The Mail Bag
Painting the town red
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Over the past few weeks I have noticed driving around the Liverpool area a vast number of LFC shirts/merchandise about and worryingly the lack of the same for Everton FC, whilst in the town centre yesterday I must have counted 50 red shirts and only one blue.
When I think of David Moyes's opening proclamation of most people on the streets of Liverpool being blue, it seems somewhat hollow now as the statement simply doesn't hold water and in that I also wonder how we can call ourselves "The People's Club", when the people are exactly who we are losing.
Neil Todd, Posted 08/09/2008 at 12:52:19
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Have a look at the sky banner if it still up on the side of Goodison and three guesses who is in the middle of the picture - yep RS, you couldn’t make it up if you tried.
Surrender Bill strikes again
Surrender Bill strikes again
Neil, sadly its an obvious statement to make but if you want to see why Everton do not have the cash its because of poor marketing, poor management, poor agreements with the retailer etc etc.. no wonder the club are in financial difficulty.
The comments regarding making more money from the matchday experience are a joke when everything is outsourced what do they expect?
The comments regarding making more money from the matchday experience are a joke when everything is outsourced what do they expect?
Our fans dont buy all the replica shite because our fans go the match. We support our team not the club shop. I'm more concerned with the people being paid to wear the shirt than those who are stupid enough to pay £40 every season for an almost identical shirt.
Judging by last year?s Anfield derby, it?s South Africans, Aussies and Scandinavians who now provide the home support for RS. I wouldn?t be surprised if we started to see in increase in support for Everton as more and more scousers are alienated from the Kop.
I had a friend from Canada over recently, an Evertonian. We went to JJB Sport on the outskirts of Belfast. Not a single item of Everton merchandise was for sale and believe me it wasn?t sold out. What on earth is happening to the marketing of Everton???
Are you sure you didn?t make your ?observation? whilst driving around the area of Anfield on matchdays? I only ask because, when I was in town the other day, I saw about 50 blue shirts and no red ones!!...what do you make of that, eh?
I think I?m going to have to send in an equally interesting musing to the mailbag called ?Red Lines Blue Lines? in which I will bring to ToffeeWeb readers' attention my worry that the people of Merseyside might possibly be starting to think about favouring red stripes on their Reebok classics instead of blue ones!!!
I think I?m going to have to send in an equally interesting musing to the mailbag called ?Red Lines Blue Lines? in which I will bring to ToffeeWeb readers' attention my worry that the people of Merseyside might possibly be starting to think about favouring red stripes on their Reebok classics instead of blue ones!!!
The red shite are beauts... Grown men wearing LFC shirts with their ale guts sticking out when there's no match on looks utterly ridiculous. You still see loads of ?em walking around town when Liverpool are playing. Says it all really. It seems to be the Redshite and the Geordies. You don't see more than a couple wearing Utd/City shirts in Manchester. In fact on a recent visit there were about eight men wearing LFC shirts there. These people would wear a dogturd if it had LFC stamped on it.
Actually, a thought occurred to me the other day. If we are going to relocate out of Liverpool, we could do worse than Birkenhead. Whenever I am there I see far more kids with Everton shirts on than Liverpool. Perhaps my blue-tinted spectacles, but it’s a big differential - not even close !
If you want to see plenty of red shirts just go to any pub when they are on the TV. It's amazing ? my local's manager said he loves them on TV as he makes loads. We on the other hand are a waste of his time because we all actually go to the game.
Say what you will, my blood bloded brothers. EFC has a very bad maketing strategy. You?ll never find an EFC jersey in SEA except for Thailand. Today?s local papers ran a story of how LFC has tied a contract with the biggest SEA sporting house to promote its brand. Why EFC hasn?t done so? What are they doing? Nothing!!! Its how you market a brand that sells a merchandise. Sadly EFC?s people aren?t doing nuts! Change the marketing team anfd start agressive selling to make the brand known! We in SEA here have to scrap and beg for someone to buy us EFC stuff from UK. SEA = South East Asia!
We?re not alone - I was in a south coast branch of Sportsworld yesterday. Not a Barcodes shirt or product in sight and Mike Ashley owns the shop and the club. So much for billionaires making things better.
