ARGHHHHH! Manchester United brand partnership overkill!

By February 18 2011, 1:35 am 4 Comments
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I live in Singapore. I love Singapore. Apart from one thing. They love Manchester United. Worse than that. They sell Manchester United products everywhere. I mean everywhere. I walked into a chemist the other day and I saw Manchester United deodorant!!! I couldn’t believe it! Was nothing safe from that detestable Mancunian logo! Usually I see ManU shirts in all the Nike stores and sports stores, ManU t-shirts in all the department stores and Singaporeans wearing that horrible AON endorsed shirts up and down Singapore’s mains hopping street Orchard Road and in all the air conditioned Malls but recently the brand partnerships have been really getting out of hand too. I was in a supermarket the other week and saw ManUtd endorsed wine from Concha Y Toro! What is the connection between wine and ManU apart from ManU Manager Ferguson’s constant wining when things don’t go his way? Then I saw ManU Smirnoff Vodka in another supermarket. Is that because it’s clear to see how much ManU cheat? Now I see that DHL have done a partnership with ManU! Why? What is the connection between sending parcels and ManU unless it’s to celebrate that all the merchandise from the ManU superstore is sent overseas to their many fans around the world gullible enough to support them instead of a real football team? One of the more bizarre ManU partnerships is with Turkish Airlines…they followed Kevin Costner which says everything about that brand. Why Turkish Airlines and ManU? I wished it was because they played like turkeys! Kumho Tires anyone? Yep me neither. Is it because you get tired of Ferguson getting away with murder after every game when he criticizes referees for daring to award decisions against them? Seoul is another partner, is that because ManU are missing one? Audi are another and apart from being Scottish for “how you doing” and that they have a new black car and ManU are well known for their practice of the black arts there isn’t a lot of connection there. The most ironic of course is Hublot – official time keeper…as everyone knows that must mean that all Hublot watches are 10 minutes slow….enough time for ManU to score that way beyond injury time controversial winner! All in all their brand has prostituted itself to the highest bidder in every feasible category that it can and done it very well!

  • NicholasB

    Surely you can’t be a specialist in partnership marketing (by which I assume they mean sponsorship) and then rinse the most commercially successful and sponsorship savvy football club in the world….

    Also – how many time do you want to use the words partnership in your bio

  • Chris Worsley

    Another missive from the Singapore Tourist Board.

    I just hope all that Manure gear was hooky pirated stuff.

  • CJ Reed

    that’s the point Nicholas, they are not the most commercially savvy club in the world and they are not the most brand centric, Barcelona are. And Real Madrid are a close second. Barcelona is the ultimate fans owned commercially focused club where they don’t sell their soul to every brand that passes by that waves a few dollars at them. Barcelona had no sponsorship deals for decades and even had a charity Unicef on the front of their shirts for no charge for years. Now they relented but still have a charitable foundation paying instead of a vast array of non-connected brands. Partnerships usually are partnerships which usually means no money changing hands such as Unicef and Barca whereas manu do indeed just do sponsorships but they claim them to be partnerships which of course they aren’t really but if they claim they are then i can criticise the association as its crossed over to my side of marketing rather than staying on the sponsorship side! they’re not as brand savvy as Barcelona or even Madrid and thats the point.

  • Joel Seymour-Hyde

    Sorry Chris but I’m a bit confused. The title of your blog is “brand partnership overkill”, and you then proceed to list a number of what I can only assume are Manchester United’s ‘brand partnerships’. Then in your reply to Nick you dismiss all of their deals as ‘sponsorships’. Might be helpful if you clarify the difference, as I do not agree with your lose definition that a ‘partnership is when no money changes hands’.

    It appears you have a very outdated idea of what constitutes modern day sponsorship. Most rights holders will consider those brands that chose to associate with them (whether through money or VIK) as ‘partners’, primary because both parties will receive benefits from the relationship for their own business objectives.

    I would also suggest you take a look at Barcelona’s list of ‘partners’ – Audi, Turkish Airlines, Betfair, Etisalat…the list goes on. Are these ‘partnerships’ any more worthy or a better brand fit than Manchester United’s? I think not.

    Also FYI the most commercially savvy club in the world is Bayern Munich. Much smaller fan base than the 3 clubs you mention above, yet outstrips them all on commercial revenue by at least 20m EUR per season (accordingly to the latest Deloitte Money League report).

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