The ambitious plan comes after the club's prospective new owners, Abu Dhabi United Group, reached a deal to buy the club last week and on the same day broke the British transfer record when they paid Real Madrid £32.5m for Brazilian footballer Robinho.
The royal family of Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich Gulf state, are close to completing a £200m takeover of City and are keen to leverage the Premier League's overseas popularity using Richard Branson's Virgin empire as an inspiration.
The plans have been outlined in an 83-page document called 'A New Model for Partnership in Football', which reveals a strategy that would lead to a significant rebranding and tap into markets as wide-ranging as financial services, fashion, retail, transport, communications and the food industry.
The document boldly states that the club should aim "to be the Virgin of Asia and the world".
Some of the ideas include deals with Tata, the Indian car manufacturer, for 'Citycars' and China Mobile for City branded phone cards, a range of new energy drinks by Red Bull called 'City Powered', 'City Energy' and 'City 24/7'.
Others include food outlets under the name 'City Eating' and a range of credit cards dubbed 'Citycard'.
It is unclear whether any of the companies mentioned have been approached by the ruling Al-Nahyan family of Abu Dhabi and Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim, the prominent Middle East businessman fronting the takeover.
Comments
what a fucking joke.
i think i might start supporting teams in the conference. at least thats about the game. all these outside investors are ruining clubs.
I just can't see this working. Is the fan base really that big? To rival Virgin they would need to leverage the fan base and this does work well in financial services etc but could then find it getting in the way of ultimately growing the business.
I do think the name City could work across diverse products and services though.
to me, devotion to a soccer team is a religious belief. when religion is commercialized......OMG!
Its crazy....and makes no business sense ......right now you have a demographic/fanbase of 60% of the males in Manchester, the Asian/middle east markets are already tied up by liverpool and man utd......what they need first is years of success brefore the conquor the world, but until then i hardly think the current fan base will be massive cash cow!!!
Clearly deluded if they think they can stretch the brand that far. I travel to Asia a lot and never once have I come accross one Man City Fan. I doubt many poeple there even know who the club are let alone support them. Sad day for football when they bought City.
crazy behaviour. will the performance of the team define the brand values then?
more fuel for Alan Green and co on 5Live. Gary Cook \(ex Nike, now at City) is their favourite example of how football is purely commercial nonsense these days so they'll greet this with glee.
It's not going to happen - the club can pay £50m+ on any number of mercenary footballers, but it can't just convince billions of people to buy into a dodgy 'brand' with some shiny new energy drink. This is a team which was languishing in the third rung of English football with Macclesfield Town less than a decade ago. Embarrassing stuff.
g - 09/09/2008
massive club...
a massive club that could do with a new drink eh "mike ashleys loonie toon non alcoholic lager".
dragons den here i come...
City are a big club. When they were languishing in the old third, they still drew massive crowds, bigger crowds than Newcastle had in the old second division. I say good luck to them and thanks for Corluka. Anyone who complains the Premier League and its clubs are being screwed by foreign ownership is later than a deadline day transfer. Up the Spurs.
The only way I can see it working is if they keep the brand and the football separate. I think long-term competition for Virgin is healthy, particularly with a bankroll of something like £500bn if those rumours are true.
The closer they position the brand to the club \(blue packaging, club logo etc), the less people will buy into it in my opinion. A Darius Vassell-branded energy drink is surely too big a contradiction in terms for it to ever work.
I'd maybe go for a protein sheikh though.....
g - 09/09/2008
their 3rd division crowds are no match for that of Leeds. now THERE'S a massive club.
I can see it now: LUFCredit. awesome.
Not sure how Spurs have merited a mention in this thread discussing global brands, Darren. As for City, of course they can become the biggest club in the world - it's a sad truth, but money dictates success in football. Always has, and unless they introduce a salary cap, always will...
