NOTE: The team behind the All Red membership scheme have responded to some of my criticisms and put the scheme in its wider context. You can read their response here.
I will be a Liverpool FC for ever. I don’t have a choice about that. But the new membership scheme not only fails to make me feel more of a part of the club but actually makes me wince at its crass, pathetic attempt to promote my club to its own fans.
I’d always wanted to join a Liverpool fan club when I was younger (I was a young boy who liked joining things) and snapped up the chance to join an official supporters club when it launched. It went through a number of different guises and I drifted in and out because the benefits were so marginal. To get 10% off a club shop which was then too small to fit more than 10 people in and without a reliable catalogue mail order system (this was early 1990s before the internet) was not particularly useful. I joined one of the more recent versions, principally to make sure I was on the season ticket waiting list (10,200 last time I asked) and to get a fancard to be able to buy tickets.
I joined the new one (originally called ‘Belong’ but now called ‘All Red‘) to try and get priority on ticket purchases – the holy grail in a 44,000 seater stadium.The re-brand was sensible because to call it ‘Belong’ would bring it in breach of the trade descriptions act. I joined on the 13 July, through the online purchasing system. I got an automated receipt which didn’t feel like a welcome to a club (see below) and even referred to my ‘purchase’ with yet another brand name.
Receipt I received on joining
The membership pack arrived last week – or over 8 weeks after joining the club. It was well put together with the packaging forming part of the presentation box. The contents were naff; I can think of no better word to describe a red hat and a scarf which lacked a club logo (the sort of thing that would attract comments on the Kop) and a mousemat – who uses a mousemat? The DVD interview with Benitez might be ok – but I haven’t watched it yet because I suspect it’s the outtakes of the interview he did for LFCTV at the end of the season**. It certainly didn’t feel like an exclusive or behind the scenes insight. There wasn’t a membership card because apparently last year’s are sufficient.
In fact, last year’s scheme included the all together less embarrassing key ring of the club’s crest (which I still have) and a little branded notebook (smart emough that I use it to record thoughts on the game).
And since joining, I’ve not had a single chance to buy a ticket that I couldn’t have purchased elsewhere. As this article in The Times makes clear the new scheme is basically a money making exercise. But in the current climate, I don’t even mind. I want Liverpool to have more resources to buy players. It would be great if Rafa had the resources with which to compete in the transfer market with United, Arsenal, Man City or even just Aston Villa. It’s just that All Red is particularly bad.
What’s particularly frustrating with all of this is that Liverpool FC is, in my experience, excellent in its dealings with fans. Yes, there are the gripes over the operation of the ticket office. But senior club staff have met with fan groups such as Spirit of Shankly and when I wrote to David Moores (then chairman and majority owner) as a teenager, he called me personally for a chat. When I tweet @lfctv I usually get a reply. On my wedding day, my best man organised a personalised certificate of congratulations signed by the first team squad. The people in the ticket office have always been good to deal with, the stadium tour people great; I even get on with the stewards I recognise from European trips. So if the club can do it so well so often on a day to day basis, why is All Red so crass?
Perhaps it’s difficult to create a single scheme for all fans in all parts of the globe with so many different experiences, different ages and expectations. But it must be sensible to give some careful thought how to treat the fan who goes to matches 5-10 times a season but can’t get a season ticket. And to develop a membership scheme as de-personalised, unwelcoming and off-hand as this one really takes some doing.
Any of the following must be possible and – although corny and slightly manufactured, would all be good value for money at twice the price:
- The birthday card from your favourite player
- The invitation to watch reserve team games at a discount*
- The exclusive monthly email with analysis from Kenny Dalglish
- The regular competition to win a chance to play on the pitch at half time
- Or even just countless ‘exclusive opportunities’ to spend more money?
- At little cost you could even get exclusive emailers / letters with diaries from some of the more high profile reserve team players or former pros
And if you wanted to be really clever, you could even use the purchasing history to target people by geography and match-going experience so that you didn’t offload crap merchandise on people who regularly go to Anfield, offered targeted travel opportunities for supporters from overseas and tried to get non match going reds from around the country to go to see them play when possible (even a: you live near Peterborough, why don’t you go to see Liverpool reserves play Peterborough next weekend).
As ever, I’d be grateful for the chance to discuss this with someone from the club. But if not, I hope there are some lessons for other organisations who are looking to generate revenue from people not directly involved but with a keen interest. If you want a model of how not to do it, this is the best I’ve found.
* My mistake – that’s already a benefit. Apologies.
** I’m told that the interview was specially recorded as an exclusive. This shouldn’t be under-estimated because I understand from other things I have done for sports bodies that getting access to senior managers and players is not a ‘given’ – even for the in-house media.
NOTE: The team behind the All Red membership scheme have responded to some of my criticisms and put the scheme in its wider context. You can read their response here.
