BRANDING: the key to success in the cut-throat modern marketplace. Ask any switched-on businessman in any field from fashion to football and they will tell you the power of a product to be instantly recognised among its rivals in a hectic hard-sell shopfront scrum is paramount to on-going success and expansion.
The ability of a simple, unique visual device to short-circuit the bewildering array of ‘lifestyle choices’ and stamp a definable image in the sub-conscious is key in the battle for the hearts and minds of the consumer. A distinct logo helps build an identity, develop loyalty from existing customers and entice new ones. It allows ‘synergy’, the cross promotion of a wide range of products and services under the same brand name. That’s why companies pay slick spin-doctors and image consultants fortunes in a bid to replicate the almost mystical global market pulling power of the three stripes of Adidas or the Nike swoosh.
So it has always astounded me that when a company has just such a visible and instantly recognisable device on their hands they should fail to maximise its branding potential. Boro have just that: the white chest band across a red shirt - and they are ready to scrap it.
Strong whispers from within the club suggest that next season's kit will drop the popular white band and return to the identikit army of lower league teams in plain red tops. Club chiefs are flicking through the Errea catalogue now and are minded to switch to a mainly red shirt from one of the templates on offer.
For some in the club that will be a return to tradition. There was resistance from high up in the club to the popular clamour for the white band three years ago and an insistence that historically Boro wear plain red. Calculated by the number of season the team turned out in plain red against the years when there were bands, bids and epualettes that may well be true but in terms of self-identity, media recognition and branding the plain red is an own goal.
The simple chest band design - although historically it may not have been the most frequently used - is the one most vividly associated with the club by the majority of supporters.
Red hot iron, white hot steel. It is a symbolic colour scheme to unite the Teesside crowd. Every straw poll throws up the same response: the fans favoured home strip design is one with a white chest band. The most-wanted away strip is harder to call as there is not such an obvious historic emotional template but generally the old blue and black stripes has the edge.
Maybe there is an element of rose-tinted nostalgia involved in calls for a revival of the chest band - but sentiment is a powerful marketing tool. Not as powerful though, or as easy to adapt to modern marketing needs, as the vibrant colour and simplicity of a design with real impact.
The red shirt with white chest band is a unique ensemble in English football that is instantly recognisable across the country. And beyond. The design is simple. And that’s a good thing. A child could reproduce it accurately and quickly and it would not just be a proud parent that could approvingly identify the subject matter. It stands out proudly from the crowd - and from a distance. Even in grainy black and white tabloid pictures the design leaps from the page.
Plus with the white chest band Boro are not just another one of an Identikit army of sub-Liverpool wannabees. Wearing an ersatz Anfield ensemble or in mock Man U mode, they could just as easily be a nondescript Barnsley or Charlton Athletic or Bristol City.
Perhaps more crucially, in a world increasingly driven by the bottom line, the design is easily adapted for use when co-opting other arenas to advertise the product. It has easily been adapted by MFC Retail in shifting the mugs and flags and leisure wear to boost club income.
The image of the white chest band is burned indelibly into the psyche of their potential local customer base as being symbolic of success. It was debuted by Charlton's champions, the first period of optimism for a generation. A clumsy nod towards it, the chest bib, was in use when Boro came back from teh brink of liquidation and then went to Wembley for the first time in the ZDS Cup final in 1990 and was reworked at the Riverside for the first time in the 1998 Paul Merson promotion/Coca Cola Cup final campaign.
Crucially it has been the uniform of success as Boro stormed Europe and reached the UEFA Cup final. The white chest band has now been proudly paraded in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Italy and in the final at Eindhoven. It is now the indelible image of the club with a fast rising profile on the continent. The band IS Boro.
Middlesbrough marketing men could not ask for better raw material to work with. Which is why any move to dump the band would be frustrating, counter-productive and unpopular.
The annual search for Boro ‘Babes’ and ‘Boys’ catwalk cognoscenti will soon be launched ready for the Red Book electorate going through the X-Factor rigmarole of choosing a design for next term’s new away strip from a pre-selected short list from the Errea catalogue. The away strip is not so important. A maverick design - and let’s face it, there have been some real mingers over the years - will not so easily arouse the anger of the traditionalists.
But in some crucial ways the problems with the home strip are the same. Prototypes are rattled off by foreign designers with little feel for the history and traditions of the club, who seem more driven by the prevailing fads de rigeur within their company and industry. We have been lucky in recent years when Errea have dallied with such details but such a powerful logo should not be allowed to be swept away in the changing tides of fashion..
The band is design we can call our own and a tremendous aid in the project to reposition the club as a major top-flight and continental power. It reinforces Boro's unique brand and helps to underline the strength of the identity of Boro fans. It stands out from the crowd.
This is not a pop at Errea. Far from it. I don't care for the brand snobbery of thsoe who would sell the club's soul to wear an off the peg number with a little tick on their tit. Whatever the distribution problems, and let's be honest, there have been some, and whatever the criticisms of the deal that restricts sales to club outlets (Hearts have just concluded a similar deal with Umbro and I will return to that in more detail another time) Errea's last three kits have been the best they have produced in their decade long relationship with the Riverside.
The last three season's kits have been stylish and modern but paid respect to the powerful symbol of the past. They have shown how simple it can be to maintain the integrity of the basic design but make refreshing tweaks that play well with the market. They have sold very well.
It is a criticism of those in the club who would abandon such a useful, visible and popular marketing tool so easily. The band is a marketing open goal and while a plain red shirt would no doubt still sell it would not have the additional subliminal branding presence. But the production line is not rolling yet. The decision to switch styles may not be set in stone. There may still be time to persuade them otherwise. Let them know if you think they are making a mistake.
***
How hard can it be? Here's one I did earlier. Now you show me yours.
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