Analyzing the Arsenal Football Club

            There are many football clubs, which are renowned in the world, and one of such clubs is the Arsenal Football Club. Its history is so rich and old as compared to many other football clubs. The roots of this club dates back to 1886, when Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory workers made a vital decision that they should come up with a football club. In its early days, the club was not that professional, but club gradually continued its journey, and in 1891, it was a developed professional football club and in 1893, it was named as Woolwich Arsenal. The most important event from the history books of Arsenal football club is that when it played its first ever game. The first ever game of the club was played on 2^nd Sep, 1893 against a club named Newcastle United, which was also a newly formed club at that time, and match ended with score line of 2-2. So, this is all just a beginning of a famous football clubs of the modern era, which has gained so much fan base and popularity in the world (Arsenal.com, 2010). In this paper, the Arsenal football club will be taken and analysed as an organization to see its promotion & marketing strategy, business practices, target audience, promotional objectives and many other relevant aspects.

The Role of Promotion for Arsenal Football Club

        It is important for any football club to realize the fact that they cannot grow without their fans, and if they are not able to promote themselves in the eyes of fans, then they may lose the popularity and fane base, which is not a good sign for any football club. So, they have to ensure that their marketing and promotion strategy at its best so that more fan base is developed, which helps to get more popularity along with more sponsors. The football clubs have to understand that without a proper strategic marketing and promotional planning, their survival is always at risk. The football clubs have to realize that they should act like complete organisations, which not only develop, but also re-develop their value proposition for their target audience. They have to look around and see what their competitors are doing to plan out their own strategy to capture the attention from the market. It means that things can vary in different situations, but if football club has made sure that they have integrated the crucial role of marketing and promotion in their overall strategic goals, then things will likely to turn into their favour (Vrontis, Thrassou, Kartakoullis, & Kriemadis, 2014)

        The Arsenal Football Club has gained so much fame all around the world, and huge fan base follows the club and its players, because things have been managed well by them. The club has understood the important role of promotion and marketing activities on commercial level. It is a fact that marketing a football club to gain attraction & popularity is not an easy thing. Tom Fox, one of the Chief Commercial Officers of the club shared his experience in 2013 that how big task it is to promote and market a football club. He shared his experience that promotion is a complex task, as it is hard to keep old and new fans interested all the time. He said that football club has to do so many things right and various kinds of efforts are needed to keep things on right track. The things can go in favor or it can go against, but if strategy is firm, and valiant efforts are made with intense hard work, then success is the most likely result. But this success does not come easy. He added that football clubs need good commercial partners along with great sponsors, so that a proper brand marketing strategy is developed and implemented (Tesseras, 2013)

The Marketing Strategy and Objectives of the Arsenal Football Club

        There are many football clubs and each one has its own importance in so many ways, because all clubs have integrated great marketing and promotional strategies that has made competition tougher for all the clubs. In so many clubs with so many famous players, it is hard for a club to stand out, but if they know how to do it, then task is certainly an achievable thing. The solution for a football club to stand out in the competition is its ability to develop a marketing strategy, which not only keeps sponsors interested, but fans are also engaged in so many ways. The football clubs have to understand that fans are crucial for them and if they are not responding well, then they may attract towards other clubs, which is an alarming sign for any football club. The football clubs can use different marketing and promotional methods to promote their brand. For that purpose, use of a mixed strategy with variety of tools can be extremely beneficial ( View, 2016)

        The Arsenal has realized the importance of a comprehensive and well planned media strategy to achieve its set marketing goals and objectives. There was a time, when football clubs uses to be focused for their 90 minutes of play, but it is not the case anymore. There are so many things attached to a football club as they have become huge brands. So, Arsenal should understand that playing football is not the only thing to be focused; rather they also have to focus on their marketing & media strategy, events, retail, sponsorships etc. The Arsenal knows that these elements are important for their overall success on all levels. The most important part of the marketing strategy is to reach the target as well as potential audience with best possible manners. Different English Premier League clubs have developed a strategy, where they have their own TV channels so that more audience is reached, and more fan base is collected. The Arsenal has identified the potential of online world, so they have a developed channel, which plays through internet. They have developed great content online and matches are streamed online, which allows more fans to connect with Arsenal (Gannon, 2016)

    It is a fact that in recent times, the online world has gained more space in lives of people, so brands as well as organisations have to realize that they cannot ignore this important element in their marketing strategy. The club has made sure that they use the power of social media to engage with fans and achieve its marketing objectives. One good example of this marketing strategy through social media was observed during the club’s tour to Australia in 2017. The club was making an entry into Australia after 40 years, and they make sure that they do it with a style, which attracts the fans. The club included 1^st team players up to 90% in this visit to Australia, and an opening training session of players was organized so that fans can see their favourite players. The best part of their strategy was the effective use of social media platforms. The club engaged with online fans through its Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat official accounts. The live Snapchat video was streamed for the fans, when team of Arsenal was boarding the plane. The club remained active on its Twitter account and tweets were being written to keep fans updated. The Facebook live was another element in their story, which kept fans interested and engaged with the team (Rao, 2017)

