When John Brooks, a defender on the U.S. men’s national soccer team, scored the winning goal
against Ghana late in a first-round game of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA) 2014 World Cup at Arena Amazonia, nearly 16 million American TV viewers were tuned in.
The victory in Brazil was especially sweet because Ghana’s Black Stars was the team that had
defeated the Americans in a second-round game at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Ghana had
also ended Team USA’s hopes in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
In the end, the U.S. team bowed out before the final, losing to Portugal in a game that attracted
nearly 25 million American TV viewers. The record-setting television audience for World Cup 2014
provided evidence of soccer’s growing popularity in the United States. Indeed, as Stephen Criss,
senior director of con-sumer engagement and marketing services for North America at snack-food
marketer Mondelez International, noted in 2013, “The sport of soccer is at a tipping point and in our
eyes is going to explode.
Soccer enjoys a reputation as “the world’s sport” and “the beautiful game.” In a recent book, John
Quelch and Katherine Jocz note that top professional soccer clubs—including England’s Premier
League and Spain’s La Liga—have embraced the power of global marketing. For example, they
recruit personnel of different nationali-ties. The same is true of national teams at the World Cup.
Team USA 2014 was a case in point: The coach and several of the players were German; one team
member was from Iceland, and another from Norway. In addition, the teams use Web sites and
social media to interact with fans around the world. For example, Real Madrid has more than 64
million “Likes” on Facebook!In addition, FIFA has done much to popularize the sport around the
world. Based in Zurich, Switzerland, FIFA is soccer’s governing body. Years ago, it began promoting
the sport in key emerging mar-kets. Notes sport management professor Stefan Szymanki, “FIFA took
resources and put them into Africa and Asia, and that has paid great dividends.” During the 2010
World Cup, FIFA generated $3.5 billion in revenues from sponsorships and television rights;
revenues from the 2014 World Cup totaled $4.8 billion.World Cup Fever: A Global OutbreakWorld
Cup fever breaks out around the world every four years; when it does, it seems that all eyes are on
the game. The 2010 World Cup, held in South Africa, was broadcast on more than 300 television
channels in 214 countries and territories. It attracted a cumulative audience of 26 billion people; an
estimated 1 billion people tuned in for the championship game between Spain and the Netherlands.
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|OKN-lion for the rights to broadcast the World Cup in 2010 and 2014. Global marketers, keen to
capitalize on a huge television-viewing audience, spend tens of millions of dollars as partners,
sponsors, and advertisers (see Exhibit 4-11).Although the American team advanced to the
semifinals in 2010 and again in 2014, the game still enjoys greater popularity in other parts of the
world. In the words of soccer analyst Roger Bennett
America is “the last major outpost of soccer apathy.” Bennett, co-host of Men in Blazers on NBC
Sports Network, once noted that the World Cup tournament is “Homer’s Odyssey in cleats.” Bennett
is on record as saying that soccer is doomed to forever be “America’s sport of the future.”Why the
apathy? A number of theories have been advanced. Some observers note that Americans already
have a variety of pro-fessional sports leagues to follow, including the National Football League,
Major League Baseball, and the National Basketball Association. Some commentators have pointed
out that soccer is not a game with a lot of statistics. An editorial in The Wall Street Journal pointed
the finger at footballers’ inclination toward flop-ping—pretending to be fouled by an opponent—as
another turnoff for American audiences.Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top professional men’s
outdoor soccer league in the United States. MLS Commissioner Don Garber believes that it is
important to teach Americans a new way of follow-ing the sport. “At their base level, sports are local
and they are tribal,” he says. Even so, television audiences are tuning in to live game broadcasts;
MLS games are selling out; and, last but not least, legions of so-called soccer moms are dutifully
Derechos de autor: José Roberto Concha V. PhD, Julio 2020. jrconcha@icesi.edu.co
transporting young players to and from youth league games.The mission statement posted at
www.fifa.com goes far beyond the World Cup. FIFA seeks to “broaden the appeal of football [soccer]
across all walks of life.” For example, FIFA oversees the licensing of logos and team mascots to
companies such as Adidas and Electronic Arts. In 2006, when the World Cup finals were held in
Germany, FIFA reaped the rewards after fans spent $2 billion on soccer memorabilia. As noted
earlier, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa generated more than $3 billion from commercial deals
alone.The Mass-Market Fashion ConnectionDespite the positive signs, a key marketing challenge is
the fact that, after the championship match, sales—and FIFA’s revenues—start to dwindle. As one
element in a strategy designed to counteract this 06trend, FIFA launched a new global fashion
brand. The goal was to build and maintain awareness and interest in soccer in the years between
World Cup matches. The United States is a key market for FIFA; the U.S. Soccer Federation governs
professional organizations, including Major League Soccer (MLS), as well as youth and school
competitions.Marketers understand that the connection between soccer and the fashion world
represents a golden opportunity. Soccer stars achieve celebrity status, are household names in
many parts of the world, and enjoy seemingly universal appeal. Fans don casual clothes and
leisurewear featuring team names and colors. In the United States, World Cup merchandise such as
T-shirts, hoodies, and Official Match Balls are available at Walmart, Sports Authority, Dick’s, and
sports.com.Janon Costley is the former CEO of Total Apparel Group (TAG), a company that marketed
soccer-themed casual apparel under license from FIFA. As Costley said recently, “Now sport and
fashion and en-tertainment are interchangeable, and you have to strategize with that in mind.
