Analysis Rebranding

[Lore]

i think basically we are on the same side of the argument here - the chase for money has sucked us dry of any meaning... I was whinging about the esports team, the continued use of pokies, all that stuff, rebuttal was always, we need new revenue streams to compete. Eventually somebody has to realise all the money in the world cant buy culture. Culture is earned over time by continued behavior. If we want to be a money hungry club, guess what, that's what we will be, a hollow fat pig at the trough nuzzling away... all the while, while our nose is in the trough we lose sight of what is really needed or required.

Further id argue our fans are fickle - ive never seen a fan base so quick to turn on their own - its disgusting. Your measure of fans sticking fat is because they rock up to games, I think that's just a direct result of the hope selling which I already explained is an untenable Ponzi scheme, eventually when you don't come with the goods it all falls flat. Crucially our club is probably the way it is because of the fickleness of the fans - fans whinge and moan and bey.. club reacts by selling more hope, fans expect success from the hope sell, beys, club sells the farm more to produce hope, fans expect success, on and on it goes... until you have cut corners on a supplements scheme.. or sold your precious first round draft picks for magic beans. But we won trade week three years running! We are winners still...

But this brings me to the most crucial point - we didn't sell our soul by going to the dome, it happened before that by going to the g! ...the almighty dollar trumped all, again.

The only way to have a real brand is to have your own ground imo.

The clubs all shat the bed, clearly the AFL wanted/wants 18 homogenous clubs, they are far easier to control that way..just templates with different colours , all playing out of the same two grounds, just change the badge each week and its your home round.. pfft, its not.

Look at the premier league, those grounds are fortresses, you know when you play away you are going to cop hell... your clubs history and culture is tangible, its right there.. everything that the club is, or was, is on the very ground you still reside at. You have volunteers manning the gates, all club people, building more bonds of culture, you get your own food vendors, local supply, more bonds.. that's what makes clubs!

We all envy Geelong, this is why.

They are the only ones that have what we all used to have...but sold it, for what? 20k extra seats? poor deal.

id take a 40k capacity, a must have ticket - that almost gives you 10 home wins a season and entry into the finals...

do you reckon if given the chance the clubs would all go back to their suburban fortresses? taken the power back off the empire?

look how fun it was for tottenham to build their own stadium - every little detail is theirs, club colours, club legend bars - a place to be proud of.

I know its not happening, its too far gone - but that was the beginning of the end of unique club cultures and the AFL slowly mashing all clubs into cookie cutters to suit their needs

Is that an Essendon issue or an AFL issue? The interstate clubs share their home grounds as well.

And if changing the badge is so heinous, and being at the G so bad for culture... well I have to wonder how you agree with the OP at all.

 

[Howard Moon]

Is that an Essendon issue or an AFL issue? The interstate clubs share their home grounds as well.

And if changing the badge is so heinous, and being at the G so bad for culture... well I have to wonder how you agree with the OP at all.

my agreeance (as I said agree to an extent) came from our issue being money chasing over all else. The root cause.

I also didn't say changing a badge was heinous, I said it doesn't mean anything if its just optics and a faux makeover

 

[jmoo wan]

And we have done a full review and in recent years 80 percent of the staff have been turned over.

hmmmm.... why are we no good at retaining key talent? WE need a ground up review.

 

[Lore]

my agreeance (as I said agree to an extent) came from our issue being money chasing over all else. The root cause.

I also didn't say changing a badge was heinous, I said it doesn't mean anything if its just optics and a faux makeover

Heinous is my word. Quoting you verbatim would have taken a while

But ya optics and faux makeover is pretty much the crux of it.

I don’t think we’re quite as money hungry as we might be though. Forgoing naming rights on the facilities and creating an identity for our new home is an example of that. I think we still got money from coteries rather than sponsorship but it’s in the right direction.

Perhaps the selling hope thing is more about getting sponsors on board to foot the bill for facilities expansion? . R&D aren’t really a bad investment for a football club driving for success.

 

[Howard Moon]

Heinous is my word. Quoting you verbatim would have taken a while

But ya optics and faux makeover is pretty much the crux of it.

