Commercial side

[HenneysKnee]

We should take a few tips off the rugby, their commercial side absolutely [SwearFilter] all over ours

[patrickstarfish]

The club missing out on money matters.

The club letting the fans down every year matters.

If like some fans at the moment you think it doesnt matter because we have a millionairre owner and we can spend what we want then thats not good at all.

Of course that matters, but as I said, I don't believe that to be the case. Missing out on money? So you think that people who would've bought a shirt in June won't buy one in July?
Club letting down fans every year? Different regime, first year, and let down how? Not having a few tracksuits or polo shirts to take away on summer hols? Letting fans down is sticking the ticket prices up loads or moving the club 75 miles away. It just all needs to be kept in perspective.

On the subject of the new shirt, some people never wanted to like Player Layer from the day they heard about it, so they don't now. I think the shirt looks okay, but unless you want it as some kind of fashion statement, why does it matter what it looks like, other than having the badge and some white/blue bits?

What planet you on like?

[Moribund]

Of course that matters, but as I said, I don't believe that to be the case. Missing out on money? So you think that people who would've bought a shirt in June won't buy one in July?
Club letting down fans every year? Different regime, first year, and let down how? Not having a few tracksuits or polo shirts to take away on summer hols? Letting fans down is sticking the ticket prices up loads or moving the club 75 miles away. It just all needs to be kept in perspective.

On the subject of the new shirt, some people never wanted to like Player Layer from the day they heard about it, so they don't now. I think the shirt looks okay, but unless you want it as some kind of fashion statement, why does it matter what it looks like, other than having the badge and some white/blue bits?

Your posts are all over the [SwearFilter] place!

You the above doesnt matter originally.

Then that turned into " of course it matters"

Which later in the same sentence reverted back to " i dont believe that to be the case"

I guess plain English is beyond you then. Here's the dumbed down version:
Of course THE POINTS YOU RAISE matter, but as I said, I don't believe THE CLUB ARE MISSING OUT ON MONEY AND THEY ARE LETTING THE FANS DOWN.

You probably did understand, but I'm pretty sure most of what you post is just trolling.

And kids aren't gonna not follow Barrow because the kit looks a bit naff. Jesus. To quote the poster above, what planet you on like?

[Steeley]

The club are missing out on money though, that's a fact.

[The Real Slim Azza]

The club missing out on money matters.

The club letting the fans down every year matters.

If like some fans at the moment you think it doesnt matter because we have a millionairre owner and we can spend what we want then thats not good at all.

Of course that matters, but as I said, I don't believe that to be the case.

So it does matter that we are losing money and the fans are being let down?


What did the club do to promote Fathers Day this year?

What plans did our commercial manager have in place to capitalise on the occasion?
Its not about selling stuff for fathers day its about asking more killer questions like ' Does your dad have a season ticket? no? well here is a leaflet we have an early bird special on at the moment so if he pays every week to get in then he can save money this way and you can pay monthly aswell' . The shirts are in next week aswell if he brings that leaflet back with his information on then theres a 5% discount on the shirt this year.


Have a look on barrowafccommercial.com and see when it was last updated then try and tell me we arnt paying for a service that we arn't using therefore LOSING MONEY. Would you want your business being on a website last updated in July 2014 ?

Compare that to http://www.barrowrlfc.com/ which Advertises The Furness Building Society account on the home page which theyve set up so you can apply straight from the site, the Club Shop is on the homepage , the lottery they do is on there, season tickets for adults are only £120 and you can pay on thier via paypal which takes seconds!


The club doesnt sell itself or what it has to offer very well if at all. Ive had stories from the past season where people have tried to book 10 people on corporate but they can't ring up to book it because the telephone is unmanned or their email wasnt replied to. If we look as if we don't want the business then we won't get the business.

Not really a commercial idea but we want kids involved in the club more so why for example havnt we made plans for a couple of players come up for a week to do a kids training week at somewhere like the leisure centre. Leaflets could have been handed to schools by now and we could have 25/30 kids now excited to be coached by a Barrow AFC player. 2 Children with the best attitude get season tickets.

[Bigfathoss]

I find myself agreeing with a former member of this forum (and TicTacToe etc...) a fair amount on this matter. The club is in a very good financial position for the first time that I can remember so I am not overly concerned about the commercial activities from a revenue perspective. It needs to be sorted (and I think it will be) for the future but my concern is that it seems that very little is being put in place properly to make the fanbase feel warm and fuzzy about the club. I expect to hear, in coming days and weeks, that we shouldn't worry about the revenue incoming from shirt and season ticket sales, that the commercial department are getting to grips with things, that the shop will be fully stocked in time for the start of the season...but that isn't the point.
This was a new start. This was when early supply and some extra close-season effort would have kept a wave of publicity and good feelings pulsing around the town. This was when we could have pointed to our set-up and proudly claimed to 'be back'.