Saw RS fans being interviewed by Sky after the Villa match and the usual ratio of RS scousers were present. i.e. 1 scouser, 3 Irish and a 2 cockneys having their say.... lmfao
Sega Blue, i live in Thailand we are sponsored by Chang the biggest brewey in Thailand, yet I cannot get any Everton merchandise whatsoever yet there is an Arsenal and Man Utd shop in Phuket and an abundancy of Chelsea and Liverpool shirts available. I wrote to Bill K about this shambles, no reply even with a UK address supplied. Same problem back in the UK, the shirts available in JJB weeks after everyone elses. I am afraid the marketing dept needs a big clearout as they are just not doing their job properly
You know what, I had a dream about Everton and the lack of marketing; I was thinking about all the things I wanted to buy, but couldn't cos they?re not available. Things like car freshners in the shape of the badge, simple ideas, would probably sell for £3 and cost less than 50p to get onto our shelves, but have we..... no. I was also thinking/ dreaming about doing a Saha, and working for the club for free until I made us a profit. Anyone got Bill?s number, I?ll give him a call see what he thinks.....
Neil, I hope you have sent Everton FC an e-mail about this.
Also, could you post their reply as it may make interesting reading...
Also, could you post their reply as it may make interesting reading...
Evertonians are born, Not manufactured.
We do not choose, We are chosen.
Those who understand, Need no explanation.
Those that don?t understand, Don?t matter!
SO WHO CARES....WE DO NOT GO TO JJB THEN CHOOSE EVERTON, WE ARE ALREADY EVERTON!
We do not choose, We are chosen.
Those who understand, Need no explanation.
Those that don?t understand, Don?t matter!
SO WHO CARES....WE DO NOT GO TO JJB THEN CHOOSE EVERTON, WE ARE ALREADY EVERTON!
I took my 14 month old daughter to an activity centre in Manchester last week. It is in real Man U territory. I saw 2 other kids in Everton shirts and no Man U or RS shirts. Really cheered me up.
Perhaps we’re starting to tap into that area that Wyness kept talking about along the M62!
Perhaps we’re starting to tap into that area that Wyness kept talking about along the M62!
This has been touched on before, maybe Everton (Adult) supports don’t want to dress like Scally Yob Twats. Maybe Sports clothes should just be for people who actually do sport.
Just a thought.
Just a thought.
Sorry for a reality check. I don’t care if we are born and not manufactured, there are fewer of us proportionately these days. I was at the la Machine display last night and the red shirts outnumbered the blue by about 5 to 1, and these seemed like locals, not Norwegians! Apart from the few blues proudly wearing the shirt, I wouldn’t have realised that there was another football club in the city. These pictures were going round the world remember.
Don, suppose we?re already Everton but decide to go to JJB to spend a few quid to support the club. You find fuck all there and reach the conclusion that there are people running the club who are incompetent or don?t give a fuck.
Can I just add that most of the shirts I have seen being worn have been on kids, even more of a worry I would say.
I feel as though the RS Champions League win in 2005 recruited a huge swathe of little scouse footy fanatics.
Why is it a worry Neil? It shows that youngsters are still interested in the club.
Robert, I suspect Neil means the kids were wearing red shirts, not blue. Hence the worry.
In response to Neil's original post, I am not sure whereabouts you live in Liverpool but what's worrying for me is that we can't even attract the support on our local doorstep as far as the future fans are concerned. I went to Argos in Walton road on Saturday and, whilst stuck in traffic on County Road / Rice Lane, I noticed every primary schoolkid walking around the surrounding areas had an LFC top on despite Goodison only being yards away. Surely now as a large supermarket would do if they had a major rival close by Everton must consider selling kids shirts on the cheap OR face not have any of them supporting us in the future. What's sad about it is we finished 5th in the Premier League last season ? not 5th in the Blue Square non-league.
I suspect it's a mixture of things myself. Everton not having the name of the city doesn't help us, unlike in Manchester, where both clubs start with the city's name. The fact that they won the European Cup recently and sadly to say - as with Man Utd in the 1970s twenty years after Munich, Liverpool are seeing similar widespread sympathy support which has grown up on the back of Hillsborough. We needed to continue our 80s success into the 90s to have more youth on our side but it never happened so most are growing up reds in the city now.
We do not promote are club the way we should. We never had to, but now we must... they have won the Euro Cup 5 times and you get a lot of hangers on. They also live on the song You'll Never Walk Alone. We are miles behind their PR and must tell the rest of the world our history, and how they have bleeded of us, ie, the Moores family and the foundation of the club.
