Ronaldo part of Real's global marketing plan - Essay Example

Ronaldo part of Real's global marketing plan Journal Carefully scrutinizing Real Madrid's marketing plan for the past years, we are un d to believe that the soccer team is not only aiming to recognition of its talented members. After Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, Ronaldo joined in 2002 the bench of the famous team. It is not surprising that these three players won the Golden Ball, the European award granted to the best player of the year in a European club. Ronaldo when joining Real Madrid won it for the second time the same year.

The analysis is simple. Real Madrid is betting everything on its players - in a marketing way. Florentino Perez, director of the club, even admits it in the article: "One of the most important things for Real is its image". In this context the investment of US$44.25 million to transfer Ronaldo from his former Italian club Inter Milan seems nothing in regards of the foreseeable benefits of the arrival of the player. Perez adds: "We will begin selling shirts bearing the player's name immediately and we are sure there will be a massive demand.

In five years we want to be in every country in the world." The statement proved to be true the very day Ronaldo signed his contract with Real Madrid. The player went to sign his shirt at the Real's boutique and broke all the records of soccer shirts sales in a day. A Ronaldo shirt costs 75 a piece. No Surprise Perez believes he will get his money's worth.Florentino Perez' strategy is obvious. He brings soccer stars from all around the world and offers them to the public. Who doe not want to see the best players of the world put together in a "dream team" Thus the skyscraping benefits of the shirt sales.

However products with the Real Madrid logo are not the only source of major income for the club.With the arrival of Ronaldo, the team signed a commercial agreement with Siemens to bear the name of the mobile firm company on the team's shirt. The market share of Siemens has grown from 17% to 21% in one year. And in the home country of Ronaldo, Siemens lifted his share of the GSM mobile phone market to over 60%.1 Without a doubt the contract binding Siemens and Real Madrid will be renegotiated for the years to come.

Finally the team won the 2002/2003 Liga (the Spanish soccer championship) with 22 goals from the new comer. And the Spanish super cup in the 2003/2004. Even though Real Madrid has not been very successful the last two seasons, the supporters are still there and the sales are not decreasing.The secret of this astonishing commercial success can be summed up in Florentino Perez' holy trinity: the players, the products and the sponsors. With the players he gets an extraordinary amount of people watching the games resulting in incredible sales of products and million euro contracts with the sponsors.

Believing that Real Madrid was on the verge of bankruptcy two years ago is laughable. However as the article states:"with a combination of good fortune and shrewd financial manoeuvring the club has escaped that threat." After the catastrophe was avoided, the club earned enough funds to buy these prestigious players and create a favorable economic environment. No surprises than, when in the summer of 2003 the club decided to contract the gorgeous tabloid cover player David Beckham. A move towards women consumers