Quote: goosey "But they are trading within the standards of the profession and governing body so cant be unethical? If the product only appeals to a very limited audience and the business is suffering you have to appeal to a wider audience at the risk of losing your original customers.'"
Just because a business is acting in a manner that is considered within the standards of the profession does not mean that it isn't acting unethically. Sometimes, the system is unethical. Take the banking industry or estate agency for example.
Does the club really only appeal to a limited audience? Only 20 years ago there were 5 times the amount of fans coming though the turnstyles. Successive boards of directors have consistently failed to ask the question. Why? Most of those people are still around, why are they not coming? Has anyone bothered to ask or research why? Over the last 10 years the clubs marketing strategy has been terrible. It has constantly targeted only one section of society, young families. This is flawed on a lot of levels. After combat sports, Rugby League is one of the most violent sports there is, the product on the field is hardly conducive for bringing kids down to. Though if you are going to attract kids down you have to align it with a strategy that retains these kids when they become adolescent and have to pay more to get in otherwise it's virtually pointless. But nothing is being done, the whole strategy is flawed and one dimensional. The club seems to have no idea as how to communicate with fans. Here's a money saving idea, shut the clubs website down, it's hardly ever up to date, it is poorly laid out, difficult to navigate and shows the clubs image in a bad light. It is a complete waste of money. Even the clubs social media offerings are amateurish, it should be the most up to date platform the club has. With retweets and sharing club news can be spread quickly even more so than that old fashioned yet ever so effective word of mouth. The biggest news story of the week wasn't even mentioned until 2 days after the local weekly paper and then in a manner that assumed everyone knew. Then there's the customer service. We have kit launches so close to Christmas most have bought all their presents and even then, can you take one away there and then? The shop was a great idea, but folk who weren't regulars were asking me if it was a shop or an office? The game day experience is terrible, the staff that do work there work their backside's off but there isn't enough of them. Try getting a burger and a pint without missing 10 minutes of the second half so I don't bother and the money stays in my pocket. The stewards look like they've been taken off the doors of the 101 and are generally ill mannered and intimidating. Not exactly what you want if you're trying to attract families down.