Ha ha. Spurs are very popular in Scandinavia I'll have you know. As for football clubs with an eye on global domination, I know one pretender that didn't sign Robinho, Ed. Agree that City can become the biggest club overseas, in the UK and Manchester. As every Chelsea and Man Utd fan knows - money can buy you success. Clubs have always risen and fallen and the sort of money being talked about in connection with City can get them there in the modern era. I'm not sure that a salary cap would make much difference though. It hasn't in the AFL and Brussels would kill it off before it could happen.
Comments
Graeme Longstaff - 09/09/2008
what a fucking joke. i think i might start supporting teams in the conference. at least thats about the game. all these outside investors are ruining clubs.
Lindsay Smyth - 09/09/2008
I just can't see this working. Is the fan base really that big? To rival Virgin they would need to leverage the fan base and this does work well in financial services etc but could then find it getting in the way of ultimately growing the business. I do think the name City could work across diverse products and services though.
Anna Chu - 09/09/2008
to me, devotion to a soccer team is a religious belief. when religion is commercialized......OMG!
Andy Levis - 09/09/2008
Its crazy....and makes no business sense ......right now you have a demographic/fanbase of 60% of the males in Manchester, the Asian/middle east markets are already tied up by liverpool and man utd......what they need first is years of success brefore the conquor the world, but until then i hardly think the current fan base will be massive cash cow!!!
Kelly Farrell - 09/09/2008
Clearly deluded if they think they can stretch the brand that far. I travel to Asia a lot and never once have I come accross one Man City Fan. I doubt many poeple there even know who the club are let alone support them. Sad day for football when they bought City.
johnny rambleton - 09/09/2008
crazy behaviour. will the performance of the team define the brand values then? more fuel for Alan Green and co on 5Live. Gary Cook \(ex Nike, now at City) is their favourite example of how football is purely commercial nonsense these days so they'll greet this with glee.
Alex Brownsell - 09/09/2008
It's not going to happen - the club can pay £50m+ on any number of mercenary footballers, but it can't just convince billions of people to buy into a dodgy 'brand' with some shiny new energy drink. This is a team which was languishing in the third rung of English football with Macclesfield Town less than a decade ago. Embarrassing stuff.
g - 09/09/2008
massive club...
Graeme Longstaff - 09/09/2008
a massive club that could do with a new drink eh "mike ashleys loonie toon non alcoholic lager". dragons den here i come...
Darren Davidson - 09/09/2008
City are a big club. When they were languishing in the old third, they still drew massive crowds, bigger crowds than Newcastle had in the old second division. I say good luck to them and thanks for Corluka. Anyone who complains the Premier League and its clubs are being screwed by foreign ownership is later than a deadline day transfer. Up the Spurs.
David Corlett - 09/09/2008
The only way I can see it working is if they keep the brand and the football separate. I think long-term competition for Virgin is healthy, particularly with a bankroll of something like £500bn if those rumours are true. The closer they position the brand to the club \(blue packaging, club logo etc), the less people will buy into it in my opinion. A Darius Vassell-branded energy drink is surely too big a contradiction in terms for it to ever work. I'd maybe go for a protein sheikh though.....
g - 09/09/2008
their 3rd division crowds are no match for that of Leeds. now THERE'S a massive club. I can see it now: LUFCredit. awesome.
Ed Kemp - 09/09/2008
Not sure how Spurs have merited a mention in this thread discussing global brands, Darren. As for City, of course they can become the biggest club in the world - it's a sad truth, but money dictates success in football. Always has, and unless they introduce a salary cap, always will...
Darren Davidson - 09/09/2008
Ha ha. Spurs are very popular in Scandinavia I'll have you know. As for football clubs with an eye on global domination, I know one pretender that didn't sign Robinho, Ed. Agree that City can become the biggest club overseas, in the UK and Manchester. As every Chelsea and Man Utd fan knows - money can buy you success. Clubs have always risen and fallen and the sort of money being talked about in connection with City can get them there in the modern era. I'm not sure that a salary cap would make much difference though. It hasn't in the AFL and Brussels would kill it off before it could happen.