Wednesday, December 16, 2009
For millions of people, including me, the football World Cup represents sporting nirvana. Next summer in South Africa 32 nations will battle to come out on top in what Pele famously described as “the beautiful game”.
Nonetheless, its beauty has come under particular scrutiny recently following the outcry over Thierry Henry’s dextrous ball control that helped decide the World Cup qualifying play-off between France and Ireland. As a result, there has been a clamour for football to follow rugby union, tennis and cricket in using video technology to ensure that crucial decisions, which often determine the outcome of key games, cannot again be held up to ridicule.
Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, and Michel Platini, the UEFA president, are implacable opponents to the use of technology, arguing that the game should be played in the same way on the local park as it is in the World Cup final. They are backed by Franz Beckenbauer, the FIFA vice-president, who maintains that the introduction of technology will dilute “the emotion of the game”.
Whilst following the coverage of this affair, it occurred to me that Messrs Blatter, Platini and Beckenbauer, however knowledgeable they are about the game, are guilty of ignoring a fundamental principle of communications – listen to your audience.
It’s hardly rocket science. Listening to your target markets leads to a greater understanding and a greater propensity for responding to, and anticipating, their requirements.
Marketing strategies and their accompanying product and service plans are too frequently developed and implemented on the basis of perception rather than reality. At the very least, organisations should be crystal clear on market drivers, customer pain points and how their products or services bring tangible value over and above the competition. To rely on intuition or old data in this age of widespread choice is a commercially risky game to play.
Most companies engage in some form of generic market intelligence gathering. Enhancing that intelligence with targeted, topical research – using online surveys or social media tools – can help deliver effective and resonant marketing activity grounded in reality rather than perception.
There are a number of obvious flaws to the outdated stance of football’s governing bodies, not least a failure to appreciate that the vast majority of fans are sick and tired of the frequent errors made by referees – errors that could be eradicated simply by using readily available technology. The governing body is not listening. They are out of touch with the reality of the modern game.
But I, like most football addicts, could never contemplate leaving the game for another sport.
How many businesses are confident enough in their own customers’ brand loyalty to risk not listening to their needs?
Carl Kemp
Carl.kemp@greentarget.net