EXAMPLE OF HOW FOOTBALL MARKETING SHOULD BE DONE

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

quite possibly if the club had said.. 'sorry.. that days whatever is all tied up...but please accpet our junior supporters pack. .autographyed etc".

well thats a differnt thing. and we'd be saluting the clever efforts of our club..

strangely.....we're not !!!

Agree and I will repeat if he called the Club and expressed those comments to the Club directly they become aware of the problem and have a chance to correct it.

But it does not appear that is the case. So where we could all benefit from an initial problem, this avenue is ignored and no one benefits and comments and attitudes fester on a public website that does nothing to correct the problem but provides a hobby horse for those who wish to grind an axe.

Do we want the Club marketing to improve? Isnt one way we could do that by giving them fair and honest feedback when things go wrong and things go well? It might also provide the supporter with a greater appreciation of the issues at hand for the Club.

[The Emblem 1]

Another marketing wiz that has not got a clue!

Thanks Rhino, your a great bloke!

[Guest redandbluethruandthru]

This thread is a perfect example of moderators belittling other forum members legitimate comments. Pathetic really.

[dee-luded 2,958]

This thread is a perfect example of moderators belittling other forum members legitimate comments. Pathetic really.

The apollogists of ineptitude...

[mo64 5,209]

Agree and I will repeat if he called the Club and expressed those comments to the Club directly they become aware of the problem and have a chance to correct it.

But it does not appear that is the case. So where we could all benefit from an initial problem, this avenue is ignored and no one benefits and comments and attitudes fester on a public website that does nothing to correct the problem but provides a hobby horse for those who wish to grind an axe.

Do we want the Club marketing to improve? Isnt one way we could do that by giving them fair and honest feedback when things go wrong and things go well? It might also provide the supporter with a greater appreciation of the issues at hand for the Club.

What a load of BS. The whole point about DeeReaming's post is to point out the different mindsets of the 2 marketing department. He wasn't being self serving, and it had nothing to do with pleasing sponsors.

A few years back, I rang the club to find out who we'd drafted in a preseason draft. The person on reception put me thru to a fairly senior official of the club, who proceeded to ask me who the eff I was, and wouldn't pass on the information. My response was to not renew my membership the following year. You see Rhino, it's just like going to restaurant and getting poor service. You never complain, you just don't go back there.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

My response was to not renew my membership the following year. You see Rhino, it's just like going to restaurant and getting poor service. You never complain, you just don't go back there.

I wouldn't expect you to follow the discussion anyway.

So a football club is like a restaurant? Is the menu like the game plan? There's trouble.

Your response not to renew your membership says enough about your level of support and ability to resolve an issue.

P.S. PSD info is available on the web. Its bizarre if you had to call the club unless the information sought is not publicly available then the Club would seem within its rights to not release it.

[Yencks 8]

I'm not entering any arguments but i know of a sick 9 year old that was given the privlage of being mascot and running out this week with the pies against the blues...

[mo64 5,209]

I wouldn't expect you to follow the discussion anyway.

So a football club is like a restaurant? Is the menu like the game plan? There's trouble.

Your response not to renew your membership says enough about your level of support and ability to resolve an issue.

P.S. PSD info is available on the web. Its bizarre if you had to call the club unless the information sought is not publicly available then the Club would seem within its rights to not release it.

FYI, I was at work at the time and didn't have access to the net, and the draft had been completed. And whether I had access to the net is irrelevant, I was made to feel like I was an annoyance to the club.

And a football club is like every other industry. It's all about service. If you treat your customers like sh#t, expect some repercussions.

I very much doubt that you have ever worked in a service related industry, because you come across as a pompous git.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

FYI, I was at work at the time and didn't have access to the net, and the draft had been completed. And whether I had access to the net is irrelevant, I was made to feel like I was an annoyance to the club.

And a football club is like every other industry. It's all about service. If you treat your customers like sh#t, expect some repercussions.

I very much doubt that you have ever worked in a service related industry, because you come across as a pompous git.

You have previously claimed to be in the sports betting industry. An industry that lives or dies by its access to information and you did not have internet access at work! Bizarre.

Actually a football club is not like every other industry and that may partially explain your frustration with it.

And not signing up membership certainly fixed them didn't it? That's effective.

Good work.

[gOLLy 401]

This thread is a perfect example of moderators belittling other forum members legitimate comments. Pathetic really.

