I've had just over a week to try and repair my broken heart: the 2010 South African World Cup was supposed to be the year that England returned to the British Isles basking in World Cup glory. I, like many other footie fans truly believed we would do it, more so this year than in any year. I'm not sure why I had such blind faith; perhaps it's the economic doom and gloom of the past 18 months that meant we had to win the World Cup just to lift the mood of the nation (particularly with all the cuts that the new coalition are about to introduce). Or maybe I was duped into believing James Cordon and Dizzee Rascal as they jumped and frolicked about on stage cheering on the team, encouraging others to "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough," or maybe I believed David James' confidence when he claimed: the Germans are "...a strong side, ranked sixth in the world, but we are not fearful of them at all. We are confident we can beat them. We have got through the qualifiers, the group stage, into the knockout, and we are confident we can make the British happy by beating Germany." Whatever the reasoning behind my now apparent gullibility - what I do know is that I am hopping mad at the lack of an apology for the woeful performance, and shocked at the apparent complacency of the England squad; how on earth do the FA expect to repair the damage that has been done?
As a marketer, I am acutely aware of the need to ensure that whatever brand I am responsible for I show it some love, nurture it, protect it and at times defend it. If there is negativity surrounding my brand, I need to counteract that negativity with a positive, if a person in the organisation I work for acts in a way that will damage the brand - I need to be on the ball to ensure that external stakeholders are made aware of what action the will be taken to "make things better." England fans do all of this - they are incredibly patriotic and my goodness they love their team; in fact they are a fabulous example of the emotional side of engagement that Gallup has done extensive research into. Gallup identified four related perceptual components that build an overall emotional link, tying customers to a brand - these are:
• Confidence
• Integrity
• Pride
• Passion
The two first levels of brand attachment are the basic requirements for customer engagement; England fans demonstrated high levels of pride and passion for squad in the run-up to the world cup and throughout England's short campaign. Rooney (despite his half-hearted apology) after the England v Algeria game did an incredible amount of damage to the England brand when he criticised the England fans who quite rightly booed the shocking performance of their beloved team. Feeling valued, appreciated and personally respected are all critical elements of pride and can be felt by both customers (in this case players) and the brand. Rooney and subsequent other members of the England squad appeared to be doing their utmost to destroy any pride they had in their team and by Jove - England fans were anything but proud of the Squad - if anything - they showed great passion with a desire to tell them exactly how they felt!
Fans' feeling of disenchantment was exacerbated by the 4 - 1 thrashing by Germany (who let's face it - have a jolly good chance of winning this year although I am now cheering on Spain). England completely gave up - although I am sure if the disallowed goal had been allowed I wouldn't be writing this blog and the result would have been very different. This "goal" was the one decent thing that Lampard did throughout the campaign and despite being disallowed - you would've thought that these stupidly rich footballers would've put some wellie into their performance and not allowed the thrashing that took place in the 2nd half?
Anyhow - over the past week or so I have been thinking about what these so called men could do to try and repair the damage they have done to the England brand - damage done not just through their woeful performance but through their inability to take responsibility and blame everyone else other than themselves. Rather than whinging about being tired, bored, under pressure and blaming their manager (who - is the best thing to have happened to English football - these chaps have had it way too easy up until now - it's about time they had some discipline introduced to their oh so charmed lives and started "working" to achieve their ambitions). I do agree that Capello made some dodgy decisions - Heskey being one of them but I am not going to go into a rant about that! Perhaps the FA could take a leaf out of the Nigerian president’s school of thought? President Goodluck Jonathan's announcement that he is suspending the Nigerian team from any international competition for two years following their poor performance made me chuckle! However, such punishment would have little impact on the England squad as football in this Country is all about club football - which I believe is part of the inherent problem when it comes to England's performance on the world stage - again, this is another blog!
I would favour the FA taking a leaf out of the CSR school of thought. As we see pictures of Lampard sunning himself in Santorini with soon to be fiancé Christine Bleakley, maybe he would've been better off staying in Jo'burg and giving back to the Country that spent an incredible amount of money hosting the World Cup but continues to neglect its' people? In fact - I think the entire squad; Capello included would do themselves and brand England a whole lot of good by donating some of their millions to much needed urban regeneration in the Country where they over promised and under delivered. Despite not getting paid a salary for playing for their Country - we are under no illusion that the England squad are really just big boys living the dream - they earn ridiculous amounts of money for kicking a ball about and have issues taking criticism. By giving something back to the Country that hosted them I believe they would be able to make headway on winning back some of much needed respect from their fans. They could also do with showing some accountability - I am 100% positive that by holding their hands up and rather than blaming their schedules, the manager, boredom or discipline - if they just said yes - we were rubbish, and we're sorry - England fans would feel a lot better about their teams' early exit from the 2010 World Cup. A sincere apology and some charity would go a long way in my eyes - and you never know - I might, just might, start building myself up for the Euros in 2012 and start supporting my team again...
