Re-Branding the Bulldogs .. West Melbourne or Footscray not Western

[omega centauri]

The national brand names - KFC, Carlton Draught... can't think of others because I look away when the ads come on - sponsor the AFL, not any particular club.

"Working class" companies aspire to be something classier and won't associate with or couldn't afford to sponsor a "working class" club. This is exactly the kind of image we have tried to leave behind. Why should we forever be called the "blue collar" club, or the "working class" club? It's as bad as the class distinction in Britain, where you can never hope to rise above your "class". A disgusting concept.

No, you're not a marketing expert, that's obvious.

And it's Western Bulldogs, not Western. The two go together.

Saying Western and working class poor = the same thing
Eastern and middle/upper class rich = the same thing
IMO saying Western makes us Working class
Hence, we will forever be a Working class club
Western will always sound poor, but just like that rags to riches Williamstown, Footscray is on the comeback.

We are still broke after 15 years of this charade. So mentioning money just doesn't wash with me. AFL guarantees us another 5 years (tv deal), the perfect oppotunity to clean out the office and bring in real business and a new image and jumper.

 

[Rocco Jones]

As a few of you already know I have a facebook group dedicated to the club returning to the '54/traditional jumper. Whilst I probably prefer the Footscray name, the group isn't about Footscray vs Western, it's just about the jumper.

If you have facebook and are keen on the jumper change, please join the group by following the link and clicking 'like'. Cheers.

http://www.facebook.com/BulldogsTraditionalJumper

 

[JJHunter]

Provide you with a business case? I bet you will be able to critique it with your excellent business sense. Get yourself on the board mate, you must have it all covered, demanding business cases from no bodies on the net. Give it a rest. Flog comment on your behalf.

Your post was a good one and totally agree with you on most points.
My point about a business case is logical whether you like it or not.
The people on the pro Footscray side are willing to vote the name back without doing due research and putting forward a business case. The exact same thing they accused the board of doing all those years ago.

So when these people are willing to put something to a vote without knowing the possible affects or risks to our club as a business I think its an uninformed vote.

I do back you though in your opinion that there could be work done by the club to investigate the risks and benefits of a name change as well as looking at what the name Western has done and will do for the club. I back a push for a report on the subject like it sounds you might - I don't back uninformed people voting to change a name (and there have been plenty in this thread) when they have so little educated facts about it what it may mean purely based on sentiment.

 

[GlovedLikeGrgic]

Explain why we havnt had an above average membership or sponsorship growth as the Western Bulldogs? Our growth is on par if not lower then other clubs since 1996

 

[JJHunter]

Explain why we havnt had an above average membership or sponsorship growth as the Western Bulldogs? Our growth is on par if not lower then other clubs since 1996

Frankly no one has to explain it. We currently trade as the Western Bulldogs and unless someone can convince the club it will be in the interests to change to Footscray they don't have to do justify how Western is performing unless there is evidence or a case put forward that we would do better as Footscray.

You may want to keep re visiting the past but its not about that. Its about whats better moving forward and as the pro footscray group want the change its ultimately up to them to convince people of its benefits.

What you say may be true doesnt mean that there will be an improvement as Footscray does it ? Why will our membership grow more dramatically as Footscray ? and Im talking 2000+

membership too is just one part of the jigsaw.. there is profitability... marketability... so many more aspects than membership although membership a major player.

 

[Eastdog]

As I said in an eariler post if we were successful and had a lot of premierships like Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorn etc we would gain support because of that success and people would support us no matter where you come from. Hawthorn has a big supporter base because of the success in the 1980s. Kids growing up in the 1980s if you ask them a lot of them go for Hawthorn. Geelong now will haved gained more supporters as a result of their recent successes. If we had that behind us this thread about rebranding would not be brought up. Other clubs dont change their name to get more support. North Melbourne who dont have a large supporter base did to just the Kangaroos but they changed back North Melbourne. Both sides of the debate have some good points.

 

[SonOfScray]

Glad to see some more reasonable discussion occurring. Thanks all.

Cyclops - fair point you've made, of course you aren't going to do something like invest in a project like re-branding without doing the ground work.

Beyond that, is anyone aware of what the measures put in place to evaluate the change might have been? With so much water under the bridge now its too hard to separate the name change from any other facet of the marketing strategy. Still if you were doing it today, I'd expect as a member to have some clear milestones and markers for success. Hopefully they did put some things in place, but I'm not convinced that the Club at that point in time was too savvy, maybe those concepts weren't common practice then, I don't know.

What are the figures you'd want to see that would really indicate the move to Wesrn has been a success?

 

[CamTinley]

Glad to see some more reasonable discussion occurring. Thanks all.

Cyclops - fair point you've made, of course you aren't going to do something like invest in a project like re-branding without doing the ground work.

Beyond that, is anyone aware of what the measures put in place to evaluate the change might have been? With so much water under the bridge now its too hard to separate the name change from any other facet of the marketing strategy. Still if you were doing it today, I'd expect as a member to have some clear milestones and markers for success. Hopefully they did put some things in place, but I'm not convinced that the Club at that point in time was too savvy, maybe those concepts weren't common practice then, I don't know.

What are the figures you'd want to see that would really indicate the move to Wesrn has been a success?

If you went back to Footscray you're not rebranding you are unre-branding.

Just like ... Coke --> New Coke --> Coke

 

[Beasley]

This is a non-issue. I would rather the club concentrate on developing a premiership team.

