Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

[LostDoggy]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Make our membership scarves/caps age appropriate -- if they are for younger members/teens, give them a design they would be proud to wear out/to school etc. Again, it's not expensive to get underground designers to work on these. Red White and Blue striped foldbacks (caps), that kind of thing. Not just for gameday, but for everyday. Get our colours and our name out onto the street, make us part of a movement.'

Make our merchandise desirable objects. (I mean, this is not rocket science. Merchandising is the biggest scam going around if you can pull it off -- people PAY YOU to advertise YOUR BRAND. Genius. Yet, look at the stuff we sell. Well, most footy clubs are crap at cross-selling anything except gameday merchandise, so we're not alone there, but there's another opportunity.)

Can't reply to everything you have written Lantern , but a lot of very good ideas and more importantly a fresh perspective and energy on how the club can portray itself. Its only a matter of time IMO before a club breaks the mould and trys something like this.

We are letting a golden opportunity slip through our hands with the rapid expansion
of the west and seem to be nowhere near as proactive as we should. The time is now..
i hope we don't look back in the years to come and regret this missed opportunity.

Why can't we get more involved in the new rail links coming to the west ...?
A red white and blue train on that line. A bulldogs shop / kiosk / presence at one of the
stations? 'sponsoring' a station for 10 years, ie: buying the naming rights and calling
it 'western bulldogs station' . Owning the west.

Agree with your points on the merch also . I want to support my
club outside of gameday , but those caps are ill fitting and ugly. A US style truckers / baseball cap
with an old school sown on badge or something would be awesome. I will sometimes
wear a baseball cap of a US team i have NO IDEA ABOUT!!, because it looks good and fits well.

I think the club would want to temper some of the more left field or extreme
slogans you have mentioned but something like "Bite Me. Bulldogs 2013." would be
awesome with the ad you described.
Some brands subtly make their less politically correct merch / ads on the sly too,
under a different/separate arm of their company.
Red white and blue 'You're Going Soft, Demetriou' bumper stickers / T Shirts etc
could be made in this way..would almost look like bootlegs or fan made.
Like the old "Hadlee's a wanker" badge and sticker I bought at the cricket
when i was a kid that my mum hated so much

[SonofScray]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms



Luchador masks, mission sponsorships, backs to the wall type stuff. Lets get nasty.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

:
I have a bit of a design background so if you would like, I could knock together some visuals to go with some of the best proposals in this thread and we could put them to the club. Nothing to lose.

No offense to the club, but after this week, I have no faith that anyone in the current administration will even be capable of understanding a good proposal, much less do any justice to it.

The reality is, my brainstorm was just a fun lark -- I've been responsible at various times in my professional life for annual income targets in the $75-$100m range, so if the club is serious about large-scale commercialization they can hire me as a consultant, but I doubt that they could afford me.

I would have happily done anything for free for a club I love, but after this week, I no longer love anything to do with the AFL or the Dogs. I've had a great time on WOOF -- it was such an accident stumbling over it when I was just surfing the net one day, commented on a cricketing thread and was hooked -- and the reality is, if WOOF didn't exist I would probably have walked away from football a long time ago. As it is, it has at least given me a community to shoot the breeze with, especially when traveling.

Not to be dramatic or anything, but this will probably be my last post on WOOF for a while. My wife, my books and my colleagues will no doubt wonder where I've found all this extra time, and I can get to that painting I've been meaning to finish. Cheers!

[GVGjr]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Not to be dramatic or anything, but this will probably be my last post on WOOF for a while. My wife, my books and my colleagues will no doubt wonder where I've found all this extra time, and I can get to that painting I've been meaning to finish. Cheers!

I hope you reconsider. I mean this sincerely, WOOF needs a few more like you not one less.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Nice thread Ghost, I enjoy your work.

Not sure if it's been said (havnt had the chance to read it all yet) but what about having a separate Facebook sponsor, like the shorts and smaller secondary sponsors. It's free to advertise for now so the club would make 100% returns on it and run competitions for 'likes' so that we get updates on everyone's walls, therefore being seen by more and more people.

Target have preety much stopped printing catalogues for the future and are concentrating on Facebook exposure for everything, it's free and they are saving a fortune in advertisement.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

No offense to the club, but after this week, I have no faith that anyone in the current administration will even be capable of understanding a good proposal, much less do any justice to it.

The reality is, my brainstorm was just a fun lark -- I've been responsible at various times in my professional life for annual income targets in the $75-$100m range, so if the club is serious about large-scale commercialization they can hire me as a consultant, but I doubt that they could afford me.

I would have happily done anything for free for a club I love, but after this week, I no longer love anything to do with the AFL or the Dogs. I've had a great time on WOOF -- it was such an accident stumbling over it when I was just surfing the net one day, commented on a cricketing thread and was hooked -- and the reality is, if WOOF didn't exist I would probably have walked away from football a long time ago. As it is, it has at least given me a community to shoot the breeze with, especially when traveling.

Not to be dramatic or anything, but this will probably be my last post on WOOF for a while. My wife, my books and my colleagues will no doubt wonder where I've found all this extra time, and I can get to that painting I've been meaning to finish. Cheers!

Ah Lantern. You have every right to feel the way you do. You're such an important person on this forum, as this thread attests to.
In the dressing rooms of Hamilton football club is an old painted sign. "A winner never quits and a quitter never wins. " I know you are a winner, so I suspect you're going to just take a break. And sometimes, that's what you need. Today was a sh** sandwhich, and we all had to swallow a bite.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Nice thread Ghost, I enjoy your work.

Not sure if it's been said (havnt had the chance to read it all yet) but what about having a separate Facebook sponsor, like the shorts and smaller secondary sponsors. It's free to advertise for now so the club would make 100% returns on it and run competitions for 'likes' so that we get updates on everyone's walls, therefore being seen by more and more people.