Yes it is.

[mo64 5,209]

You have previously claimed to be in the sports betting industry. An industry that lives or dies by its access to information and you did not have internet access at work! Bizarre.

Actually a football club is not like every other industry and that may partially explain your frustration with it.

And not signing up membership certainly fixed them didn't it? That's effective.

Good work.

You've obviously never changed jobs. For what it's worth, I've tried to broaden my occupational horizons, including, wait for it, OWNING AND RUNNING A RESTAURANT.

And for you to say that a football club is not like any other industry is tripe. If you hadn't noticed, the weak either die like Fitzroy, or get relocated like South Melbourne. And if we continue to be inept off the field, we will suffer the same fate.

[beelzebub 22,242]

Another marketing wiz that has not got a clue!

In all fairness Rhino we're probably forced to give yo some benefit of doubt for I dont recall in all the years ever seeing one iota of an idea leave your fingertips to keyboard in regard to promoting this club. There may have been ...just dont recall any.

I know you probably have many as youre not a man without resources. So please.. educate us .

You cant seriously expect me to beleive a large company of such kind as sponsors football teams wouldnt jump at the chance of some sick-kid being looked after in some manner by a footy club.. and especially a sponsor.. that media is gold ..NO;..Platinum!!

I have no knowledge of whether youve been in business for your self..or on the spending end of advertising and promotional monies but you will always go where good press can be had ..and avoid like the proverbial any bad. One bad thing can undo a very large amount of good in a single stroke.

As others allude ( as well as myself.. ooh..sorry..self promotion !! lol ..cant have any of that here ..its Melbourne ) what this really comes down to is a Tale of Two Directions.

One is to grasp such things as positives and make of it what yo will.. almost callously it might seem to take advantage..but in this instance all parties win.. OR

To treat it as some sort of impost..some sort of too hard basket...or in a nutshell a wasted opportunity.

I honestly hope it really was nothing more than possibly mis-communications all round but given other anecdotal testimony it seems unlikley.

Its very easy to chuck a few players at a hospital for a photo opportunity..takes a little more guile to see an opportunity handed on a plate for what it is.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

Bub, Over the years there have been a number of posts/threads on what is wrong with the MFC marketing department. Typically they identify an unhappy or unsatisfactory experience had by a member/supporter or they bemoan the low membership. Too often, the regrettable unhappy experience is flogged on websites like these where in many cases the aggrieved party has not issued a letter/commnication of complaint to the Club to inform them of this and to seek fair resolution and also to highlight to the Club problems which it needs to resolve. However, the first port of call is to post a critical version of events on a websites which gives the habitual whingers a hobby horse to potshot the Club and denies the Club useful feedback to rectify the problem.

I have read the numerous marketing initiatives posted here and have yet to see one that represents a defineable and clear commercial opportunity for the Club, In fact many of them posted are complete rubbish that dont have zac of commercial basis and are ignorant of the dilemma that MFC is in but are trumpeted by the poster as the next big thing and why does not the Club do this?? Then if the Club does not do the initiative see this as further evidence of how pisspoor the Club is . I am sorry I have not joined in this ritual because frankly I dont see the benefit unless I had a good plan. And if I did I would inform the Club rather than joining a pissing contest for half baked ideas on a website.

FWIW, in order to defend my position, I work in a high profile highly regulated service industry where customer development, brand awareness, relationship management and reputation are paramount. I am fortunate to work with a company that has the financial resources to back its objectives with a CEO capable of delivering on those objectives in an industry where there are real opportunities to grow.

I make those comments as a contrast to what I know about MFC. Cash strapped, financially frugal, poor CEO and high staff turnover. Its no wonder some members have poor experiences with the Club. MFC needs to improve here. But some of the efforts to bag the Club without appropriate action to allow the Club feedback and an opportunity to correct it is a shameful behaviour from supporters. I hope McNamee can instill better outcomes going forward.

In regard the situation DR put forward. Lets get some facts straight. His Godson was over for the QB weekend and he wanted to replicate the mascot situation that Adelaide did in Tassie with MFC. MFC had competing interests on its biggest day of the year and had already granted this to the child of a sponsor. I dont see a legitimate basis for the Club to compromise the sponsor or his/her son's experience by the replacement with DR's godson. And lets get it straight, the Godson is not the sick kid. The Godson has very sick sister and she remained in Tassie.

