Sport and Co

Fred Perry Brand Story (Part 2) ------ The Value behind Sponsorship and Endorsement

A great majority of sports brands all have a similar preference for event sponsoring and celebrity branding due to the characteristics of this industry. It is no doubt that sponsorship and celebrity endorsement, as traditional marketing tools, have especially valuable functions and significant roles in the competitive context. It is the fact that big brands like Nike and Adidas are more attractive to famous celebrities’ involvement thanks to their huge budgets and strong reputation, and the degree of brands’ popularity and reputation usually depends on the influence of celebrities as well. Fred Perry has, however, followed different strategies of sponsorship and celebrity endorsement to compete against its rivals and leading brands. These different strategies reflect different ambitions and meanings behind the sponsorship and celebrity activities.

Creating a Tennis Iconic Brand

As a sportswear brand relevant to tennis, Fred Perry is a long-term sponsor of Wimbledon, the most prestigious tournament of Tennis, which is an effective shortcut to raise its brand awareness. The audiences of Wimbledon are its potential consumers. The sponsorship activities are beneficial for the brand to make a good impression on the audiences in a relatively quick way. And they will associate the brand with sports and tennis when talking about Fred Perry, which helps the company to build a tennis iconic brand. The growing brand awareness and iconic image increase the sales and boost the financial results.

Moreover, lots of tennis players, as you can see, are constantly sponsored by a variety of sports brands, and they always wear sports clothing emblazoned with recognizable brand logos on tennis courts. Because tennis is a highly lucrative sport around the world. Fred Perry once signed a sponsorship deal with British tennis player Andy Murray, a Wimbledon winner. He was picked by the brand thanks not only to his popularity and reputation but also to his personal image synonymous with the brand image. According to Fred Perry chief executive John Flynn, Andy Murray was regarded as a Fred Perry-type person who is a rebellious individual with thoughts. Fred Perry successfully created a tennis iconic image with individual and rebellious personality who also knows own mind through its sponsorship of Andy Murray. However, accompanied by the end of sponsorship contract, Andy Murray won a five-year contract with Adidas in 2010 thanks to his growing reputation, which paid him more than 10 million euros as a return.

Comments Triggered by Andy Murray’s Leaving

With Andy Murray’s leaving from Fred Perry, there was a hot debate triggered in the society. Some commenters said that there were no top tennis players wearing Fred Perry sportswear now. Some blamed Fred Perry for no longer sponsoring any tennis players. Some explained that Fred Perry only sponsors tennis players from native Great Britain according to its usual practices, but now there were no top tennis players from Great Britain on the ATP World Tour except for Andy Murray. Some believed that it was tough for Fred Perry to compete against some big brands such as Nike and Adidas. Some expressed that Andy Murray’ leaving did not influence Fred Perry, and it had freed up a big enough budget to sponsor new tennis players, but it was just there were no right players appealing to it. Some criticized that Fred Perry should make great effort to keep Andy Murray, and he looked distinctive wearing Fred Perry, Adidas was instead doing a terrible job of sponsoring him, and he always wore the same clothing throughout the year. Some hoped that Fred Perry would look for new tennis players so as to retain its position in the market. Some thought it did not matter if Andy Murray wearing Fred Perry made the brand be first perceived as a fashion brand instead of sports one.

Expanding New Target Groups

To cope with a number of competitive challenges from fellow giants, Fred Perry intended to expand its target audience beyond the tennis audiences and fans. It targeted working class kids and youngsters through sponsoring the Urban Cup table tennis tournament. Richard Martin, Fred Perry marketing director said that the brand creator Mr. Perry had been a table tennis winner before he first won the Wimbledon tennis champion, and he also was a working class guy. Fred Perry planed to make an investment of around £300,000 to develop its sponsorship activities including sponsorship of table tennis events and table tennis star Darius Knight. To encourage more kids and youngsters to get involved with sports, Fred Perry expressed its willingness to increase its investment budget. Besides, Fred Perry has collaborated with Bradley Wiggins, the Olympic gold medal winner and first Tour de France winner, to launch a new range of clothing with classic and vintage cycling elements in the recent years. It reminds consumers that Fred Perry has still targeted sporting market and kept links with sports and world-famous athletes through endorsing Bradley Wiggins as its model. The performance and effect of these strategies will be presented in the conclusion part since I need more time to think about it and more research to prove my answers.

Repositioning of Brand

To reach a wider audience, Fred Perry has got involved with music cultural events. It has become a sponsor of Dot to Dot Music Festival, which is a music festival held in Great Britain. Fred Perry takes advantage of the popularity of this festival to draw wide attention of music followers. It exercises the attraction of music to build a connection between its brand and consumers, and raise the brand’s profile as well. It is shown that Fred Perry is not just a sportswear brand, and it is rather different from other brands. The sponsorship of music events helped Fred Perry to successfully rebuild its brand image blended with sports, rebellion, and fashion. And it succeeded in creating a blend between sportswear and street wear.

Moreover, Fred Perry has developed good partnerships with a variety of recognized musician and bands including Paul Weller, Damon Albarn, the Gallagher brothers, and The Wanted. One of the most noteworthy is that Fred Perry invited Amy Winehouse, a music and fashion icon, to design and market a collection of her own clothing. Fred Perry targeted Amy Winehouse thanks not only to her strong influence in music and fashion domains, but also to her preference for Fred Perry. She used to wear Fred Perry clothing when performing in public and during her real life. The key factor of successful celebrity endorsement is that celebrities are really interested in the brand and are crazy about the brand. Otherwise, partnerships will generate shallow and superficial effects. As the brand’s designer and spokesmen, Amy Winehouse’s popularity and influence helped Fred Perry to maintain its strong brand and maximize its competitive advantages in an incredibly effective way.

Sources:

Murray ends Fred Perry sponsorship deal

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/murray-ends-fred-perry-sponsorship-deal-1814472.html

Andy Murray set to lose out in new clothing deal as lucrative adidas contract ends

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2867063/Andy-Murray-set-lose-new-clothing-deal-lucrative-adidas-contract-ends.html

The man who bet his shirt on Andy Murray at Wimbledon

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jul/03/fred-perry-andy-murray-wimbledon

So,no top players are using fred perry clothes right now...

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/so-no-top-players-are-using-fred-perry-clothes-right-now.344685/

High Net Worth: As Andy Murray celebrates Wimbledon win, who are the top ten richest tennis players in the world?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/celebritymoney/article-2355923/The-worlds-richest-tennis-players-Where-Nadal-Federer-Murray-rank.html

Fred Perry targets 'working class' kids with table tennis sponsorship