I don’t think we’re quite as money hungry as we might be though. Forgoing naming rights on the facilities and creating an identity for our new home is an example of that. I think we still got money from coteries rather than sponsorship but it’s in the right direction.

Perhaps the selling hope thing is more about getting sponsors on board to foot the bill for facilities expansion? . R&D aren’t really a bad investment for a football club driving for success.

get the coteries to foot the bill, they run the club anyway ;P

 

[Howard Moon]

the more I think about it JayJ20 .....

in most other big leagues in the world there is a design in the competition that punishes poor behavior, poor play, and it nearly forces the club to a meaningful rebrand every time. Its called promotion/relegation.

Say we got done by wada - and our punishment was relegation to the vfl or another minor league - it nearly forces you to go back to grass roots, engage with your fan base, change things up to get better - its a truer way of rebrandning and rebuilding from the ground up.

we have a fixed competition where you don't get punished enough for poor behavior, you actually get rewarded! (draft picks)

same in the a-league, there is no incentive to get better, because you know you cant drop.. so you get teams down the bottom continuing to just fly forward, they don't care of they ship 5 goals as long as they score 3. ill bet if they knew they were going down they would tighten up pretty fast and care if they lost!

Juve may be a bad example (corrupt league?) but they got done for bad practice not too dissimilar to us, got shunted down a couple of divisions - worked their way back up to the big time and have won the scudetto repeatedly.

anyhow, don't know where I was heading with this, maybe the saga was an opportunity to rebrand, but because we had no relegation for an organic rebrand/rebuild we were able to continue with same old

 

[JayJ20]

I agree with many of your perspectives Howard Moon and we are arguing the same points for the most part. In an ideal competition, we'd all keep our home grounds and establish a true home ground advantage, build an identity from the ground and have an EPL feel about it. The move to the MCG was logical IMO as everyone had to leave the suburban grounds to adapt to the modern era of our competition (except Geelong for obvious reasons). That was a change we had to have. It was a bold move, but a successful move. Windy Hill would have stunted our growth. Instead of sticking to tradition, we recognised the need to change. It was also logical to have the home of football as your home ground to gain an advantage on your competitors. But the move to Docklands wasn't necessary. It wasn't logical. It wasn't a football decision. It wasn't for any benefit except money. Money was the driving factor for the move. And to me, that was the change of mindset that led to our demise. Ever since, our lack of making necessary changes kept us bathing in previous successes. Most decisions are driven by bettering our financial position.

All of this is my opinion of course. I just think we need start over again as a club.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Bring back sheeds. Create a new blockbuster - an Aged Care game at the G on a Wednesday at midday against Hawthorn. Free iced vovos.

In all seriousness, when you're talking about the benefits of a new marketing approach - are you really talking about an updated strategy coming from the board? I think that's what you really want. Branding change might be a flow on from that, but you're really talking about a shift in organisational priorities I reckon.

Ironically, the mindset everyone here is craving ("Whatever it takes") was being demanded / realised in the first supplements year. Things had slid between 2002 and 2010 but when we were 8-1 in mid 2012 it really looked like we had really regained that ruthlessness and will to win.

Ahh the saga. I think still all comes back to the saga. We want to move on, we want to think forward, but the ghosts are still pretty real and it's all still playing out I reckon, for players, back room staff and fans alike.

 

[Shanghaistu]

Ahh the saga. I think still all comes back to the saga. We want to move on, we want to think forward, but the ghosts are still pretty real and it's all still playing out I reckon, for players, back room staff and fans alike.

I think that’s hit the nail-on-the-head. The trial-by-media and WADA punishments may be over, but there’s still a lot of residual to work through internally that may take years, especially the kid-glove handling of senior players that were affected, either by missing the season or staying throughout the whole mess. This may still take some time to work through and I do get it, but I’m angry that the club denies it and consistently continues to talk up short-term success when reality is it will take more years and draft picks and clean up to really get there

 

[Howard Moon]

Bring back sheeds. Create a new blockbuster - an Aged Care game at the G on a Wednesday at midday against Hawthorn. Free iced vovos.