 

[Eastdog]

This is a non-issue. I would rather the club concentrate on developing a premiership team.

I agree Beasley

 

[MadeinWA]

hi bulldogs. i just wanted to say i thought it was lovely when you changed from footscray to western. the sunshine, altona and braybrook kids can play too!

 

[Fossie 32]

hi bulldogs. i just wanted to say i thought it was lovely when you changed from footscray to western. the sunshine, altona and braybrook kids can play too!

Yeah - now for the Saints to become Southern, Hawks Eastern, Bombers Northern....... etc

 

[jackb_93]

The hoops are back! Simon Garlick has just announced and presented the new jumper at the Best and Fairest.

http://yfrog.com/j2vyxnj

 

[MadeinWA]

Yeah - now for the Saints to become Southern, Hawks Eastern, Bombers Northern....... etc

hey weve seen crazier things. who would have ever thought 25+ years ago that fitzroys home ground would be in sunny queensland

 

[fred cook]

From the Herald Scum

REIV statistics show the median house price in western suburb Footscray rose 156 per cent in 10 years

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mo...lvertail-suburbs/story-fn7x8me2-1226161611109

Geez the loser town and all the losers bogans, druggies and no good people must
have money

 

[memberforever]

hey weve seen crazier things. who would have ever thought 25+ years ago that fitzroys home ground would be in sunny queensland

Fitzroy doesn't exist

 

[hirdy_is_champ]

I don't mean to but into your forum, but as someone who wasn't old enough at the time to remember the goings on, can I ask how much of this name change had to do with the negative connotations that are associated with the suburb of Footscray itself? Was it something that was spoken of much at the time, or was all the focus on the expanding of the brand etc.

 

[memberforever]

I don't mean to but into your forum, but as someone who wasn't old enough at the time to remember the goings on, can I ask how much of this name change had to do with the negative connotations that are associated with the suburb of Footscray itself? Was it something that was spoken of much at the time, or was all the focus on the expanding of the brand etc.

Focus is to expand the brand and take in all of the Western Suburbs of Melbourne

 

[immortalmike]

I don't mean to but into your forum, but as someone who wasn't old enough at the time to remember the goings on, can I ask how much of this name change had to do with the negative connotations that are associated with the suburb of Footscray itself? Was it something that was spoken of much at the time, or was all the focus on the expanding of the brand etc.

Yeah at the beginning it seemed to have alot to with the negative connotations and the condescension of rich, upperclass people to us poor drug-addled bogan/wogs/asians in Footscray. The general feel was of "okay we'll save your club but first we have to make it barely recognisable". More recently the club has changed the official reason to the one about expansion and appealing to the broader west Melbourne area.

You know despite the fact that Footscray always were the team of the West and often marketed towards the entire Western suburbs much like Collingwood, Carlton and your club have done with the whole country while still keeping their traditional suburban name. The good news is the club has finally decided to at least start to mend fences with our past and tradition and we are more the Footscray of old now than we've been since 96.

 

[acker]

This is a non-issue. I would rather the club concentrate on developing a premiership team.

How can it be a non-issue ? Smorgo signed off on changing the name in 1996, obviously something had influenced the Chairman

I suspect as a new President Smorgo wanting change, the 1992 movie Romper Stomper possible re-location thoughts to Western Sydney were influences that were on Smorgo's mind 15 years ago.

15 years on I now think as a club using 2 Generic Australian football code names, we are needlessly painting our selves into a corner.

Lets look our competitors sharing our names

Western + West

Western Force (Rugby Union)
West Tigers (Rugby League)
West Coast Eagles (Australian Rules)
Greater Western Sydney (Australian Rules)

Bulldogs

Canterbury Bulldogs (Rugby League)

Footscray is a unique name already associated with our club and the suburb has lost a lot of the stigma of the 1990's

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Rename West Coast to Perth Eagles, and GWS to Blacktown Giants. Easy.

 

[acker]

Yeah at the beginning it seemed to have alot to with the negative connotations and the condescension of rich, upperclass people to us poor drug-addled bogan/wogs/asians in Footscray.

I have been described as Bogan
I have been described as Redneck
I have been described as a National Party Voter although my Grandparents were proudly working class
I have been born in Western General
I have a Vietnamese Brother in Law
I have family ties still there
I still love my club although I have moved interstate

When my club won it's only premiership it was called Footscray

I still love the club, but will always have a connection to the club name Footscray

 

[MadeinWA]

my wife is from sunshine and we frequent the western suburbs to visit family once a year when we see the fam including footscray. I as a perthian west coast supporter find it very comforting and awesome to see a working class clubs culture still competing in modern footy. the bulldogs working class culture is something to be proud of not to be ashamed of. its a pro not a con in my opinion. One of my favourite things to do is chuck on YEAR OF THE DOGS. now thats what a footy clubs all about.

 

[MadeinWA]

and i was also very excited to get my photo with teddy whitten and doug hawkins statue out the front of the braybrook pub. haha i am such a footy nerd. i was surprised to see that someone had defaced dougys though by painting white lines under his nose

 

[acker]

and i was also very excited to get my photo with teddy whitten and doug hawkins statue out the front of the braybrook pub. haha i am such a footy nerd. i was surprised to see that someone had defaced dougys though by painting white lines under his nose

Those statues in Ballarat Road still make me feel proud of our heritage as well.