And we must fight the likes of Sky TV ? we there top four, and their thirty nine ex-players in the media, who tell us how good they are, when they are no more than an average team that play very little good football; we are too nice a club..,
My Nephew is a red and that is with both his Grandads, his Dad (my brother in law) and his uncles being blue!!!!
There’s just no getting through to the poor kid.
Don’t tell me shitty marketing hasn’t got anything to do with it when you can’t even buy a footy top from a club store in the city centre.
I’m in China and my mate who also lives here has got all kinds of Liverpool shite;
Craig Ashford is right, if they don’t supply the goods and an outlet to market them, then we can’t buy them.
By the way Bills number is 0800 bullshit
There’s just no getting through to the poor kid.
Don’t tell me shitty marketing hasn’t got anything to do with it when you can’t even buy a footy top from a club store in the city centre.
I’m in China and my mate who also lives here has got all kinds of Liverpool shite;
Craig Ashford is right, if they don’t supply the goods and an outlet to market them, then we can’t buy them.
By the way Bills number is 0800 bullshit
Must have been some cruise ship in or a lot ot Pikey caravans waiting to board the ferry to Ireland or were Abba playing at the Royal Court? Anyway you get my point! but the real reason was all the Evertonians were at work, the rest are just the jobless and scum bags that give the city a bad name. COYB
On getting hold of EFC stock, what is the problem? We have a store at GP and you can order direct from the website and it gets delivered to your door...........is that so hard for all you silly folk to understand or does your computer only connect to toffeeweb? obviously you all are on line so I dont understand why you complain just log on to www.evertonfc.com and link megestore and purchases whatever you want whether your in China or Walton. It really is easy if you try, but i suppose you prefer to get on the bus/train and go in to town? well if thats the case then travelling to Kirkby should be no problem to us all. COYB
Neil,
The reds in this city have to wear their shirts in the street cos none of them can wear them at the game. By the same token my 14 year old could buy about 8 shirts for what his season ticket cost.
The reds in this city have to wear their shirts in the street cos none of them can wear them at the game. By the same token my 14 year old could buy about 8 shirts for what his season ticket cost.
Alan, born and bred in Australia and was there v Chelsea in April.
I Went to the store and all the sizes were either kids or XXXXXXL. I?m a large. As for the website, I ordered about £150 worth of stuff and when I recieved it they swapped the Everton hat I wanted with a small plastic watch and pillow and wrote to say sorry, item out of stock.
I Went to the store and all the sizes were either kids or XXXXXXL. I?m a large. As for the website, I ordered about £150 worth of stuff and when I recieved it they swapped the Everton hat I wanted with a small plastic watch and pillow and wrote to say sorry, item out of stock.
You only have to go to the stadium tours of both clubs, I did mine (my red relatives came as well) and there were only 8 of us, I didn?t go to the Liverpool tour but waited for the guys, seemed like there was bus tours of kids.
I?m not from there and it was very evident of the divide in public support. We shouldn?t care where the support comes from as long as it is support.
I was fishing from a jetty on the south coast last week when this 30 something fat, bloke turned up in the full shite kit, socks an all! He was with this bottle blonde with lots of chav jewellery on and at first I thought she must be his carer but then they had a snog. So anyone on that jetty probably thought there were more redshite than Evertonians there but they?d be wrong as I was with my son, who is a mad blue.
The thing is, grown men should not wear football shirts unless they are playing football or watching it. Redshites just like to wear their shirt more (some of them must STINK!) in some sort of show of misplaced pride, the same sort of thing displayed by young drivers blasting out their own choice of (usually shite) music through open windows in town centres. They really think people are admiring them when usually they just provoke scorn, or, in the case of the lad on the jetty, pity!
Fuck 'em, Brian Labone was right!
You don't really need to wear an Everton shirt or any Everton merchandise to be an Everton fan. Chances are them 50 people you saw in Liverpool shirts were the only redshite fans out that day, all the Everton fans shirts were in the wash getting ready for the next match!
I don?t get what people?s problem with us not having the city?s name in our title, it doesn?t seem to affect Arsenal or Juventus and it should not affect us; the simple fact of the matter is our marketing is non existent. No shop in town anymore and a range that is pathetic and outdated.