It doesn't bloody feel like it does it?

[McMark]

Hopefully improvements will happen and not before time! The last posts by a former member of this forum and Hoss just brings things into prospective on the right way and the wrong way to run things commercialy. People only want the club to be as successful as possible at the end of the day. Well done a former member of this forum, you don't half bang on though!

[The Real Slim Azza]

Well done a former member of this forum, you don't half bang on though!

Its nice to finally have people understand my frustrations with the club.

It took a lot of banging . I feel like Kie Hayman after a Freshers week.

[spirit of 1990]

The club missing out on money matters.

The club letting the fans down every year matters.

If like some fans at the moment you think it doesnt matter because we have a millionairre owner and we can spend what we want then thats not good at all.

Of course that matters, but as I said, I don't believe that to be the case.

So it does matter that we are losing money and the fans are being let down?


What did the club do to promote Fathers Day this year?

What plans did our commercial manager have in place to capitalise on the occasion?
Its not about selling stuff for fathers day its about asking more killer questions like ' Does your dad have a season ticket? no? well here is a leaflet we have an early bird special on at the moment so if he pays every week to get in then he can save money this way and you can pay monthly aswell' . The shirts are in next week aswell if he brings that leaflet back with his information on then theres a 5% discount on the shirt this year.


Have a look on barrowafccommercial.com and see when it was last updated then try and tell me we arnt paying for a service that we arn't using therefore LOSING MONEY. Would you want your business being on a website last updated in July 2014 ?

Compare that to http://www.barrowrlfc.com/ which Advertises The Furness Building Society account on the home page which theyve set up so you can apply straight from the site, the Club Shop is on the homepage , the lottery they do is on there, season tickets for adults are only £120 and you can pay on thier via paypal which takes seconds!


The club doesnt sell itself or what it has to offer very well if at all. Ive had stories from the past season where people have tried to book 10 people on corporate but they can't ring up to book it because the telephone is unmanned or their email wasnt replied to. If we look as if we don't want the business then we won't get the business.

Not really a commercial idea but we want kids involved in the club more so why for example havnt we made plans for a couple of players come up for a week to do a kids training week at somewhere like the leisure centre. Leaflets could have been handed to schools by now and we could have 25/30 kids now excited to be coached by a Barrow AFC player. 2 Children with the best attitude get season tickets.

I've understood exactly what you've been banging on about but it's how you do it at times (well, most of the time) that can be annoying, but that simple little post worked fine.....perfectly put with good, simple ideas & no slating or calling people [SwearFilter] for not agreeing with you.

Perhaps it's one that deserves a reply off the club.

[Hadrian]

Lots of good points made in this thread, even though some are repeated ad nauseam.

It's easy to understand why the retail side of the business has been so poor over recent years, given the lack of personnel on the non-football side. There was scepticism on here several years ago when I suggested that the most important signing the business could make would be an administrator; I stand by that. Perhaps others who have experienced frustration over responses to communication would agree. Similarly the incompetence in the past over membership applications/renewals. I don't believe that anyone, employee or director, would be doing anything other than their best but an organisation of this side needs an off-field structure with appropriate people in place for specific tasks. Martin Lewis did a lot of good for the club beyond his fund-raising role in terms of attending to clients and providing a welcoming face for clients of the room-hire business but his departure left a significant hole.

The new régime took over very late before the start of last season and have made progress both in establishing a vision for the future of the organisation and moving a number of plans into action. It would be sensible to look at what has gone on as a base year (a good one on the football side) and to judge the new season as the first proper test of intent, organisation and image. I would expect a series of 'launch' events as the new season gets under way.

Communication is important and my experience this season unfortunately has again been of letters and some emails unacknowledged. Use of the NWEM and BBCRC (perhaps The Bay, too, but I don't receive that) for footballing matters remains good but those organisations tend to drive that themselves to an extent. I can't get over-excited by the ongoing 'one website is better than another' debate with fancy features less important than complete and up-to-date information - most people are looking for a simple way to access various information. I know from experience that keeping a website up-to-date is much harder than establishing it in the first place - try looking at the 'News' section of many organisations to see what I mean - so perhaps focus on fewer areas and do them well in the short term. Continuing news of activity other than first team football will help build general interest in BAFC and its links with the community.

