The Five Year Plan for a ‘Global‚’ Brand

Queen’s Park Rangers will take part in a pre-season tour of Malaysia and Thailand, beginning in Bangkok on 10th June. Courtesy of owner Tony Fernandes’ connections, which have already brought in the sponsorship of Air Asia, the tour is somewhat of an upgrade on the trips to the south-west of England that were commonplace during Neil Warnock’s time as manager.

Speaking to the ‘Daily Mail’, Fernandes said: “We are very excited and honoured to be heading to Asia for our pre-season tour. It is a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our brand in this part of the world.”

You heard it here first. QPR are now a “brand”, or at least, this is the intention over the next half-decade. This isn’t the first time a “plan” spread out over a number of years has been mooted at Loftus Road. Indeed, the previous owners’ commitment to their infamous four-year plan was absolute. The mention of the word “plan” still strikes fear into the hearts of supporters after the destructive reign of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone. Its notoriety is such that even a film has been made documenting the ups and downs of this initiative.

Things are different now, however, and it certainly appears as though the club is changing for the better. From the purchase of Warren Farm to the upgrade of the official website, Rangers’ image is improving as each week goes by.

In undoubtedly the most popular of all of the forward steps taken by the club’s management, the decision to freeze season ticket prices has assured that Fernandes and Amit Bhatia are held in even greater esteem by the fans.

The recent recruitment of Mike Rigg is indicative of the on-going development of the coaching set-up, and you can expect that signings will be made over the summer to strengthen a squad that requires only a handful of targeted, high-quality additions to properly compete in the Premier League.

Amid all these changes, however, the club recently parted company with one of its most dedicated servants, Lee Cook, who was released along with fans’ favourite Danny Shittu and a number of others, made 168 appearances for the R’s. Cook was instrumental in keeping the Superhoops in the Championship, and as a truly dedicated QPR supporter, it was always a joy to watch him wearing the blue and white hoops with pride.

I am sure that everyone would wish the winger all the best in his future career. Chances are you’ll catch him down in W12 more than once over the course of the five year plan.

Chris King

Twitter.com/chriskking

www.thearmchairpundits.com

7 thoughts on “The Five Year Plan for a ‘Global‚’ Brand

  1. Good to see the steps being taken and the quality of staff being taken on. For someone who started supporting the Rs in the late 50’s it is strange to have such a concentration of news on the non-player side. We just used to follow the team in those days and mostly didn’t have a clue about other things!

    I hope the Club will recognise the great contribution Lee made to our survival in some way.

  2. love the article, can we start making a song ours like blue moon for the nice manchester guys with blue moon?

    ( I hate the united for the Cantona and referee via ferguson delivered equaliser that put us down!)

    So I started with a quick one:
    Eileen tune.

    Come on Rangers…
    Oh, come on Rangers…
    Your my team . and your everything!
    Score me a goal, oh score me a goal, can’t you see that your everything!
    Rangers, do i do oh
    Rngers do i do i do love you!

    Bit shit but you get the idea, fast and slow singing makes a good impact and a funn song!

    Come on, come on rangers, come on, come on rangers

  3. Nice to see you give Lee Cook the credit he deserves may not have been the best player in the world but you would have to go far to find a player with the club in his heart and mind

  4. Food for thought on that mate good write up and thank you Chris for writing that for the site really sound of you

  5. Also my own thought on the marketing of our club we need to sort out places like the bush Ladbroke Grove Notting Hill Action Greenford and so on open up Qpr shops for the start of the season the club could give away in local mags free posters with the fixtures on it.

    Bill board posters in the local manner and so on lets face it you can dander round the bush and westfield and not know that such a great football club was on the door step.
    Nothing wrong with the worldwide idea but lets sort out West London and beyond as well

  6. Agree with Finney; we need to sort out the neighbourhood before flogging ‘the brand'(groan) around the world to people who have never heard of QPR & will always be more attracted to the likes of ManUre & Citeh.

  7. Lot of very good add on comments above – Yes we really do need to sort out the local areas nextdoor to Shepherds Bush, before the campaign to market QPR in far off shores where the club is unheard of.
    Some R’s may not appreciate this, but Fulham (groan yawn) have once again advertised their season ticket prices in the local newspapers by taking over the whole back pages…. They also have huge bill board adverts in Marylebone and Paddington stations respectively, again pushing their season tickets…. Can I add to that, these adverts from Fulham have been out for the best part of three weeks now!!
    Phil Beard and co need to get it right here before the oversea venture/plan takes off. I believe they should take a leaf out of the marketing plan at Craven Cottage…. Mind you in saying that, wouldn’t Fulham love the away support that QPR have been getting for the past two decades, no adverts needed for QPR fans to follow The Hoops away from Loftus Road…. we even took 1600 to Ibiza in 2003!

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