytime soon. An ambassadorial visit from one of the first team players should be great. Merchandise and it’s visibility is the key. An academy along with a real estate promoter should work out well too.

  7. speaking for Filipino Reds, too. Our country is big on basketball, though it’s starting to grow some love for football because of our national team who’s slowly getting the credit they should’ve gotten a long time ago. However, i feel that the handful of Filipino Reds will need all the support that they can get.

  8. Good one mate..
    I am from Bangalore…Its hard to spot a Liverpool fans here too.
    An example would be the Chelsea – Liverpool game where we went to the biggest sports bar to be greeted with sight of hordes of Chelsea fans with Flags to banners to scarf’s.We had to look around hard to find a Liverpool fan.
    I don’t blame those Blue fans or the Man U fans to less the number of Liverpool fans here.
    We need to realize that the corporates wouldn’t do much to increase the popularity of Lfc as we are not the successful one of late.
    Maybe the best way is just through the fans.I have seen a few fans with whom I watch the games and each one is passionate as the one’s who throng Anfield.We need to organize ourselves,Have screenings,meetings.Try something out of the ordinary.
    I think we’d still be in the same state if we(the fans) don’t group ourselves together.

  9. nice article, kaushal. I am an lfc supporter from kerala. Totally agree with you. Lets hope things will change in the coming years. Cant wait to see us back in the CL.

  10. great to see fellow reds in India. Ever time i visit the great country i always turn up wearing my LFC shirt. I remember watching us play the mancs live in a electrical shop in banga, Punjab! back in 2000!
    YNWA

  11. Maybe the club could do something for young kids to develop an interest in playing ..there must be talent in that size population thats not being developed.A genuine interset in the youth would most likely attract kids to follow Lfc instead of other clubs.Success on the pitch would do no harm at the same time.

  12. Totally agree with you. Can’t even find proper merchandise here in New Delhi. All the ADIDAS stores are loaded with Chelsea goods. Nothing related to Liverpool whatsoever.

  13. I am from mumbai and i dont think merchandising is a problem.. I even got our away 10-11 shirt from the outlets here well before they started selling chelshit stuff.. But yeah, we do need to organize ourselves and form a group supporting our beloved club at the same time promoting it by word of mouth..

  14. See kaushal there’s plenty of interest but maybe the organisation is lacking. Wat i see with young new fans is that they start with interest in LFC but before they can develop into a hardcore fans sway towards chavs and mancs due to their visibility. May be the club should step up visibility through media articles and Indian centric stuff on website. And yes the Mumbai Liverpool Supporters are Awesome and it’s always a treat to watch a match with them. Instead of waiting for the club to d we all should follow Kaushal’s lead and initiate youngsters into the LFC at a very early age.

  15. Right said!
    Man U has a huge fan base in India – And why shouldn’t they? They have had media icons like Beckham and Ronaldo.To top it they have been the dominant force in English Football for the past many years. To top it, now they have launched their cafe’s in India and have also started various initiatives like Exclusive Manchester United Content on Airtel(A leading telecom provider).
    Chelsea has also started their initiatives like the one mentioned above with Adidas.To top it all, Arsenal continuing with their philosophy of “catching them young” is conducting scouting trips in schools trying to find a “Raheem Sterling!”

    Liverpool although have been slow to come in this space, have started on a sure footing. :P. Three initiatives that I am sure of:

    1. Abhijit Kadam Football Development Centre in Pune – The first academy of Liverpool in India

    2. Regular Column in The Times of India – This i believe is the best method up till now. Considering that in the long term there is a brilliant comeback story to tell for liverpool, the press is going to be the best medium to say it.

    3. Tie up with Seagram’s Fuel – The freebies are being given out in pubs, the liverpool team photograph behind air tickets and a hoarding in the Kolkata airport, Seagram’s is taking it’s tie up with Liverpool Seriously.

    The market (although tiny – as cricket is almost a religion in India) is there to be tapped. I am sure, Ian Ayre has many other aces up his sleeve as far as India is concerned and in the future we will see many many like us.

  16. I have been following LFC for a fair few years now and it is sad to see the club not doing enough to promote itself in the country. Liverpool need a bit of success on the field to attract fans from a market that is largely untapped. A few premier league titles will help. Given the history of the club, it will be far easier to attract fans if we start winning things.

    David
    Hyderabad

  17. I agree with you. Football in India has started to gain a major following only over the last 10 years or so and since most football watchers here have seen Manchester United winning, they’ve supported them.

    I think Liverpool have a fairly large following here, at least more than Arsenal or Chelsea, though definitely not as many as Man Utd though I think that may be more to do with the fact that their glory hunters.

    Seriously though, India definitely is a major market for LFC and hopefully with Kenny Dalglish in charge and an upswing in results and performances, we’ll see more and more people following the Mighty Reds.

    Lyandra
    Bombay

    P.S: Who’s up for going to the Manchester United bar in March and supporting Liverpool there? :)

  18. @ lyandra : believe me bro that is a great idea. I cant do the same myself as i will not be in town. But i have had dat experience last season…

  19. Being from Mizoram where football is the most popular sport, we have plenty of Reds fans here. ManU may be the most popular club but we are not far behind. Weekends mean EPL and you could here cheers and wonder if you are in little Liverpool or Manchester or London. Local newspapers hardly mentioned the cricket world cup cos the sport pages are dominated by football only! Our LFC fan club called Mizoramkop numbers in the thousands and so are other clubs. So if you missed this kind of atmosphere in the rest
    http://empireofthekop.samdodds.com/eotk-promo.asp

  20. In times like these, it sucks to be an Indian Red stuck in the gulf. But hopefully soon, back in Bangalore, we can come together and make the Reds the most popular club in India.
    PS: I wouldn’t be too worried about Manc fans in India, most of the people I know who claim to be United supporters are glory Hunters. None can name more than 2-3 players and invariably Ronaldo and Beckham find their way into these 2-3.

  21. Hey Dude,

    Interesting article man, I am a LFC fan since 2003 and love it whenever i see someone wearing a LFC jersey (even if its a faux).

    Suarez will hopefully be huge hit sooner.

    I along with my friends are planning to start a Liverpool FC Cafe Bar by this September in Bengaluru.

  22. @ Ankur and Lyandra: The Liverpool group in Mumbai is more than active. We arrange screenings for every major game and the atmosphere is fantastic, to say the least.

    Check this out. Ok, yeah, we’re screaming more than singing, but we beat the rent boys, so it’s only expected.

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