Adelaide astutely took advantage of an opportunity when in Tassie to leverage some publicity where it had stuff all supporters and little profile being out of town. I dont think this would have been the case had they been at AAMI playing either Port or Collingwood. So I dont accept MFC's failure on the mascot issue. Secondly I dont see it as a publicity opportunity because 1. The Godson was not a sick kid 2. As Nugget points out, the invitation to sick kids to be mascots happens regularly and does not get press coverage in Melb papers. Also in Tassie they get 4 games a year. 3. The matter had already been covered by The Mercury in Tassie so was unlikely to be recycled again in a Melb paper. So I dont see the great publicity angle or the justification to withdraw something that was promised to an executive of a major sponsor.

Its a good case study if MFC ever played an out of town match at location where not much AFL is played say in the Gold Coast or Darwin to extract some kudos.

But you are right MFC should be looking at positive community based opportunities where they can be had. But this was not one of them.

The failures of MFC in this situation is not to have offered a token autographed photo or something as an aside for DR's godson. The Club needs to address that. But its a pity that there was not a formal communication of this concern to the Club in training younger staff.

[Guest fatty]

Bub, Over the years there have been a number of posts/threads on what is wrong with the MFC marketing department. Typically they identify an unhappy or unsatisfactory experience had by a member/supporter or they bemoan the low membership. Too often, the regrettable unhappy experience is flogged on websites like these where in many cases the aggrieved party has not issued a letter/commnication of complaint to the Club to inform them of this and to seek fair resolution and also to highlight to the Club problems which it needs to resolve. However, the first port of call is to post a critical version of events on a websites which gives the habitual whingers a hobby horse to potshot the Club and denies the Club useful feedback to rectify the problem.

Very well said. Its unfair that when the onfield performance is down, we have to bicker about what the marketing department is failing to do.

Paul MacNamee is the bravest person in the world.

Good luck to him.

[Nasher 33,131]

This thread is a perfect example of moderators belittling other forum members legitimate comments. Pathetic really.

Moderators are entitled to opinions too. Rhino was an aggressive poster long before he was a moderator and will be long after he is no longer a moderator. There's plenty of other members on the forum with blunt posting styles. I don't hear you complaining about them.

My advice? Get over it. It ain't changing.

[Guest fatty]

Rhino was an aggressive poster long before he was a moderator and will be long after he is no longer a moderator.

Some time soon, right?

[Nasher 33,131]

Some time soon, right?

Unless he resigns off his own bat, no.

[Jarka 767]

Wow, just wow. This thread is a perfect example of what's stopping this website from turning into a great one, at the moment it's just good and after reading this thread it's laughable that I've been accused of having a 'vendetta' against the mods...

Anyway, back to the topic...

I've had experience with our 'marketing department' in the past witha similar situation. Previously I was a player sponsor for Nathan Bassett and Nathan Brown for several years. With Brownie I had opted for the upgraded sponsor version which cost about $5.5k per year, so I was a fair contributor to the club.

My step sister lived in Warburton at the time, a fairly poor area and her two kids were enrolled at the local primary school which was suffering badly from a lack of funding. So a few of us decided to do something about it and try to raise some much needed cash, one of the projects was to arrange a raffle. There was also a Carlton and Collingwood supporter involved so we decided that we were going to get a signed jumper from each club as part of the prizes, the idea being that if you won the jumper then you'd 'donate' it to one of the kids in the class. Collingwood and Carlton bent over backwards to help out supplying a jumper and getting the players to sign it. I contacted the club and made my request and the response was positive but in the end nothing happened. In the end I bought a jumper myself, took an afternoon off work to go down to junction oval, spoke with Brownie after training and got some of the lads to sign it.

My request was not from someone off the street, I was well known in the club at the time, but it just goes to show the difference in attitude compared to the 'bigger' clubs. I didn't make a big deal about it because I felt it wasn't needed, it was just a small insignificant matter, except for winning a devoted young fan at the grass root level...

To be fair this was the previous administration.

On the flip side I've also had some wonderful service from within the club. Cameron Schwab spoke to me for half an hour after a draft trying to work out the best player for me to sponsor, in the end he insisted I take Brownie over some of the other higher profile kids because of his attitude. A decision which turned out to be wonderful, Brownie is a great bloke and did his utmost to make me feel comfortable and constantlt went out of hsi way to speak to me and my guests.

