why all this talk about change....just leave things alone. We are the Melbourne Football Club....GO DEES. .....All I want is a great year to celebrate our 150th in season '08.

And don't touch our 'anthem" either.!!!!! ...."It's a grand old flag" etc etc etc :angry: :angry:

hence the reason why i said "we dont want big changes"...i agree with you

The idea in principal is a good one. Taking big risks can pay off big time.

But .... do you think people make up there mind on who there going to barrack for because of their nick name? In most situations not. I believe our bigger value with our name is the "Melbourne" part - not Demons or United or any other nickname. You would think that our name, saying that we are the team of Melbourne would attract people who come to live in Melbourne from other countries.

But, in the end it comes down to success on the field. You can have a fantastic brand but if the good or service your providing is not that great, in our case "playing football" you arn't going to win over customers. The first key to the Demons becoming successful off the field is success on the field. We all know that.

Where's Jacka i agree with your idea of bringing in more popularity but changing the demons i dislike why? because demons is such a powerful strong CATCHY nickname that it is appealing to the public especially to little kids where as 'United' is blan and boring and is less likely to BRING ATTENTION TOWARDS THE CLUB. As already stated it does seem to conform to soccer and we do want to STAND OUT and to be noticed by the public.

The bottom line is to increase memberships and supporter base is to ADVERTISE ADVERTISE and ADVERTISE our club and our logo and the city of melbourne. Marketing is the way to do this and as in previsous threads we need to have ads on TV and in magezines on billboards etc etc. Dont want melbourne to be popular and succesfull make melbourne popular and succesful. As fans we are the crucial key to this, we must attend games we must buy merchendise we must make melbourne into the powerhouse it once was. The fact is its our 150th year and if we cant make a incredible profit this year then we cant ever do it. We have to do more than change our logo to have 150th on it we have to NOTICED we have to be POPULAR we have to be SUCCESFUL!!

The highlighted points are the things melbourne need to do this year in order to create a much more succesful club this year:

We have to be "catchy" in order to grab attention from the public

We need to "bring attention towards the club" so the public is even more aware of the club than it has been before. We dont want people saying "Oh yeh melbournefc they're an AFL team arent they?" we want "Melbournefc? Yeh there an AFL team they're great"

We want to "stand out" rather than blend in it hurts to say this but collingwood are good at this everyone knows them and they have an obvisous reputation even if that may not be positive it still draws attention towards the club.

"Advertising" is the key this year and for the future. We have to increase our advertisments and sponserships to become more succesful.

We want to be "noticed" by the public before we can become "popular" and then the final step of becoming "succesful" off the field.

We are MelbourneFC (Demons) and we will UNITE ourselves upon the top of the AFL business world and the top of AFL ladder!!

The idea in principal is a good one. Taking big risks can pay off big time.

But .... do you think people make up there mind on who there going to barrack for because of their nick name? In most situations not. I believe our bigger value with our name is the "Melbourne" part - not Demons or United or any other nickname. You would think that our name, saying that we are the team of Melbourne would attract people who come to live in Melbourne from other countries.

But, in the end it comes down to success on the field. You can have a fantastic brand but if the good or service your providing is not that great, in our case "playing football" you arn't going to win over customers. The first key to the Demons becoming successful off the field is success on the field. We all know that.

I agree with all this in principle, but I've gotta ask this question:

If being successful on field is the crucial piece of the puzzle that leads to being successful off field, then why are the kangaroos in such dire straits now. They were the team of the 90's 2 flags, a string of finals appearances. What the hell happened to them?

I agree with all this in principle, but I've gotta ask this question:

If being successful on field is the crucial piece of the puzzle that leads to being successful off field, then why are the kangaroos in such dire straits now. They were the team of the 90's 2 flags, a string of finals appearances. What the hell happened to them?

Because they did not capalise on there winnings. I remember a friend of ours, about 65 years old told us a story how one year he volunteered for the Roo's in their membership department. It was about December and they were just starting to plan there drive for the next year. They couldn't though - they had only 1/4 of the membership list of people who were members the prior year. The club, in the past had shocking admin and they didn't have the right people running the place.

The first key is winning, the second is a good brand and a clear message. The Roo's obviously didn't have the second part right.

On the other side of the coin, how does a team like St. Kilda have more off field success than us? They've been about as consistent as us, save for those back to back prelim finals appearances a few years ago.

One losing GF appearance in recent memory and no flag since the 60's. And they were as crap as us, if not crapper in the 80s too!

What's going on?

this whole thread is laughable HAHAHA

Ok, we all know that we are in dire straights long term, unless we engineer some sort of a massive turnaround ala Hawthorn, Carlton, St. Kilda. Due to some amazingly incompetent brand management from the 60's to not so long ago, we have a support base which is too small to grow from. As a kid it was almost embarrassing to go for Melbourne, due to the facts we were duds on the field and everyone’s grandparents went for Melbourne.

So in saying that we need new supporters and in term members. We are doing the China thing (which I championed years ago along with enticing new immigrants to support our club). Therefore how do we get new numbers in order to get to the critical mass, we need in order to grow and survive.

Well not one measure will totally be the sole solution. One however that will help is protecting and promoting our brand. We have disbanded with the Demons moniker. I am neither here no there with that decision, however now is the time to use it as a positive.

We don’t need an animal or a flimsy adjective for a nickname.

We need a strong identity, but still keep Melbourne as our main identity.

We need a catchy, kid friendly, new supporter friendly and current member friendly identity.

I propose we use the Nickname.

Melbourne "United"

Yes "United" being the nickname. Therefore Melbourne is still predominant; however United conjures up a number of positives.

United: Unite MFC, MCC. Unite the city and new supporters. Unite the club admin and all factions. Unite the club with the population of Melbourne. Unite the team.

United is a powerful word that provokes images of power, success, hard work, team work, loyalty, professionalism.

Now there is also the Man U factor. Obviously they are the biggest sporting club in the world. If we are going to attract global sponsors, the Mel U brand is a lot more attractive the Melbourne Demons. The sponsorship and marketing leads into Asia would be a lot more attractive. The name Mel U runs off easier for kids and erases the nerdiness of the club of yesteryear. Kids will relate to the "U" factor a lot more. Europeans coming to Oz will relate to the U factor better

There are many nay sayers who wont like this, however it is time for change albeit not too radical.

Go the Melbourne United FC

Thoughts??

you cant be serious. i dont give a rats what P.Gardiner thinks, we are and allways will be the MELBOURNE DEMONS. this push to China is garbage, I know we have interstate members but how many overseas members will we have in 2-3 years time, im guessing not many if any