Target have preety much stopped printing catalogues for the future and are concentrating on Facebook exposure for everything, it's free and they are saving a fortune in advertisement.

Great call Rooner. Not an unrealistic suggestion at all.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Adding to the Bunnings, Kmart mention why hasn't a team (maybe they have) got into Westfarmers and Woolworths? Bunnings and Masters are currently going at each other. Especially Masters trying to get into the Bunnings market.

I think Lantern said we are missing a golden opportunity by not coming up with new things and jumping on the West Corridor expansion or explosion depending on if you live there or not? Werribee, Melton, Point cook, Tarneit is one of the fastest growing areas outside of W.A for young kids and there are certain local footy clubs who are missing the boat as well.

I think we should definitely aim at the younger generation we can't rely on kids being born into Bulldog houses, Parents are all for giving kids choices these days and it's killing us!

[Sedat]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Can we never again use ' who let the dogs out' again at home games please?
Put on the ACDC instead.

Can't believe I've just stumbled onto this thread - nice work GD and contributors to this thread.

You can start by making 'Dog Eat Dog' by AC/DC our home anthem. Aside from the fact that it is a fantastic song, "every dog has its day" is a lyric that perfectly encapsulates the intimidating atmosphere we should be trying to achieve for travelling supporters and teams. Or if you wanted something a little more alternative (playing up to our minority status in the competition), how about 'The Underdog' by Spoon....the lyric "you've got no fear of the underdog, that's why you will not survive" resonates perfectly.

I've worked in brand management for 13 years, and buggered if I know what our brand stands for. Lantern's suggestions are left field and probably alienate too large a sector of the community (ie: all women and most children ) but at least it is a distinctive and discernible brand identity. I like the idea of playing up to our rich and colorful history, even if the trophy cabinet is a little bare. We have so many wonderful stories and characters that we can tap into, and give existing fans and new converts a true story to associate with - to 'clan' in Lantern's words. The 'Western Front' is a start but it feels a little contrived and lacks the direct association with our club and its history.

As for our name, the change from Footscray to Western was sound in theory but it has proven to be nothing more than a symbolic gesture to associate ourselves with a general region - my suspicions are that we only changed our name because of the cultural cringe of Footscray at the time. That clearly is no longer the case, with Footscray now a hot bed of culture and the arts with a strong student population, and undeniably a suburb of true diversity. It also happens to be the gateway to the western suburbs, which is something that we should actively promote in our brand messaging. How many other clubs play their home matches barely a suburb away from home base? I would revert back to our original name and have the phrase "gateway to the west" in all official collateral and PR. And let's actually work the region and embed out footprint everywhere west of the city. We should be proud of the stickability of our fans and play up to the lack of success, playfully ridiculing other clubs for their 'johnny-come-lately' supporter base, who drop off at the slightest hint of lack of success.

Agree wholeheartedly with Lantern's suggestion that we embrace our blue-collar roots. This is what we are and who we are, and the mass market is where the majority of the blue collar demographic spend their money. We need to fish where the fish are. Target, Big W, Kmart, Aldi, Bunnings - this is where 80% of the fish are. It's not sexy but it is fact. Brands like Bonds do not reside at DJ's anymore, they reside in the likes of Dimmey's and Forges now.

Some great points raised about our colours and associating ourselves with other RW&B organisations - what a fantastic, untapped opportunity! Why don't we seek an official association with Ben Sherman when our jumper sponsorship rights are next up for grabs instead of the bog-standard run-of-the-mill b-grade sports brand like KooGa, Diadora and Fila? We could then get seriously creative with our product ranging, and generate tons of PR and brand impresions with such a left-field association while everyone else is swimming in the same pool of substitutional sports brands.

Hopefully there are some forward-thinking successful businessmen and women who bleed RW&B and want to take our club to a new and exciting direction because we desperately need a shot in the arm off the field.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Starting to win more games of footy would help the cause a bit too.

[Eastdog]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Starting to win more games of footy would help the cause a bit too.

Need to get that winning culture.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

Having worked in sales and marketing roles for the last 10yrs or so with $20m budgets, this thread has given me a few smiles in a dark year.

While the concept of tapping into our blue collar roots is enticing (and humorous), the key challenge will be to do this without bringing the negative baggage associated with this demographic (misogyny, homophobia and racism all leap to mind, hence the use of Will Minson, while satisfying would be risky given his comments). Given our geographical position in an area that is saturated with Australians from non-anglo backgrounds (and 50% of the population are women, who also control another good chunk of the population in the children), handled poorly this tapping into our blue collar roots could be a disaster. I understand the Bulldogs already target the non-Anglo local community with a variety of Bulldog based community programs.

However the concept of becoming (somehow) cool with schmick merchandising could well work because we all know, to be cool is everything. But in being cool we would have to ensure we didn't alienate people in the process (including our blue collar supporter base who might call cool hats - 'poofy'!)

[boydogs]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

I hope you reconsider. I mean this sincerely, WOOF needs a few more like you not one less.

This. I might not say so often but I enjoy reading his posts.

[Bornadog]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

This. I might not say so often but I enjoy reading his posts.

Lantern, love your work too.

[boydogs]

Re: Bulldog entrepreneurial brainstorms

While the concept of tapping into our blue collar roots is enticing (and humorous), the key challenge will be to do this without bringing the negative baggage associated with this demographic

I think the Western Front campaign does a good job of making people in the west stand taller, and be proud of their community. Making statements about the west being substance over style, and not afraid of hard work.

The idea is right, just need to take it to the people - schools, universities, road signs, auskick, local footy grounds, and community visits in the off season.