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6 Unknown Brand Building Hacks From Premier League Football
Dan Pope
December 29, 2023
A pandemic of pulsating pandemonium.
The ball thrashes like a turbo-charged shooting star into the back of the net.
Larger explodes into the air like an gushing-Icelandic spring well. Hanging above the crowd like a golden-biscuity blanket, before smashing and thudding down like biblical rainfall.
Truculent Trevors, Corpulent Colins, Down-right-fakin’-dirty-Darrens, Let’s-Smash-ya-fucking-nut-in Lee’s.
Screamed up.
Boozed up.
Charged up.
Fucked up.
Football. The Beautiful Game. Football. The language of the world. Football. Football. Football. People may not speak Spanish or Japanese or Chinese.But everyone speaks Messi or Ronaldo. Liverpool or United.
Whether you’re sipping an blisteringly-cold beer on a sunset-soaked beach shack in Costa Rica. Or a mangled run down pub in Manc. Or a Rooftop bar in Tokyo. Or a Brazilian Favella.
Football is the magnet.
Football provides tonnes of lessons for challenger brands, too.
Just finished, Simon Jordan’s book: “Be Careful What You Wish For”.
At 32, Simon was Youngest owner of a football club, Crystal Palace.
Lessons I took from the book
Leadership is only discovered in adversity.
Have an insane amount of belief in yourself because no one else will.
Expect everything to go wrong all the time. Just suck it up.
Nothing easy is fulfilling.
But Football and Food go hand in hand.
6 Lessons from the Beautiful Game for your Beautiful brand.
1. Be Marmite NOT Vanilla
A lesson for all challenger brands.
Be Marmite NOT Vanilla.
Simon Jordan is marmite.
Gary Neville is marmite.
Jamie Carragher is marmite.
Roy Keane is marmite.
Sky and TNT broadcasters know marmite brings in views. Word of mouth. Hype. Marmite is the currency for attention. Challenger brands NEED attention. Realise, “Love and Hate are the same thing” - Spencer Matthews.
So many brands are scared of consumers hating them.
The result?
A vacuous-vapid Vanilla abyss - ”Meh” “err, What-was that brand again?
Liquid Death is marmite.
Red Bull is marmite.
Clean Co is marmite.
TRIP is marmite.
Don’t be afraid to ask these questions.
How can we get people to hate us? Love and hate are LITERALLY the same thing.
What are our contrarian values and anti-goals vs. competition?
Be the weird flavour at the Ice cream parlour. Mango with Skittles (that sounds proper pervert in Purple Polo and Sandals and honker-of-a-nose). BUT… just don’t be Mint Chocolate Chip - that’s exclusively for PWC accountants #LivingOnTheEdge.
2. Don’t be pulled by the EXTERNAL hype. Consistency compounds.
The best football managers and teams aren’t swayed by the EXTERNAL media hype.
Pep isn’t swayed by hype.
Klopp isn’t swayed by hype.
Konte isn’t swayed by hype.
Mourinho isn’t swayed by hype.
The Media is HYPE. HYPE. HYPE.
“who’s going to finish top 4?”
“Who’s going to win the premier league?”
“Is this manager going to get fired?’
“What’s going on with this player?”
Internally, football clubs, teams and managers… JUST focus on the next game at hand.
Some weeks they lose. Other they win. Some weeks things go their way.
Discipline + Consistency = Winning Formula.
In our challenger food and drink world, LinkedIn is HYPE.
“We’ve won this JS listing and that Waitrose listing - whatta listing”
“our brand is B-Corp and we went to HomeBase, Walton on Thames to plant some tulips to celebrate”
“just brought in an MD from Mars and our team is 20 people”
Don’t be swayed by the EXTERNAL HYPE.
Don’t compare your INTERNAL blooper reel with someone else’s EXTERNAL highlights reel.
Because behind everyone’s EXTERNAL HIGHLIGHT REEL is someone’s INTERNAL BLOOPER REEL.