The Importance of Social Media Marketing Strategy of the Arsenal Football Club

        For every football club like Arsenal, it is vital to understand that social media marketing strategy is critical for their success in so many ways. If social media is used properly and fans are attracted towards the social media platforms of the club, then things can go in favour of the club. The social media importance is increasing with the passage of time, and it is crucial for football clubs to integrate social media into its marketing objectives and strategy so that more benefits are taken to promote the brand. There may be organisations, which may not need the essence of social media as much as football clubs need, because they have to cover fan base from all parts of the world, and to reach such large target audience, social media is one of the effective tools available (Hurst & Plastiras, 2019)

        The football game can be nothing, if there are no fans, so presence of fans is critical, and it is something, which cannot be ignored at all. But how they should be attracted that they must fill up stadiums as well as show their support other than stadium? For this purpose, the importance of marketing especially through social media channels is vital. Moreover, the job is not an easy thing to handle, because when marketers have to develop a marketing strategy, they develop it on the basis of product. And when they have to alter the strategy, they analyze sales data to see which product has been mostly purchased, or which product has been liked by the consumers. But no such data is available, when marketing strategy is developed for the football club like Arsenal. However, the engagement with fans can be important to get their attraction, and football clubs can also raise their level of performance with renowned players. Their performance with good players can provide indication that how marketing strategy should be developed, but still, the information is not good enough, which makes life difficult for the marketers (Berkel , 2013)

The Business Practices of Football Clubs

        There was a time, when football was just a game, and it was not considered a business of any sorts. But dynamics have changed so much and things have become more business oriented, even the sports. The football has become a big industry especially with the essence of football clubs and different leagues played around the world. The intensity and rivalry in these club and league games have been amazing, and fans have been observed to take part in every move of their team and favourite players. The football industry has to face various strategic challenges, because industry is not like any other consumer goods industry, where business practices are simple in terms of making marketing strategy for products. But football industry does not come up with these types of products, and their marketing objectives are also different from other organisations. A conventional organisation may have a marketing objective to increase sales and revenues by promoting and marketing products to target customers. But football clubs in football industry do not have any such thing to market, rather they have to market and promote their teams to the target and potential football audience, who are fans of this great game. It clearly means that business practices of the football industry are quite different from the traditional business (Cross & Henderson, 2003)

The Legal Factors Affecting Football Clubs and Business

        The global football industry has become a huge success and it has also come up with various issues as well. Some of these issues are connected with the legal factors, which can create issues for the industry as well as football clubs. The football clubs are involved in financial and commercial agreements with other business organisations, but they are also involved in with such agreements with players as well. Moreover, the promotional and sponsor agreements are also made, which means that things can be under the legal framework, if something happens against the law. The law will take its courses, if there is any breach of contract etc. That’s why football industry and football clubs should always remain careful in making any partnerships with other sponsors (Cohen, 2010)

Conclusion of the Arsenal Football Club

        It can be concluded in the end that Arsenal Football Club is one of the renowned football clubs in the world. It has been able to gain so much success over the years since its start in 1886. It is not an easy thing for any organisation or football club to exist like this with such much consistent success over a long period of time, but Arsenal has been able to do so with its great marketing and promotional strategy. The club has been making valid changes to its marketing strategy and things have been kept on right track. The business practices in the football industry have not been easy to understand like in any other industry, as there is no presence of products, rather there are teams, which have to gain popularity amongst audience. The legal framework is also an issue for these clubs, because one wrong move can cost millions of dollars, if they breach any contract with the players, sponsors or other organisations.

 References of the Arsenal Football Club

View, A. (2016). Sports Team Promotion – 6 Ideas to Promote Your Club. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from https://www.themeboy.com/blog/sports-team-promotion-ideas/

Arsenal.com. (2010). LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from https://www.arsenal.com/history/laying-the-foundations

Berkel , T. v. (2013). An interview with Charles Allen - Head of Marketing at Arsenal FC. Retrieved may 28, 2019, from https://www.sport-netwerk.nl/nieuwsoverzicht/176_an_interview_with_charles_allen_-_head_of_marketing_at_arsenal_fc

Cohen, J. (2010). A guide to the key legal issues in the football transfer window. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/features/item/a-guide-to-the-key-legal-issues-in-the-football-transfer-window

Cross, J., & Henderson, S. (2003). Strategic challenges in the football business: a SPACE analysis. Strategic Change, 12(8), 409 - 420.

Gannon, S. (2016). Comprehensive media strategy: how Arsenal scores with its loyal fans. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from http://aframe.com/blog/2016/02/comprehensive-media-strategy-how-arsenal-scores-with-its-loyal-fans/

Hurst, C., & Plastiras, A. (2019). THE RISING IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR FOOTBALL CLUBS. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from https://nielsensports.com/rising-importance-social-media-football-clubs/

Rao, B. (2017). How Arsenal FC aced its social media strategy to win over fans during it's tour of Australia. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-arsenal-fc-aced-its-social-media-strategy-win-over-bhushan-rao

Tesseras, L. (2013). CMO Masterclass: Arsenal FC. Retrieved May 28, 2019, from https://www.marketingweek.com/2013/09/04/cmo-masterclass-arsenal-fc/

Vrontis, D., Thrassou, A., Kartakoullis, N. L., & Kriemadis, T. (2014). Strategic marketing planning for football clubs: a value-based analysi. J. Global Business Advancement, 7(4).