Challenges Faced By Local Football Clubs In Merchandising In Botswana. A Case In Gaborone

DECLARATION

 

I hereby declare that the project entitled “challenges faced by local football clubs in Botswana in merchandising a case carried out in Gaborone” submitted for the final year project is my inventive work and the project has not twisted the basis for the honor of any degree, associate ship, companionship or any other similar titles. The information incorporated in the project is factual and original to best of my acquaintance.

ABSTRACT

 

The study basically were to conduct data from local football clubs in the premiership of Be mobile in Botswana and the researcher were intended to collect data on the basis with regard to challenges faced by local football clubs in merchandising. The studies were conducted in Gaborone in different football clubs with the hope of getting different opinions on challenges clubs face in merchandising. The other thing the researcher wanted to seek out were the major challenges regarding promoting merchandising this possibly had to do with the straggle local football clubs face as they tend not to well reason being they lack money to use in developing stronger and competitive team.

 

The other most important aspect is how the clubs engage themselves through the use of promotional events to able people around Gaborone to know what their team offers and places where they could easily find their merchandise, also the prices of their product that are on special. The study initially were to conduct data on issues concerning the merchandising by local football clubs that in most of the time able the clubs to maximize profit that the club can use to pay bills and also to fix necessities the sponsors cannot fix in a specified period of time.

 

Furthermore local football clubs in Gaborone found it hard to maximize and sell t-shirts to supporters as they are expensive so making it difficult for supporters to buy. What leads club t-shits and other products being flag, stickers and headwear to be expensive is due to the local teams having to consent with local clothing companies that sponsors them and they sell merchandise with the hope of closing the gap of agreed contract with the club which might be of three to four years deal.

 

Merchandising being the most important aspect in football to aid clubs to perform well and stay competitive were taken into account and made the researcher to seek out challenges that affects the clubs, as to say respondents from local football clubs did participate in giving accurate information concerning their side of view on the challenges affecting their teams respectively in merchandising.

ACKNOWLEGEMENT

 

The researcher would like to appreciate and thank all individual who help during the research. The researcher also like to applaud the supervisor for giving an opportunity to venture into the environment to learn both soft and hard skills for acquiring information needed to complete the study. Investigate also would like to give thanks to the local football clubs that able the research to be effective as they did not hesitate to give information that some at some point it was confidential during acquiring data.

 

The investigator would also like to express the deepest idiom to lecture Ms Tefo, who have the altitudes and the essence of genius as she continually and convincible conveyed the courage of voyage in regard to reviewing work progress time and again for my research to be solid and attractive. Furthermore also would like to thank Botho University for having introduced business management in their institution as it have fully equipped and mold with ego to be a competitive student that will change the world somehow in future.

CHALLENGES FACED BY LOCAL FOOTBALL CLUBS IN BOTSWANA IN MERCHANDISING. A CASE IN GABORONE

 

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

 

The motivation of this study is based on the encounters local football clubs face in Botswana in affection to merchandising being sporting wear and promotions the local football clubs can use to maximize cost. This regard the fact that merchandising plays a very big role of identity to supporters as it make clear clarification on individuals to tell which one supports which team looking at their merchandise which the club provide. Basically merchandising comprises product exhibition, pricing, store design, promotional events and sales-driving skills targeted at raising the profile and the profits of local football clubs according to Beech and Chardwick (2004) defines merchandising as “product exhibition by an entity that basically shows their products and also promotions are taken in to account with the aim of making people aware of the products they offer so that they can maximize their profit”. As to say the merchandise being clothing wear and products of the football club entails club logs and year the club was established also it is a must to have the log of the organization which sponsors their league so that they are symbols that one can tell which club it is.

 

Merchandising to the club can be provided by the organization which sponsors the club for instance All Kasi sponsors Extension Gunners with full merchandise and it sells full kit with their label to other teams in the Be mobile premiership league. The clubs can also find its way out to strive hard and find its self the merchandise as the regulation of football Association in Botswana does not allow the teams to partake in the league competition without putting on full kit. Merchandise to clubs change every new season as to say supporters are to purchase new products as a way of showing loyalty and support to their club. According to www.cmsolicitors.co.uk/news/sports-law/merchandising-licensing-football states that merchandising in football gives competitions, clubs and leagues the opportunity to exploit their own brands as well as the image/brands of their players. This study it is also influenced by the fact that in most cases supporters are identified without putting on their club jerseys and even products of their clubs such as flags, water bottle and head wear during live games broadcasted by Botswana Television.

 

To support the case undertaken, according to Deloitle and Touche (1998) reveal that in FA premier league merchandising has decreased from an average of $5.34m per club to $5.24, thus resulted from the club selling the jerseys with high prices that disadvantage the supporters to buy with high numbers to give support and add value in terms of revenue income. Furthermore to support this according Dolles and Soderman (2004) states that “particularly sales in football it is made by supporters with regard to tickets and merchandising”.

