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Excellent analysis of the name situation


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#1 Caveman

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Posted 21 October 2012 - 10:13 AM

A bloke I know relayed a story to me how he was at a function last week where the upcoming and incoming El Supremo Peter Gordon was a speaker at.

Peter Gordon told those at this gathering that he had been snowed under with letters from people wanting him to change our name back to Footscray.

Here below is one of the letters that Peter Gordon would have received- that was also kindly forwarded on to FNWB.



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Copy of letter I sent to new Footscray president-elect Peter Gordon:


Dear Peter Gordon,


Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on recently being announced as the preferred candidate to become the next president of the Western Bulldogs. Further, I would like to congratulate your predecessor David Smorgon for his many years of service to the club.

However, this brings me to the nexus of my letter. I believe that the ill-conceived "Western Bulldogs" moniker introduced in 1997 by Mr Smorgon must be replaced by our traditional name Footscray.

The well-documented reason for such a change in 1997 was based on the logic that the "Western" branding would allow the club to increase membership and corporate sponsorship levels in the Western suburbs of Melbourne. However, what the club failed to grasp was that Footscray has always been known as the team of the West.

Later in this letter I will analyse whether this ambition of increased membership sales were actually achieved after 15 years under the new banner. But to begin with, I would like to make parallels with other clubs both in the AFL and NRL and what is required to be a sporting powerhouse in Australia.

The mid-nineties saw a noticeable shift in football club marketing as weaker clubs struggled with the implications of a shift to a fully professional football league. Extra strain was placed on these clubs to remain profitable against the backdrop of rising costs. The pervasive marketing school of thought of the day was to change the name of clubs to geographically broaden their supporter bases. In the AFL, Footscray became the "Western Bulldogs" and North Melbourne became simply the "Kangaroos".

This phenomenon was not just confined to the AFL with a number of weaker NRL clubs doing likewise. For instance, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs became known initially as the "Sydney Bulldogs" in 1995 before dropping the Sydney branding altogether and became the "Bulldogs". The Eastern Suburbs Roosters changed to the Sydney City Roosters and then the Sydney Roosters. The Balmain Tigers changed to the Sydney Tigers for a couple of years before reverting back to Balmain until they merged with Western Suburbs to form the Wests Tigers. And finally, the Cronulla-Sutherlands Sharks became the geographically indistinct "Sharks". All of these changes were made in the mid-nineties, the same time proud Footscray became the Western Bulldogs.

It is important to note, however, that in the intervening years, every single one of these clubs (including North Melbourne) bar the Western Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters have reverted back to their traditional club names. Why? The reason is simple. The people who implemented those changes did not understand the reason why supporters part with their hard earned money for memberships and merchandise. It has nothing to do with glitzy marketing campaigns. It is fundamentally buying into the identity of the club and the history that goes with it. Supporters of the above mentioned clubs felt that part of their club was now "missing" when the tradition and identity of their proud clubs was removed.

I now turn my attention to this misguided marketing ideology that is behind the re-branding of Footscray. Successful clubs are those that have a large supporter base to financially draw upon with increased membership and merchandise sales. Thus, in turn, corporate partners have a preference to sponsor these clubs due to the additional exposure that they provide their brand and also being associated with a "winning culture".

It is beyond dispute that the clubs with the most members are the ones who have had the most on-field success, consistently over a long period of time. If you analyse the records of all the big Melbourne clubs such as Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond, Essendon and Hawthorn, what they all have in common multiple premierships at regular intervals. People want to support clubs that win and win regularly.

Successful clubs (with the most members) are not the ones with the most geographically inclusive names. The Melbourne Demons are a perfect example. According to the marketing philosophy of the Western Bulldogs re-branding, Melbourne should have the most supporters as their brand encompasses the whole of Melbourne. Instead, they have one of the lowest supporter bases along with the Western Bulldogs. Why? Clearly, it is because they have consistently under-performed on the field since their glory days over six decades ago.

This is the reason why the Western Bulldogs have one of the lowest membership bases of the Melbourne clubs not the fact that they were once called Footscray. Their lack of success is highlighted by the fact that the club has only won one premiership in 1954 and a losing grand final in 1961 since they were admitted into the big league. The club shares this familiar theme with the other Melbourne clubs with the lowest supporter bases such as North Melbourne, Melbourne and St Kilda—a lack of on-field success.

Additionally, if the Western Bulldogs re-branding philosophy was so successful, why haven't other clubs followed in their footsteps? Why hasn't Essendon become the Northern Bombers; Hawthorn the Eastern Hawks and St Kilda the Southern Saints? This has not and will not occur as these clubs rightly recognise that their existing brands of over a hundred years tradition is their most powerful selling point. It is the very reason why long-standing AFL clubs (unlike many NRL clubs) do not change their traditional jersey every second year for the sake of increase merchandise revenue. They understand that their history is what binds the club together and makes them who they are.

This brings me to the membership levels of the Bulldogs since they became the "Western Bulldogs". People often point to old Footscray who were always struggling to keep their head above a sea of red ink, and compare them to the club's current relative secure financial position. They then conclude that this improvement is due to the Western Bulldogs name change. However, on closer inspection, it is clear that this is instead due to both the prudent financial management of the club and increased financial support by the AFL since Fitzroy was forced to merge with the Brisbane Bears. Supporters of the Western Bulldogs brand point to the increase in membership numbers since 1996, however, what they fail to mention is that AFL club membership has increased substantially across all clubs with administrations becoming aware of the correlation between increased membership and revenue. The following excerpt is from Mr Anthony Costa's article titled, "Branding: Why AFL's Bulldogs should reclaims their Footscray name after 15 years":
To their credit the Bulldogs have grown significantly since their rebranding. From 1997 to 2012 the club's membership has increased 49.83%. Yet total AFL club memberships have grown similarly over this period – up 45.96% (44.27% if you exclude the two recent expansion teams).
If the Western strategy is really working, if it has won over the fastest growth region in the whole country, then shouldn't the Bulldogs be bounding further ahead of their rivals?
As of 2010, 16.7% of the Victoria's total population lived in Melbourne's West. If the Bulldogs' brand strategy is right then even in a bad year they should dwarf "land locked" North Melbourne. Why then do they currently have 11.38% fewer members than the Kangaroos?
These figures clearly debunk the myth that the change of name to the Western Bulldogs has been successful in widening the club's supporter base. The powers to be who instituted this change wanted to steer clear from the "so-called" Footscray stigma of a team based in a gritty, working class suburb. This logic does not make sense as Collingwood has clearly become the number one club in Australia based on their much heralded working class roots. This working class identity of the Footscray name only reinforces and compliments the club's mascot, the Bulldog. Bulldogs are renowned for their grit and determination which is exactly in the spirit of club legends Charlie Sutton and Ted Whitten.

I applaud the club in reverting back to the traditional Footscray jumper of the 1954 premiership side. However, I believe that it is time to honour those past sons of the 'Scray and once again be known to the AFL community as the Footscray Bulldogs.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the matter.




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