Janette (or is it Janine), the receptionist, also constantly went out of her way to help me, often with very minor requests. She provided a fantastic service, I cannot speak highly enough of her.

So in summary sometimes they get it wrong, but sometimes they get it very right. It probably depends on how busy they are when you make your request, and I know first hand how busy those guys get. It's not a normal 9 to 5 job, they work bloody hard and they are always undermanned to keep the costs down.

[_becks_ 35]

Rhino makes a good point as far as the differences in importance of the game goes. Two totally differrent games, they may have been more willing to do it, say when we play Freo. However, simply saying no is just plain rude, an explanation may have been better, accompanied with a signed card.

[beelzebub 22,242]

When your sailing well ..all things are easy. When you're becalmed you need to start pulling out all the ideas to get going.

Considering we're still stagnant at around 25000 or so members then I dont think this club is really in any position to create any negativity. To be fobbed off without any token effort at bringing the kid into the fold is quite frankly cutting off your nose to spite the face.

As the restaurant analogies mention...people will always react more to the POOR things than the good ones. Positive reactions are often more subtle.. but llifelong loyalties are built on the small things.

[Jarka 767]

As the restaurant analogies mention...people will always react more to the POOR things than the good ones. Positive reactions are often more subtle.. but llifelong loyalties are built on the small things.

Yeah, widely accepted rule in sales, if a customer gets good service then they'll tell someone about it, but if they get poor service they'll tell everyone.

[Weedster 174]

Very well said. Its unfair that when the onfield performance is down, we have to bicker about what the marketing department is failing to do.

Paul MacNamee is the bravest person in the world.

Good luck to him.

An earlier quote from one of our posters is SPOT ON..

"Cash strapped, financially frugal, poor CEO and high staff turnover. Its no wonder some members have poor experiences with the Club. MFC needs to improve here."

Our Chairman & CEO are both highly credentialled in the commercial world on marketing and communications - the reality however is that none of this skill is evident at MFC. There is no doubt that onfield success, or lack of it as is presently the case, limits the effectiveness of any marketing inititiative, but please..there is no doubt we are a long way behind the game here...

[footy_minister 3]

It's been along time since i've posted here, but i am an avid follower on this site, and an MFC member.

Last year i was transfered to Sydney to produce a national radio/tv personality.

The guy who i will not name, has never followed AFL (Sydney boy), but being a Melbourne boy i harassed him daily to come on board and support us.

Surprisingly after much torment he said he'd come to a game at the G with me if i could organize it. So i rang and emailed the MFC to see if i could do it through them... seeing if they could give him an experience he'd want to talk about on the radio. Make it a bit special for him. He wanted to bring his kids as well. This guy is not on a sports network so it would have been a great opportunity to spread the word among less loyal sporting mad supporters.

I only ever heard back from the receptionist where i was forwarded on to the Media guy at the MFC.

I never heard back from him, or anyone else i emailed, and within a week another Football Club through their own marketing ideas contacted this man directly offering more than i had asked of the MFC... luckily i again persuaded him not to go.

A bit a free national support, now down the drain!!

However i do intend taking him to a game this year,

footy_minister.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

This thread is a perfect example of moderators belittling other forum members legitimate comments. Pathetic really.

This thread is a perfect example of moderators not willing to accept any criticism of the club.

Or is it this whole forum?

[Choko 493]

I wouldn't expect you to follow the discussion anyway.

So a football club is like a restaurant? Is the menu like the game plan? There's trouble.

Your response not to renew your membership says enough about your level of support and ability to resolve an issue.

P.S. PSD info is available on the web. Its bizarre if you had to call the club unless the information sought is not publicly available then the Club would seem within its rights to not release it.

Seriously, you are an apologist for everything except your own behaviour.

It is a perfectly valid opinion to hold that membership of a club is discretionary depending on the level of value one perceives due to service/performance or quite frankly due to any factor at all. Perhaps ditching membership is an expression of support in that instead of the apologist type attitude we get from you, we may get recognition of a club that in some respects is rotten to its core.

In 20 years I have never relinquished my membership, and FWIW I don't see it as the solution. But neither is being patronising for the restaurant comparison or questioning someone's support because they see things differently to you.