Fc Barcelona - the Challenges of Going Global

The Challenges of Going Global

Hans Gamper, a Swiss national relocated to Barcelona, founded FC Barcelona (FCB) in 1899 together with a few local football players. FC Barcelona is also known as Barça or Blaugranas and their fans go under the name of Culés. Nowadays, the club has teams in a number of sports such as basketball, hockey, handball, futsal, baseball, volleyball and athletics etc^[a].

After the Spanish Civil War, Catalan institutions where forbidden by the Fascist regime which resulted in the FCB becoming a symbol of freedom, Catalan identity, and democracy. Accordingly, the slogan of FCB, “More than just a club”, was coined due to the symbolism that the club represents to its followers. Today, FCB is pursuing a strategy of becoming a global known team^[b]. However, in order to internationalize the FCB brand, they are facing a number of challenges. We believe the most crucial are:

• The need to deliver a global brand image and message, conveying its values and commitment to social responsibility in the world. In other words, the need to convey the meaning of “More than just a club” in a way that can be related to in the same way that Spanish people do. ^[c]
• Decide on how to go global - which markets to enter, which strategies to use, whether short-or long term results should be prioritized.
• The negotiation with foreign broadcast media – i.e. to be able to broadcast the matches in real time.
• The issues of merchandising - where to open new stores, what kind of stores and how to avoid copycats.

Leveraging the UNICEF Brand

The sponsoring of UNICEF will, first of all, ^[d]enable FCB to deliver a brand message that is understood and applicable on a global scale. Social commitment has been one of the main pillars of FC Barcelona’s values since the establishment of the club. However, the relevance of this value and its application is connected to Spanish modern history and, as such, more recognized within Spain. During Franco’s dictatorship, the club gained a high popularity due to its commitment to democracy and freedom. Individuals found refuge within the club and were able to freely develop their ideas. FCB defined itself as being ‘more than just a club’^[e]. Nevertheless, this image has no real meaning to fans abroad who don’t identify themselves with Spanish history or are not familiar with it. Through the partnership with UNICEF, FCB can convey its brand message of being ‘more than just a club’ and have stronger and more international significance. By partnering with UNICEF, the club communicates its value for solidarity, showing its support for the long-term development of children and communities as well as the promotion of youth sports through projects worldwide. The underlying rationale is that UNICEF’s work is internationally well- known, resulting in fans being able to relate to the club’s values.

Furthermore, working together with UNICEF could also increase FCB’s credibility abroad and facilitate contracts with additional potential sponsors as well as establish relationships with media which is crucial for football clubs to spread their image.

In addition, the partnership offers a key point of differentiation with competing football clubs in terms of sponsorship agreements. FCB represents the only club paying 1.5 million Euros a year to include the logo of such a sponsor on the team’s shirts. Other top football clubs in Europe earn on the other hand large sums of revenue (between 20 and 25 million Euros) per year by displaying a commercial company’s logo. This characteristic shows that FC Barcelona’s commitment is real and of high importance to the club. Thus, it can build upon this commitment to create a distinct brand image worldwide.

In conclusion, even though the club might be giving up on revenue opportunities, we believe that this sponsorship will allow the club to build a stronger worldwide brand image by focusing on a more global, reliable and authentic brand message.

Entering the Chinese Market

We believe that FCB should focus mainly on the Chinese market for the following reasons:

• The size of the Chinese population constitutes a huge potential market
• The most followed sport in China is football
• The degree of domestic competition is low
• The Chinese supporters’ interest for local teams is low

China is the most populated country in the world with a population of 1.3 billion.  The GDP of the country has been increasing steadily at an average percentage of 11.4 percent in the 2006-2009 period.^[1] This indicates that the number of Chinese that are able to spend an increasing amount of money is growing, part of the money which can be used to buy the merchandise from their favourite team.  The U.S., on the other hand, represents a developed market where the purchasing power of the single supporter is higher compared to the Chinese supporter. However, it must be taken into consideration that football competes with several other sports that are well rooted and at least as ^[f]popular. Some examples of the sports that football competes with and that, in our opinion, could be considered as substitutes ^[g]are basketball (NBA), hockey (NHL), American football (NFL) and baseball (MLB).