AFL clash Jumpers and brand values

OK so it's footy finals time which means it's time for me to address my pet hate THE CLASH JUMPERS IN THE AFL.


But because this is a marketing blog, of sorts, I'll use marketing-ese to state my case.

Firstly, what is a football club? What is it about these entities that inspires such passion? (AFL is per capita far and away the highest attended sport in the world.)

If it were the players then memberships and support would drop overnight when an insanely popular player like Richmond's Matthew Richardson retires. But guess what it doesn't, and it didn't. Fans love their players, but they love next year's crop just as much as they loved last year's.

We know it's not the coaches or other officials either, it also isn't the home ground as no one except for Geelong plays at home any more.

No it is the fierce inter club rivalry that inspires passion, the tribal connection people feel to an amorphous entity known as Carlton, Essendon or Collingwood. A rich set of experiences, a shared history going back more than 150 yrs for some, and an anticipated future. And the only tangible representation of all of this is the jumper, the club emblem that the players where across their chest.

It is the quintessential brand, more than a trade mark its a love-mark, more valuable to some fans than their own wedding rings.

So what does the AFL do? they decide for purely pragmatic reasons (to more clearly identify opposing players on the field) they force clubs to trot out 'clash strips' and then for reasons only know to the clearly vision impaired bloke at the AFL that decides such matters, force clubs to wear them even when their is no obvious clash, sometimes making the clash worse!

It goes without saying that people have watched almost 100 years of the worst clash, Collingwood V North Melbourne (even on black and white TV) without ever having a major problem but all of a sudden over the last decade this has become SOOO crucial that the AFL feels it is more important than tampering with the one tangible connection a fan has to his/her clubs culture the jumper.

Look at these pictures, Essendon are RED and BLACK, it's powerful, passionate and strong - not insipid grey. North Melbourne are a vibrant royal blue it speaks to their aspirational working class culture and traditional style of play, they are NOT some Diego Maradonna Argy uniform rip off. And the iconic CFC on the old dark navy blue is regarded as up their with the All Blacks as one of the best jumpers in world sport - WTF to this light blue version!

DEAR AFL - Fans follow their club, the most tangible representation of their club is the jumper, the jumper IS the brand. it may not seem important to you but given that you slap the AFL brand on more items of shoddy merchandise than Krusty the Clown one shouldn't be surprised.

PLEASE return back to a more relaxed approach where only the absolute worst examples require clash strip and tolerate minor jumper changes such as socks and the like to achieve the desired result STOP tampering with our love-marks.

I suppose the lesson for marketers out of this rant is to think, what part of your organisation is really important to your fans? And be conscious when what seems like a pragmatic change might actually cause an unpragmatic emotional response.