Marketing, branding, and revenue generation in Zambian football

Zambian clubs are growing tremendously but despite the continued growth, they have created and left loopholes that need to be amended.

There is continued growth on the pitch with some good performances that have seen the country continue to maintain four in the CAF club competitions, and good salaries for players but still on the marketing front clubs are just dragging their feet.

MARKETING

Refers to the activity a company (in this case a club) undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product or service and this can be done through advertisements, selling merchandise, and delivering products to consumers.

THE CASE OF ZAMBIAN CLUBS

Zambian clubs with exception of a few are not doing well marketing-wise. It is difficult to know match day venues, ticket prices and where to buy tickets, how to meet and know club players.

Let’s pick out ZANACO and ZESCO United who have started doing something about this problem as they now have club websites where fans can access vital information, Green Eagles is another club that is doing well in terms of wanting to generate revenue and create a brand through Green Eagles mineral water, a bottled water product which is sold at match events but still, others are lacking behind and even those doing something visible are not yet there but they have shown good initiatives and it’s time others also wake up from their slumber and start making things work on the marketing front.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

Marketing is a strategy that should be thought through and takes a long time to implement. Zambian clubs can’t start putting to action everything at once.

The clubs need to do small things like making match day information, player news, and anything of that nature available to the fans through Social media and websites then keeps growing.

EVENTS

Zambian clubs need to start having monthly events that fans should pay some amount to attend. Let’s take, for example, clubs to introduce ‘chat with your stars’ a dinner event. Clubs can invite fans to such events at a small cost to create a friendly environment for fans with club members and put the cost at k200 each and let’s say 150 fans attend, meaning the club will make k30,000 then maybe we remove k20,000 for the costs to host the event, meaning the club will make K10,000 profit just in this area and multiply by 12 months meaning the club will have k120,000 a year.

Then going forward, the club adds other things like VIP and VVIP segments to grow the idea and this will mean the club can start making more than k300,000 per annum. And imagine one small area making k300,000 per annum, a good sum for a club to grow financially.

Another idea can be introducing what common people like, e.g aerobics. Clubs can start holding such events monthly and to reduce the cost, they can be holding such events at their stadiums and charge maybe K30 for attendance of which clubs can realize k 12,000 to which per annum can be k144,000.

CLUB TV

Clubs should think broadly and partner with other companies like Amazon on the Amazon Prime where fans can be paying to watch club matches like the way clubs such as Liverpool, arsenal, etc are doing it. Yes, Competitive matches are on a pay channel but fans love clubs and everything to do with them hence even training videos and friendly matches they would be willing to pay a small amount to watch.

Clubs can have alternatives where fans can watch live matches at a small fee. Let’s say each match will be costing k2 and for example how big the Nkana brand where more than 5000 fans can be watching, meaning Nkana can make k10,000 per match and more than k40,000 per month which can translate to k340,000 the whole season where a club plays 34 matches. Another area clubs need to look into as a viable source of income.

PRE-SALES TICKETS

Clubs need to start selling tickets before the match day and not only at match venues. Some people don’t like spending a long time standing in the queue and go through the stampede of buying tickets which happens at match venues and this has made many fans stay back.

Clubs need to offer the comfort of the fans and allow them to enter match venues at their own time, how can clubs do this? simple. Clubs can partner with Shoprite and allow fans to buy tickets there like it happens when Zambia is playing, the only Shoprite but other supermarkets and known business shops.

Clubs can also learn from Zambian musicians who have opened an online music store called mvesesani where their fans can purchase music anytime. Why not our clubs open an online ticket store and allow fans to buy tickets from there and make tickets at pre-sale slightly cheaper than at the match venue to promote the trend. This will and can increase match attendance.

CLUB WEBSITE

Clubs need to grow their brands and one platform this can be achieved is through club websites where fans can find relevant information, player profiles, interviews, etc. This can help the club grow as people will have more information and this can make a lot of people start following the club which will result in the club growing its fanbase. A bigger fanbase means more fans and more fans means more money.

Another thing can be mineral water branding like the way Green Eagles are doing it. Otherwise, clubs have the potential of generating k2,000,000 per annum just from what has been mentioned above, and these are just a few ideas.