MBS Events
Football, Fashion and Music - Where Will the Next Global Brand Come From?
In conversation with Colin Henry, Paul Morrison, Stephen Marks, David James, Simon Wright and Keith Edelman
Wed May 19, 2004
| Haunch of Venison, London
Haunch of Venison art gallery, surrounded by previously-unseen Andy Warhol drawings is an unusually contemporary and directional venue for a discussion with a group of six highly influential panelists including the England No. 1 and the MD of Arsenal. The audience is made up of high-powered movers and shakers at the 10th MBS Group event. The panelists from the world of music, fashion and football acknowledge the unconventional setting but are keen to talk, so it’s not long before they’re seriously discussing the issues concerning what makes a global brand. The lynchpin of the evening is the FCUK brand, because Stephen Marks has made a virtue of understanding what young people want. And so the discussion kicks off with a question directed at him: “Why does a fashion brand launch a radio station, FCUK-FM and have Robert Pires from Arsenal launch it?”
Communication with customers is what this phenomenon is all about, according to Stephen Marks. “Retailing is entertainment. It’s a question of grabbing people’s attention. If you flicked through Vogue and I asked you ‘which adverts do you like?’ it’s unlikely that you’d remember them. Most advertising works by pouring in loads of money and piling up impressions so that eventually it has an impact. But the clever people make a point of doing something that is really special – something that is credible and catches the imagination”.
As the discussion gets under way, the group turns to the fact that kids just don’t buy CDs anymore: they are downloading and turning from DJs into MP3Js overnight. “Who allowed Apple to become a music brand?”, asks Paul Morrison from Done and Dusted.
Simon Wright, the Chief Executive of Virgin Entertainment, says stores need to exude youthful energy: “You have to connect very clearly with a youth audience, particularly in music, and the rest of the market will follow you. If you’re not connected to the youth market, whether you’re a music store or a record company, you’re probably going to have a threatened future.”
He goes on to explain how this has influenced Virgin’s customer offer: “A few years ago music retailers were trying to make their stores more suitable for a mature audience, as the average age of the music customer was getting older and older. Now my view has completely changed. People want stores that are vibrant and youthful”.
“We’re way, way ahead of any brand”, says Keith Edelman, Arsenal’s Managing Director. “Football is a 21st Century religion.” Stephen Marks says, “People today have very short attention spans”. That’s where, according to Keith Edelman, football is different: “You don’t change sides, you stick with it, whether the team is doing badly or not. And they give us 100% of their expenditure. That’s something retailers would die for. We won’t lose them – ever!” Colin Henry asks whether that would change if David Beckham went to Chelsea. “No chance!” growls Arsenal fan Stephen Marks.
Dolce and Gabbana claim that fashion and football, once barely connected, have finally met: “Today’s players are the true entertainers of our time, modern day gladiators.”
There is another reason why, in Keith Edelman’s words, football is so phenomenally powerful: the sheer scale of its following. He says: “When we played Manchester United in the semi-final of the FA Cup, we had a worldwide audience of 1.2 billion, that’s a huge figure”. Fashion and music are using football to talk to customers across cultures: “It has spread across the world now”, says Simon Wright. “We’ve got stores in France, Japan, Australia and America. I encourage our store managers to email me, to let me know what’s going on in their market, what the customers are talking about. I get more messages about the Premiership than anything else!”
What about the footballers themselves? David James, the England goalkeeper, clearly has his doubts. “Footballers can be brands,” he says, “but David Beckham’s position is unique. Any other footballer who tried to survive on his own, outside the sport, would struggle.”
“Hitching a commercial brand onto music or a sport can be a high-risk strategy,” says Colin Henry, Umbro International’s President of Clothing. David James agrees: “It’s David Beckham’s individual style that made him the fashion icon he is. But when you sign on to specific label you become part of the business. It means that his individuality, which is his appeal, is taken away from him.”
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