With regards to SEA I was recently in Singapore and there is a massive advertising board for Chang beer with pictures of the Yak and Timmy Cahill on it, and a Chang bus going around with the same. Might see it at the side of Grand Prix track in a few weeks.
Neil when speaking of area of Liverpoool I tend to agree with you. Having said that I live in Widnes and the place is full of Everton shirts and car stickers.
In addition I recently worked in Walton/Everton and the company was full of Blues all of whom went the game either as season tickets or regularly. maybe 1 or 2 reds did the same. I now work in Bootle and the ratio is reversed; more reds and guess what - none of them go the game and 90% of the Blues here go regularly. It does seem that there are plenty of Blues who have in effect ?migrated? to the outer rim of Liverpool - a stadium in Speke not too far from the airport with good road & rail links would be an idea methinks..
In addition I recently worked in Walton/Everton and the company was full of Blues all of whom went the game either as season tickets or regularly. maybe 1 or 2 reds did the same. I now work in Bootle and the ratio is reversed; more reds and guess what - none of them go the game and 90% of the Blues here go regularly. It does seem that there are plenty of Blues who have in effect ?migrated? to the outer rim of Liverpool - a stadium in Speke not too far from the airport with good road & rail links would be an idea methinks..
In my old house, there were 8 families in our cul de sac, 4 blue and 4 red.
All 4 blues went the game, all 4 reds used to stand in the middle of the kop (like they all did, it must have held half a million in the 70?s), but "cant get tickets" now.
All 4 of the reds cars had Liverpool scarves, teddies, stickers etc, none of the blue cars had any Everton related stuff in them.
All 4 grown men reds wore shirts on a regular basis, presumably to try and prove to everyone how much of a red they were.
All 4 blues didn't own a shirt betweeen us, as we all go the game, so didn't feel the need to try and prove we were massive Evertonians by wearing a shirt every other day of our lives and looking like an overgrown kid having a mid-life crisis.
The point of this is don't judge the split of support in the city by the amount of replica shirts you see knocking about.
All 4 blues went the game, all 4 reds used to stand in the middle of the kop (like they all did, it must have held half a million in the 70?s), but "cant get tickets" now.
All 4 of the reds cars had Liverpool scarves, teddies, stickers etc, none of the blue cars had any Everton related stuff in them.
All 4 grown men reds wore shirts on a regular basis, presumably to try and prove to everyone how much of a red they were.
All 4 blues didn't own a shirt betweeen us, as we all go the game, so didn't feel the need to try and prove we were massive Evertonians by wearing a shirt every other day of our lives and looking like an overgrown kid having a mid-life crisis.
The point of this is don't judge the split of support in the city by the amount of replica shirts you see knocking about.
Why are you writing to ToffeeWeb? What, with such intelligent ideas and those fantastic career in Marketing records you all have you should be writing to Everton.
The marketing and PR department sneed to sort themselves out and our club hierarchy need to do much more to sell our club - locally, nationally and internationally.
However, we need to be realistic about our fan base. As a result of a lack of recent success (together with not following-up what success we had in the mid-80s) we have failed to pick up a lot of the youngsters (and ’nouveau’ football fans) both in Merseyside and further afield, and our lower TV profile on Sky Sports and even MOTD (last match anyone?) has not aided our international following either. I don’t buy the ’city name’ argument (why is Villa bigger than Brum City? etc)
It is a chicken-and-egg situation. If you don’t put the merchandise out, then you won’t get the sales (especially outside the hardcore which can use the club shop or website to a greater extent - though with mixed results still). However, when we have tried running shops (like the one in my old home town of Chester), it fails financially due to low sales and is subsequently replaced by a RS ’R’ Us shop.
On-the-field success is the key element we need. We start winning silverware and we start getting the bragging rights back. We start picking up the youngsters again and the bandwagon jumpers (I’m not proud - I’ll have the Scandanavians and southerners on-board if they start turning blue!). We start not having to have skins as thick as rhino-skin when you enter a pub or shop in an EFC top and brace yourself for the smirks and ’what ’ave you won!’ (I agree that the RS Istanbul fluke sadly re-charged their fanbase world-wide).
But until we start to have that success (probably linked to a future rise in investment) we need the Marketing team to think how they can ensure not only our existing fanbase can get the merchandise we need, but how they can step it up a notch and get the waverers to consider adopting us as their team as a result of going into shops like JJB and actually seeing our colours! That’s a tricky supply-demand balance, but that’s what they are being paid to do. At present that incremental business growth strategy is not taking place.