We have been promised shirts before the season starts and PlayerLayer appear to have a well-developed offer with a range of garments likely to become available at fairly competitive prices (for branded sportswear!). A contact at Durham University speaks well of the quality of their goods, especially the rainwear. Some is even UK made. (Though the team shirts are likely to come from the Big Factory in Beijing* that supplies Adidas, Nike, Puma, etc.) As for the design of the team shirt, it does the job perfectly adequately.
[* or Bangladesh/Bangkok/Bien Hoa/Bandung, etc]

No-one would doubt the need for a retail offer both in a shop and online but too much can be made of this. A small number of pocket money items in the shop is a good idea but trying to sell, for example, individual pencils online is unlikely to be an effective strategy. A small stock of clothing and other merchandise, refreshed through the season with an additional item each month as a previous item sells out is likely to build interest and sales. At the end of the day though the retail offer beyond the annual shirt splurge is unlikely to develop an income approaching other areas of commercial activity and should as such be kept in perspective.

Ground development will happen but land acquisition and then pre-application discussions with the LA will take time. It may be possible to infer from what was said last summer and what has or hasn't happened since that this may be a different project from that originally suggested. There's not too much point in agonising over what may or may not be happening until something concrete (Hmm) is available to be announced. In the meantime we are back to communication and sometimes it is worth saying that there is no news at the moment but activity progresses behind the scenes.

[The Real Slim Azza]

As for the design of the team shirt, it does the job perfectly adequately.

Interesting use of the word 'Adequate' . This is something which represents us , it's supposed to be something fantastic and instantly recognisable. Something which shouldn't "Do a job" or be "Adequate".

No-one would doubt the need for a retail offer both in a shop and online but too much can be made of this. A small number of pocket money items in the shop is a good idea but trying to sell, for example, individual pencils online is unlikely to be an effective strategy. A small stock of clothing and other merchandise, refreshed through the season with an additional item each month as a previous item sells out is likely to build interest and sales. At the end of the day though the retail offer beyond the annual shirt splurge is unlikely to develop an income approaching other areas of commercial activity and should as such be kept in perspective.

This is the point though, the people working in the shop should be questioning the fans that come in with an aim of trying to sell on further things. Fans are customers and if we can save someone a few quid per season by letting them know Season tickets work out cheaper then we should be letting them know about it. Granted it won't work every time but should we get 20 extra season ticket holders this year then that could easily be 40 extra next season then if we are playing well this might rise through word of mouth (Ive got a season ticket now and it works out a lot cheaper in the long run). This should be the same with new shirts , trust membership, tickets to next weeks game, Furness Building Society account etc people need to be informed about them or they won't spend money on them.

Imagine someone who knows nothing about football trying to buy something off us for the first time. Seeing the state of the online shop and then taking the risk on the club shop being open at the time they visit.

" Its my dads birthday and he wants a Barrow shirt, I tried to order one online but I can't and the shop was closed when I went so I just got him something from town instead"

If we have a fully functional site which is advertised on facebook and twitter ETC then this sort of stuff won't happen and it provides revenue and if we do things correctly then we may sell a few more things on top.


Potential customers go into banks to open a bank account and end up switching mortgages, home insurance, car insurance etc because theyve received a good service from that particular bank.

Fans enter the shop with a view to a potential purchase. If they buy one of your pencils then with an effective sales process in place theyll leave with a season ticket, a shirt and a signed copy of "John Littles Polka Hits" on LP

[SKIPPER]

We should take a few tips off the rugby, their commercial side absolutely [SwearFilter] all over ours

Ironic that one of the leading lights in the eggchasers commercial operation is John Spoor who is I believe a former school colleague and good friend of Paul Casson.

[Wintergreen]

Hmm...call me a cynical old, conspiratorial, suspicious, misanthropic so and so but would that be the ‘old friend’ who recently retired ‘early’ from RL? Hmmm… http://www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1217508

[SKIPPER]

Hmm...call me a cynical old, conspiratorial, suspicious, misanthropic so and so but would that be the ‘old friend’ who recently retired ‘early’ from RL? Hmmm… http://www.nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/b ... -1.1217508

Great minds think alike ! The same thought did cross my mind.

[Hadrian]

Thanks for the positive comments, a former member of this forum.

I take your point about upselling (although attempts to promote it are often one of the disheartening aspects of the retail experience) and I accept that the shop is a window on the company/BAFC experience as a whole.

Certainly persuading a few dozen new folk to buy a season ticket is going to be better for the company than selling a couple of hundred extra shirts.

I can't get over-excited about shirt design, so long as the quality is decent (as those from PlayerLayer promise to be) and wonder how a white shirt with blue trim goes from being adequate to fantastic. Any good examples? (White or otherwise)