Cardiff City - A Bluebird turns into a Dragon, and back again
a tale of commercial vs marketing


So, a glorious instance of how not to re-brand anything....but an interesting case study in forging into  new sports markets & sport marketing / rights opportunities.

I am sure you know the background but the Malaysian owners of Cardiff City FC wanted to re-brand the club's look and feel...and no ordinary re-launch either especially with a £100m "investment" attached.

The plan was to change the brand colours, brand logo, brand identity of a bluebird, and seemingly throwing away the heritage. The proposals included:

• The team would play in new red shirts, black shorts and red socks, with a blue kit for away games.
• The team name would remain 'Cardiff City Football Club', but the Bluebirds badge would be replaced with a dragon emblem

The reasons given for the change were that Vincent Tan and his fellow Malaysian investors believed the new colours would 'represent the fusion of the two cultures of Wales and Malaysia', and that new supporters, sponsorship and sales opportunities would come from Malaysia as a result of the changes.

A tad naive perhaps?!

The fans have been vitriolic in response, taking to facebook, twitter, online forums and youtube, all of which is understandable from a fan perspective and a marketing one too.

Delve into the story however and you discover that "the brand" Cardiff City FC has outstanding debts of around £30m, which would be paid off by the investment, as well as Vincent Tan currently funding the club to the tune of around £1m a month - an input that has already totalled close to £40m.
Both amounts would have been wiped out by the proposals with the club’s backers willing to turn their debt into shares instead.

So where was the "fan insight"? Probably a classic case of "boardroom research" from the owner/MD who has anticipated what the Malaysian fans would like - red shirt and a classic dragon! A wonderful example of a robust research sample size of one - "I like the idea, therefore I am doing it!" Trust me I have seen these a couple of times in my career, sometimes right, but more often not.

I am also not quite sure what a fusion of Asian and Welsh looks like but this obviously wasn't the way to do it. The quick and dirty rules of re-branding need to be:

 - Get buy in early on in the process -  seek to engage with fans & stakeholders
 - Alienate your core fans at your peril - especially with the passion of football
 - Don't go for wholesale change immediately....if you do go for a dramatic re-brand consider doing it gradually as you will lose all your fans and current revenue sources.
 - Highlight the brand qualities - 100 years heritage being one of them!
 - Get the insight and translate that into the brand essence.

Would Cardiff FC get more fans in Malaysia? Actually, maybe. If they did get more fans, merchandise revenue, sponsorship, TV broadcast would the change be worth it?
Naturally there needs to be balance between brand and commercial, but could the changes translate into a better brand?

After all although the Welsh Dragon is a mythological creature it is also a powerful symbol of a proud Welsh nation linking past, present and future. It features on the national flag Y Ddraig Goch and dates from around 829 AD. So perfect branding for Welsh football team! Albeit Wrexham got there first with red and dragons.
In Malaysia the dragon also symbolises power and divinity, and as red is the national colour of Malaysia, they see it as a lucky colour and believe the change would give them more chance of a foothold in Far East markets.

You can see why the leap of faith was made!

In an open letter to fans the Chairman Dato' Chan Tien Ghee apologised for any offence that was inadvertently caused and to emphasise the plans were in the best interests of the club. He also highlighted that Cardiff City FC is in a poor financial  position:
“It is clear to all concerned that the club simply cannot continue to function and exist in its current state, effectively losing large amounts of money each month, while acquiring more and more debt. We have continued along this path until the end of the current season, but the club inevitably now faces bold and real world decisions should we want to see the club survive."

Owner Vincent Tan and Chairman Dato' Chan Tien Ghee

My solution would be a compromise between commercial needs and income and marketing/brand integrity: Transition the brand from blue to red shirts keeping the bluebird logo. Alternatively make the away shirt red and sell that in Malaysia. Introduce a dragon that befits the Welsh and Malaysians. Then maybe change the logo. However all backed up by research and a collaborative, involving process to avoid embarrassing leaks.

As in the world of brand marketing, in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), service brands, anywhere, the "classic" steps for sports marketing should ideally be the same:

Conduct a brand audit - facebook, twitter, website, blogs, forums - what are the fans saying about your brand? What state is the brand in? Profitable? Cash strapped? (Cardiff City FC has 39k likes on fb, depending on which page you look at! and 18k & fans on twitter)
Set a budget - how much do you want to spend on research & ultimately a re-brand if you need to?
Seek insight - desk research, field research, find out what the key stakeholders are expecting from any re-launch.
Share the journey internally & externally; that classic phrase of "no-one likes surprises" seems to have been overlooked by the Malaysians in this case


Given the swift turnaround by the Malaysians, and no comments such as "well our quantitative and qualitative consumer and fan research said", it would appear that Cardiff City FC will, for the time being, still be known as the bluebirds, but will the investment remain?