Just focus on the next week. Doing the best you can. Accept some weeks you’ll win. Others you’ll lose
Waitrose meeting doesn’t go well. Cool. Show up the next day.
Didn’t get that secondary space you wanted. Cool. Show up the next day.
Discipline + Consistency = Consistency Compounds.
3. “A brand is a cheery cult” - Founder In & Out Burger.
What’s the closest food and drink category to football? Craft beer. Obvs.
Recently, I enjoyed Jez from Brixton Brewery company on the pod.
We dug deep into the weird-perplexing world of craft beer.
Football is tribalism.
Craft beer is tribalism.
Don’t believe me?
Camden Town Brewery have die-hard fans. So do Brixton. So do Brewdog. Cult-like followings.
Craft beer are the football teams of food and drink.
Camden Towns stadium is their booze hole in Kentish Town.
Beavertown’s stadium is their brewery in Tottenham’s stadium.
Camden colour is red.
Beavertown’s colour is blue.
Camden Town Brewery did a deal with Arsenal.
Beavertown Brewery did a deal with Tottenham Hotspur.
The best food and drink brands THINK like a football club. They cultivate a die-hard following like a football club.
In-and-Out burger founder says “a brand is a cheery cult”.
Ask yourself these questions
How can we make our fans happy and go above and beyond?
What colour is our kit? Think Nice Wine (pink) or Perfect Ted (green)
How can we go above and beyond?
How can we create a space for fans to play?
4. Experience is SO Overrated. Be like the Class of 92.
The Class of 92 is maybe the most famous team in the world. Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt.
This team of hungry youngsters went on to win FA Youth Cup win in 1992 to their Champions League triumph in 1999, which rounded off the Treble-winning 1998–99 season.
Sir Alex Ferguson ditched EXPERIENCE and took a punt on NAIVETY. So many founders pine for the experienced marketing director or finance controller: “We need experience” or we need “someone to steady the ship”
You could spend £120,000 on a Marketing Director from P&G.
Or
You could spend £30,000 on 4 amazing fresh youngsters who are curious and eager to learn.
Perfect Ted is the Class of 92.
They’ve stormed onto the market like Harlan. Slotting listings like no one’s watching. Perfect Ted is a young, dynamic team. Perfect Ted bet on naivety + hunger > experience.
Am I saying don’t hire experience?
Absolutely NOT. Of course not. Experience is AMAZING. I’d be completely FUCKED without my mentor, Lou, and there so, so , so many wonderfully amazing leaders in our industry.
BUT.
Most brands, like you, reading this SIMPLY don’t have £150 bags lying around to purchase an MD from Unilever.
So, don’t worry, be Fergie. Place your bets on creative, agile, nimble youngsters.
I refer to this quote by James Dyson often.
When I sat where you are, I thought experience was important, a necessity in fact, I now know the opposite to be true. Surprisingly naivety is an advantage. Experience can be cage, inhibiting, and hard to escape from. Today the world changes so quickly that freedom from experience can be an asset! - James Dyson
5. The Little Things are the BIG things.
Conte banned ketchup at the Spurs training ground is a little thing, that sends a big signal.
Arsene Wenger banned booze and improved players diets is a little thing that sends a big signal.
Pep wearing a hoodie for the Cup final against United is a little thing that’s a sends a BIG signal.
Perry Haydn Taylor founder of big fish. Watch this video and listen to three episodes I’ve done with Perry.
As a brand, the little things ARE the big things.
Little Things = 1% edge.
1% edge + compounding = huge unfair advantage.
Be relentless on the little things. Because the Little Things are the Big things.
5. Life or Death.
Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that. - Bill Shankly
After watching the Beckham documentary. I realised. Football is obsession.
The ones that make it are totally obsessed.
Giles Brook: “founders must be OBSESSED to actually take their brand to another level”
Right, I’m off to lace up my boots and go down the football pitch bruv.
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