Clothes put the sport squarely in front of people who might not see it any other way.”In 2010, TAG
launched a FIFA clothing collection in 12 countries. As CEO Costley noted, the marketing objective
was to establish soc-cer’s place in mainstream U.S. culture. Five separate lines targeted both men
and women. One line, the 1904, commemorated the year FIFA was founded in Paris. The collection
also included limited-edition, retro-styled “FIFA Heritage Tees” featuring original tournament logos
and mascots.As it turned out, TAG’s initiative was short-lived. One problem: The collection was
launched at the height of the global economic cri-sis and, after the Goldman Sachs investment bank
imploded, financ-ing for the venture fell apart. A second issue: Many people view FIFA as an
organization, rather than a brand. Building a brand takes time, a fact that raised unrealistic shortterm expectations for TAG’s first collection. Third, because FIFA has many “exclusive partners” such
as Adidas that pay substantial fees for the privilege, TAG’s license in-cluded many restrictions. TAG
was not allowed to make performance apparel, and certain distribution channels were not
available.Luxury Designers Sign OnThere is more to the fashion connection than mass-market
brands sold at Walmart and Sports Authority. Upscale menswear design-ers have also taken note:
Footballers have the build, the look, and the sense of elegant style that can help sell high-end
clothing. As a creative director at Calvin Klein noted, “When you think of designing underwear, it
just lends itself to footballers.” Fashion designers typi-cally make samples that runway models wear
in fashion-week events showcasing spring and fall collections; the samples also appear in print
advertising. Stars such as Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata appear on covers and in fashion spreads in
magazines such as GQ and Vogue. Julie Ragolia, the fashion director at Man of the World magazine,
explains the designers’ attraction to footballers this way: “They are the perfect sample size. They
are not huge like an American foot-ball or basketball player. You can take a footballer and put him
in a sample, and he’d look 100 percent beautiful.” Summing up the situ-ation, George Quariashi, coeditor of Howler, says, “It’s really hard to overstate how famous the most famous soccer players are
on a global scale.”
06trend, FIFA launched a new global fashion brand. The goal was to build and maintain awareness
and interest in soccer in the years between World Cup matches. The United States is a key market
for FIFA; the U.S. Soccer Federation governs professional organizations, including Major League
Derechos de autor: José Roberto Concha V. PhD, Julio 2020. jrconcha@icesi.edu.co
Soccer (MLS), as well as youth and school competitions.Marketers understand that the connection
between soccer and the fashion world represents a golden opportunity. Soccer stars achieve
celebrity status, are household names in many parts of the world, and enjoy seemingly universal
appeal. Fans don casual clothes and leisurewear featuring team names and colors. In the United
States, World Cup merchandise such as T-shirts, hoodies, and Official Match Balls are available at
Walmart, Sports Authority, Dick’s, and sports.com.Janon Costley is the former CEO of Total Apparel
Group (TAG), a company that marketed soccer-themed casual apparel under license from FIFA. As
Costley said recently, “Now sport and fashion and en-tertainment are interchangeable, and you
have to strategize with that in mind. Clothes put the sport squarely in front of people who might
not see it any other way.”In 2010, TAG launched a FIFA clothing collection in 12 countries. As CEO
Costley noted, the marketing objective was to establish soc-cer’s place in mainstream U.S. culture.
Five separate lines targeted both men and women. One line, the 1904, commemorated the year
FIFA was founded in Paris. The collection also included limited-edition, retro-styled “FIFA Heritage
Tees” featuring original tournament logos and mascots.As it turned out, TAG’s initiative was shortlived. One problem: The collection was launched at the height of the global economic cri-sis and,
after the Goldman Sachs investment bank imploded, financ-ing for the venture fell apart. A second
issue: Many people view FIFA as an organization, rather than a brand. Building a brand takes time,
a fact that raised unrealistic short-term expectations for TAG’s first collection. Third, because FIFA
has many “exclusive partners” such as Adidas that pay substantial fees for the privilege, TAG’s
license in-cluded many restrictions. TAG was not allowed to make performance apparel, and certain
distribution channels were not available.Luxury Designers Sign OnThere is more to the fashion
connection than mass-market brands sold at Walmart and Sports Authority. Upscale menswear
design-ers have also taken note: Footballers have the build, the look, and the sense of elegant style
that can help sell high-end clothing. As a creative director at Calvin Klein noted, “When you think of
designing underwear, it just lends itself to footballers.” Fashion designers typi-cally make samples
that runway models wear in fashion-week events showcasing spring and fall collections; the samples
also appear in print advertising. Stars such as Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata appear on covers and in
fashion spreads in magazines such as GQ and Vogue. Julie Ragolia, the fashion director at Man of
the World magazine, explains the designers’ attraction to footballers this way: “They are the perfect
sample size. They are not huge like an American foot-ball or basketball player. You can take a
footballer and put him in a sample, and he’d look 100 percent beautiful.” Summing up the situ-ation,
George Quariashi, co-editor of Howler, says, “It’s really hard to overstate how famous the most
famous soccer players are on a global scale.”
Derechos de autor: José Roberto Concha V. PhD, Julio 2020. jrconcha@icesi.edu.co