...don’t even get me started on our PR/Media expertise.....if we can’t get the club to tell us what is going on, what chance have we got of them spreading the word further afield?!?!
However, we need to be realistic about our fan base. As a result of a lack of recent success (together with not following-up what success we had in the mid-80s) we have failed to pick up a lot of the youngsters (and ’nouveau’ football fans) both in Merseyside and further afield, and our lower TV profile on Sky Sports and even MOTD (last match anyone?) has not aided our international following either. I don’t buy the ’city name’ argument (why is Villa bigger than Brum City? etc)
It is a chicken-and-egg situation. If you don’t put the merchandise out, then you won’t get the sales (especially outside the hardcore which can use the club shop or website to a greater extent - though with mixed results still). However, when we have tried running shops (like the one in my old home town of Chester), it fails financially due to low sales and is subsequently replaced by a RS ’R’ Us shop.
On-the-field success is the key element we need. We start winning silverware and we start getting the bragging rights back. We start picking up the youngsters again and the bandwagon jumpers (I’m not proud - I’ll have the Scandanavians and southerners on-board if they start turning blue!). We start not having to have skins as thick as rhino-skin when you enter a pub or shop in an EFC top and brace yourself for the smirks and ’what ’ave you won!’ (I agree that the RS Istanbul fluke sadly re-charged their fanbase world-wide).
But until we start to have that success (probably linked to a future rise in investment) we need the Marketing team to think how they can ensure not only our existing fanbase can get the merchandise we need, but how they can step it up a notch and get the waverers to consider adopting us as their team as a result of going into shops like JJB and actually seeing our colours! That’s a tricky supply-demand balance, but that’s what they are being paid to do. At present that incremental business growth strategy is not taking place.
...don’t even get me started on our PR/Media expertise.....if we can’t get the club to tell us what is going on, what chance have we got of them spreading the word further afield?!?!
It?s exactly the same in Manchester where you see far more United than City, it?s the same in London where you see far more Arsenal and Chelsea than Spurs. We live in the age of the glory hunter I fear where a lot of inadequates want to associate themselves with anything they perceive as big and successful. Istanbul recruited the RS many thousands of spectators all over the world. On the positive side I don?t think we lost too many.
Mark Murphy, why didnt you push him in the sea? Fat smelly cunt sounded like he needed a wash, better still kick him in!! COYB This is the funniest thread in ages, keep up the posts!!
I might be a one-off but two neighbours have Liverpool badges on their cars and they are not vandalised at all. I got a new car so my daughter bought me one of those In my heart transfers for rear window and next day a LFC was scratched on the door. So I wont be putting anything else on the car...
As for wearing the shirt for the want of a better description I am the same shape as a Newcastle fan so I think me wearing a Everton shirt would be insulting the club I love.
Paul Mosses
Just showed all the gobshites in here your "must have been 1/2 million of them" quote
priceless
Alan Willo
I agree with you - at last
some cracking posts on this thread
Just showed all the gobshites in here your "must have been 1/2 million of them" quote
priceless
Alan Willo
I agree with you - at last
some cracking posts on this thread
I totally agree with Chris Fisher, spot on. In town the other weekend when RS were playing at home, it was full of RS shirts, the only problem was it was 3:30... game started! I ask a RS supporter why he was not at the matc? Usual reply: CAN?T GET A TICKET. My reply: HAVE YOU TRIED? Then he said he use to have a season ticket, my reply FUCK ME DID ANFIELD USE TO HOLD 1/4 MILLION, because they were all at the game.
Why do thousands of people buy Beatles records and not many buy the Searchers? Because one has a huge following and permanent class and one have a small but dedicated band of time warpers who think the Searchers have the same worldwide appeal as the Beatles.
I have to agree with Colin and Chris the blues in my local ALL go to the game, yet we constantly hear the red kitted-out locals planning to meet in the pub to watch the games whether their team our playing home or away. The manager of the pub says his takings on a Saturday are only affected by OUR home games which in essence means about eight of the locals missing. When the reds are on the TV and at Home the pub gets more custom, says it all really. As for merchandise, I buy my Grandson every thing Everton I can including a season ticket but his red mates far outstrip him in all things red ? although no tickets, of course.
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1 Posted 08/09/2008 at 14:22:06
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