 

The Botswana premiership league is sponsored by a mobile phone operator Be Mobile to the sum of 30 million pula. After the South African ABSA premiership, the Be Mobile league is the second highest sponsored league in the COSAFA region. The league has continued to grow in leaps and bounds as shown by the swelling number of foreign players in the Botswana premiership league Local football league as compared to South African side and Europe suffers when it comes to merchandising.

 

When it comes to raising money the club can generate cash by selling merchandise to their supporters, the cash they acquire from selling the merchandise are the cash they use to buy players from outside Botswana and also from the clubs they compete with in the league. The revenue tickets they get from the gates on home games they use the money for transport, accommodation and food while they are on away games. The business agreements they have with the club sponsors assist them in selling their brands and also their merchandise with higher pace. As per say the collaboration between two entity can assist the team to stay longer in the league as they assist the club with cash to buy utilities for training and also to buy quality players that can help the team to win the league.

 

Background of the problem

 

The Botswana Premier League, currently known as the BTC Premiership for sponsorship by the mobile organization, is the highest level football league in Botswana. Structured by the Botswana Football Association, the league has existed since 1966 and was initially called the MLO Cup. Participants in the first edition of the league included Tlokweng Pirates, Notwane, Black Peril, Queens Park Rangers and a team from Ngwaketse district.

 

 Due to most of the team in the premier league having no stadiums they use the national stadium as their home grounds only clubs that are in Gaborone take advantage of the venue issued by the Botswana Premier league committee. As to say merchandise and products of the club are hardly seen in a situation whereby the club fills up the stadium putting on the club merchandise. Since Gaborone is a city that have got lots of people it will be fortunate for the club to advertise the games earlier to make everyone aware of the game and as to say selling also can be taken to account to make supporters to take the sporting code into account. As football bring families and society together it is a great pleasure to see the whole friends having to go on same t-shirts of the same club not a situation that will results in no buying of t-shits of local clubs but rather of international clubs in stadiums due to poor communication and clubs based in Gaborone.

 

Teams that are from Gaborone and surrounding areas are given the opportunity to take advantage of the National stadium and uses it as home ground by so doing every home matches they are responsible to acquire gate revenues. This resulted as in the first half of the season, each team plays once against each league opponent, for a total of 15 games. In the second half of the season, the teams play in exactly the same order that they did in the first half of the season, the only difference being that home and away situations are switched in terms of home and away games change of t-shirts as they cannot play with t-shirts that the same also the home team collect gate revenue as they will be the host..

 

Football here in Botswana creates employments for city people as they will have to run out of the streets and stay out of steal but rather find in best to work in the manufacturing and retail shops that manufactures product and also for promotional events for local football clubs around Gaborone and some of small business tend to go and sell soft drinks for the supporters at the stadium which is very important in their lives as they can manage to make money for a living.

 

Problem statement

 

Local football clubs in Botswana do not have better alternatives to sell their merchandise to their supporters which results in the club to end up having no money at all resulting them not to be able to buy players during transfer window period and the club even fail to pay players resulting the club to loss games as there is no morale in players. The promotional events in all club branches is case as the clubs only do that at the press conference during coming in consent with the new sponsorship that will be sponsoring them for the new season, that affect supporters outside Gaborone because they will not be able to get needs and wants from the club service due to the kit available only in Gaborone and at some point resulting no buying by people in the area where the new kit is being marketed to make people aware of it and its brand sponsor.

 

Research objectives

 

The main objective for this research is to investigate the challenges faced by local football clubs in Botswana towards merchandising. The specific objectives for this study consist the following;

 

V  To seek out the major challenges regarding promoting merchandising.

ü  To examine challenges they face when marketing club products where their branches are located.

V  To seek out the merchandise chain supply to supporters

 

Research questions

 

1. What are the challenges faced by football clubs in marketing their products in Gaborone?

 

2. Why is it that their products are not on high demand as compared to of South African league?

 

3. What do you they use to market products in terms of advertising?

 

Significance of the study

 

This purpose of this study were to investigate why is it that local football clubs in Botswana cannot take into account to maximize their sales and also to create platform that they can even acquire more supporters from people who does not like football.

 

The other point is that this case was to review disadvantages and limitations that the locals did not consider as the resourceful tool to able their local clubs to grow excessively adding more value to the careers of football players to be able to have the chance to go and play abroad. Also the importance of this study was to seek out challenges local clubs fails when it comes to merchandising regarding the fact that the clubs can get access to new sponsor in the interest of the club kit and performance.

 

Revenue income in terms of sales it is the main importance of the study as the club sell merchandise and the other reason is what happens when clubs does not acquire any cent from selling club products and having to host promotional events.

 

Furthermore the purpose of this is to investigate the challenges faced by local football clubs in merchandising. The paper is to add to the already scant literature in this arena. Most importantly, this paper will expound on tentative issues that could help and assist stake holders in the field with more resolute mitigations to address the identified challenges. The researcher hopes this study would be forceful change driver in the transformation of local football merchandising.