Just on that point - season tickets were promised to junior players but at the club where my sons play they did not materialise because one of the community coaches (now moved on) didn't get his act together to make it happen. Whilst it made no difference to us because we had had tickets anyway it did discourage some of the parents/kids from attending.
There is a lesson for the club about attention to detail there - not always easy given the lack of resources.

Lister/Gutter

Its a 2 way street, its the brand proposition from the club and the those benefits for a sponsor.

Clubs position themselves in many ways, and finding like minded sponsors is the Holy Grail.

The problem for Quins is that they have no brand proposition. Other than being a televised support, there is no wider sporting attraction to RL in London which is the extended market. What is the demographic of the support? Are you all upper class, degree educated, public School, Telegraph readers or Lower/Middle class, state educated Sun readers?

The sponsor will look at the immediate people they will attract, the fans. But if the club has no 'distinct' fan base identified, then the sponsor will wonder who infact they are targetting.

E.g. Conde Naste Traveller magazine, Veuve Clicquot Champagne and Sunseeker yachts will never sponsor Hull FC - simply because there isnt a single person in the fan base who will use or buy those products.
Those same companies are more likely to be found at Cowes sailing week and Guards Polo club.

The Holy Grail now is - who would you consider to be the ideal sponsor for Quins RL?

The 2 way street occurs when the club tries to sell themselves. Hull FC could sell themselves to Veuve Clicquot Champagne, but if they arent interested in the fan base - then they wont buy. Simply because Hull FC might have a blank shirt, doesnt mean the companies will bite!

True....but as I said, if it was easy, we wouldn't need people to sell it, just to take orders over the phone.
Harlequins Rugby are Gold members of the Richmond Chamber of commerce and are [url=http://www.richmondexpo.co.uk/hosting[/url an event this year.......why not offer 1 box to every game to members on a first come first served basis?

The main point that I keep on trying to make and maybe I am not making it clear enough is that there is a massive difference between commercial activity and community activity.
You are a marketing professional, so will receive calls every day from people selling you everything from email delivery, banner/on-line ads, print ads and data through to exhibition space. You know that there are 1,000's of routes to market and it is those people who know how to sell that are the ones you listen to. We have nobody at the club who knows how to sell. I am not having a pop at any individual at the club, it's not their fault they were employed to do something that they aren't qualified to do, but what I am saying is the club will continue to tread water and spend Mr Hughes's money to survive if they don't address this issue now.
The RFL spent £12,500 (appx) on Manly and we got 4,000 additional bodies through the door.......what more proof is needed that when done by the experts (RFL employees) it reaps rewards!

I could go on about the statistics on crowd figures since we moved back to TW2, but this thread was originally about the Sponsor and I have accepted that the new deal is good for the community development....let's leave it at that.

GUTTER

What are you trying to sell then?
A half empty Stadium?
An unsuccesful team?

And your route to market is exactly what im saying - what is the Quins RL market? Who is the market and where do they live?

what exactly can the club sell, to who and where?

Its like we are a village Sunday league side or something...

Haven't you been on here before saying you've never actually been to a Home match?

no - ive been to many games!

Must be thinking of somebody else then.

But yes, we're still the equivalent of a Sunday league side then. Even they can usually get the local pub interested.

viewtopic.php? ... =#13748284 Threw me somewhat...

viewtopic.php? ... =#13748284 Threw me somewhat...

1st one this season!
(sorry, been to the Stoop many times - just not this season!)

LISTER

Just a quick question - who would you have liked to have seen as the club Sponsor?

OK....sponsorship.

What's on offer? Small fan base, minimal exposure in the press and TV, half (more like 2/3) empty stadium and apathy from the population of Greater London.

What's a possible solution? Contra deals with the free papers?

Maybe. As I have alluded to earlier, the ad industry is on it's @rse, so there may be a way to get a higher profile for little or no outlay. Have you EVER paid full ratecard for advertising??? No, I didn't think so



Do you think there may be a connection between the £12,500 spend figure for 4,000 extra fans at the Manly game? 4,000 tickets at £15 is £60,000......
What's 20% of £60,000?.........
Mmmmm...I wonder? Was this an example of a successfull CPA deal?

£50,000 cash for access to 50,000 fans all season? Unlikely.

I am not saying I have the answer, but I can say from my first dealings with the marketing team at the RFL in 2005 to the present, the general mood up there has been one of frustration at the percieved lack of effort from the club!

Swift edit on your previous response I notice.

I have no idea. Let me see. I'll go for British Airways, plenty of planes fly over our stadium, so it makes sense.

[url=http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/Innocent[/url

A local (ish) business, a market leader, with an ethical reputation and nationwide brand awareness.

Although being associated with a sport that is essentially blokes knocking lumps out of one another probably doesn't suit them.

Disregarding the fact they are rank

You've tried them?

I thought you lived exclusively on ale old chap

So on that basis.............................

Porsche because lots of cars drive by the Stadium?

My bird tricked me

Whooooosh.

You asked a stupid irrelevant question so I gave you a stupid irrelevant answer.

No, i asked a relevant question.

You dont seem to think that the sponsor now is suitable - so i asked you who you WOULD think was suitable!

If you know what isnt right - im kind of assuming you do what is right!

maybe it was just a stupid irrelevant question because you dont have a relevant answer!

So you dispute British Airways would be an suitable sponsor?

Lehman Brothers.

My broker tells me the stock has nowhere to go but up.

That's a classic case though, it's about positioning what we have to offer in conjunction with what any sponsor sells and wants to sell more of by sponsoring QRL/Rugby League and to a degree that's where I agree with Gutters regards a commercial side of the club being required.

Too often in the past companies have been approached by the club with an almost naive concept based on the lines of " we are in <whatever location we were at the time> and so are you, so how about it then"? the year we took Bartacard on as sponsors NC had approached more companies than I have had hot dinners, but the proposition was never good enough for any of them to spend hard cash on sponsoring us.

As exiled states, what exactly is it that we have as a brand to offer somebody who wants, especially in these times, to ensure that every pound spent gains it's metrics back at least fourfold?

I actually think having Lehmann Brothers as our sponsor would reap positive rewards, it would certainly get us plenty of media attention, more than I imagine the ground breaking announcement of St Marys College will do anyway

One of the problems with Marketing professionals (and this is not a slight on you or your kind) is that over the years, you have had your views blurred by the b0ll0x Spouted by advertising agencies. Demographic/Mozaic profiling, market research annalysis, blah blah blah...
Marketers are employed to make decisions, but few of them ever do. Advertising agents used to come up with clever ideas....they now are responsible for everything, from planning, design, building, buying, implementation, reporting and assesment......all a marketing director has to do is listen to 3 pitches and select an agency and give them the budget. The agency then get 10% retainers and then turn over the suppliers for another 20% agency discount....SMOKE AND MIRRORS...Simple as that.
The TNT model used for Manly worked and should be continued...or at least tried again 2 more times this year.

If TNT pick up another pair of £12,500 cheques, I would think they would see the benefit of generating £175,000 in revenue next year from 14 games....just a thought