West Ham’s move from Upton Park to the London Stadium in 2016 came along with a host of promises to take the club to a new level: European football and a sixty thousand capacity stadium almost full each home game is certainly a big change from days of old. The ECL trophy after 43 years of waiting was indeed a level above anything that had come before.
Now the club is looking to break a new market using the popularity of some of the higher profile players – Lucas Paquetá and Luis Guilherme’s appeal in their home country of Brazil – to help spearhead the Hammers’ push to grow their brand in that part of South America. Sportwitness.co.uk report that West Ham, along with Everton: “have signed an agreement with Destra Brand Licensing to increase their presence in the Brazilian market. The main target of the agreement is to connect with more fans in that area of the world.
They’re the latest in a growing list of clubs to move into the Brazilian market, with Destra’s portfolio already including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Newcastle United.”
A huge market, Brazil’s football-crazy population of 212 million people – three times that of the United Kingdom – explains the move. West Ham’s Brazilian stars will no doubt be featuring heavily in that marketing campaign as the Hammers seek to increase their global brand reach. If the Hammers cannot match the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona on the pitch, at least they’re being mentioned in the same sentences as Europe’s finest. It’s a start.
If you visit Brasil you will see ALOT of people wearing European clubs’ football shirts, often with the name of their favourite player on the back.
I would suggest that there are four main reasons for this:
A – There are numerous dedicated football channels on TV and they show a huge number of matches from the top European leagues live, with different broadcasters featuring different leagues
B – Like a lot of supporters around the world, if a local player is transferred to a European club then the supporters of that local player’s club follow him very closely and will watch all matches that he features – if the club is successful, plays attractive football featuring the skills of Brasilian player(s), wins trophies etc then they start supporting the team and IF replica shirts are available they they may buy one
C – The European club’s kit must be manufactured by an international brand that markets their products globally – NOT a small niche brand that appears to have no commercial interest in global sales in markets like South America (eg Umbro), kits need to be Adidas, Nike, etc
D – Brasil is an incredibly dangerous and violent place if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, IF you’re wearing the shirt of Club A and you cross paths with supporters of Club B you could be in serious trouble – a few years ago a foolish Glaswegian wished to see a Corithians match in Sao Paulo and chose to wear his Celtic shirt to the game, BUT the green and white hoops were very similar to the kit worn by Palmeiras at that time; the press reported at the time that he was surrounded by Corinthianos with knives and was only saved by one man who recognised the Celtic shirt and was able to get him out
By the way, claret and blue isn’t a favoured colour combination in Brasil, so the shirts of West Ham, Burnley, Scunthorpe and Aston Villa could do well IF they have one or more Brasilian player and win trophies while playing football that’s positive, attractive, on the front foot, and features the Brasilian players (ie not sitting on the bench)
I live part time in Colombia AND have spent time in Brasil. I can attest that everything Brasilerao has written is true.
PS- Very few people in Cartagena played any attention to West Ham before I got there.
Apparently they like a bet out there as well.
It is, as you say Martin, a start, and a great idea. Hoping to see Guilherme feature tomorrow.