In all seriousness, when you're talking about the benefits of a new marketing approach - should you really talking about an updated strategy coming from the board? I think that's what you really want. Branding change might be a flow on from that, but you're really talking about a shift in organisational priorities I reckon.

Ironically, the mindset everyone here is craving ("Whatever it takes") was being demanded / realised in the first supplements year. Things had slid between 2002 and 2010 but when we were 8-1 in mid 2012 it really looked like we had really regained that ruthlessness and will to win.

Ahh the saga. I think still all comes back to the saga. We want to move on, we want to think forward, but the ghosts are still pretty real and it's all still playing out I reckon, for players, back room staff and fans alike.

the cruel irony is we crumble under the pressure of block busters yet continually sign up to play more and more of them.... sordid much?

 

[ant555]

I will say this. Rebranding will not turn the form of Francis and give him the confidence to start marking it again. It will not stop Razz getting soft tissue injuries or Laverde breaking down every year. It will not stop Walla from falling over all the time. It will not repair smacks hamstring. It will not change our coffee club leadership group either unless they all get moved on and that is not going to happen.

 

[fairbump_playon]

the cruel irony is we crumble under the pressure of block busters yet continually sign up to play more and more of them.... sordid much?

Great point. Perhaps we should symbolically offer a more crumbly free biscuit for the Aged Care Game...

Shortbread perhaps? That would align well with our tiny midfield.

Our leadership group could wander the stands serving them with tea during the game.
(The shortbread - not the midfielders).

 

[tandino]

It's an interesting topic.

I had reason to be out at the airport today and decided to swing around and check out the new digs.

From afar it's not much to look at but it's an impressive and imposing facility up close. Huge building with one immaculate oval and one that's almost there. Nobody was out on the track but it doesn't look like they want for much out there.

I love Windy Hill, but it's clear even if the bowling club moved out that it's not up to the standard of a professional training facility in this day and age. Culture is important, but it can hold you back.

 

[WindyHillZephyr]

If we did a rebrand we should consult a psychologist on jumper design so it subliminaly guides the umpires to give us the 50/50 decisions. The current jumper (love it) doesnt seem to work.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

On rebranding, the other thing to remember is it’s bloody expensive for any organisation. Just think how many things, from tiny (business cards) to enormous (The Hangar), have our logo on them.

We’ve had some debt to clear, its understandable it hasn’t been a priority. It may happen in the coming years.

 

[Doss]

Our logo is tired, yes, but changing it isn't going to fix our myriad other issues.

 

[Howard Moon]

get these guys in, stat!

 

[BrunoV]

I was thinking we could rebrand ourselves as jihadi bombers.

They're really dedicated to the cause, sacrificing themselves for the greater good. The sort of thing lacking at EFC.

It also works trolling just about every group of people in society.

Not sure what the symbol should be. Maybe the twin towers midcollapse.

 

[Howard Moon]

I was thinking we could rebrand ourselves as jihadi bombers.

They're really dedicated to the cause, sacrificing themselves for the greater good. The sort of thing lacking as EFC.

It also works trolling just about every group of people in society.

Not sure what the symbol should be. Maybe the twin towers midcollapse.

you don't get many repeat efforts out of them tho.. well the successful ones anyway

 

[VelvetSledge]

We've had the current logo since 1997, and while it won't change how the club performs on game day, I'm always keen on refreshing things every now and then.

22 years is a long time, and while the Bomber is iconic, it's a little tired nowadays. I don't know if the club would be keen to explore the idea of a monogram, but if they were to go ahead, this would be the best one.

 

[JayJ20]

I know a lot of people hated this idea, but I still think this is what we need. We're tired as a club. We need a fresh logo, a change of home ground, a new coach and big trades to freshen up the list. We need to do things differently as a club.

Cut the Marvel experiment. MCG is where finals are played.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

I know a lot of people hated this idea, but I still think this is what we need. We're tired as a club. We need a fresh logo, a change of home ground, a new coach and big trades to freshen up the list.

Two of these things are reasonable ideas and two of them are no better than changing the curtains.