Super_Ally 0 Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 With the announcement today that Rangers would be donating prizes to raise money at a special Diwali festival in Glasgow this weekend it appears the club, under Whyteâ??s stewardship, are making real efforts to enhance the clubâ??s global appeal. The generosity of the club to this predominantly Hindu and Sikh festival comes in the same week that the Rangers were the first Scottish club to launch a Hindi twitter commentary to allow greater access to club news amongst the Asian community in Scotland and further afield. It also follows hot on the heels of the impending trials of I-League stars Sunil Chhetri and Jeje Lalpekhlua. We have previously made tentative steps to appeal to the larger footballing fanbases in English speaking countries with Claudio Reyna, Da Marcus Beasley, Craig Moore and Kevin Muscat having donned the light blue. And currently we can also boast the talents of Maurice Edu, Carlos Bocanegra and Alejandra Bedoya from the US and Matt McKay from Australia. However, the current efforts to break into any prospective Asian market seem to be more wide reaching with an obvious and well thought out strategy. Unlike our Glasgow rivals, this does not appear to be a mere scatter gun approach to signing foreign footballers from whichever country we stick a pin at random on a world map. Later this month Chhetri and Lalpekhlua, the biggest star and young pretender to the throne of Indian football will arrive for their trials. And should either or both prove of sufficient quality to merit a full contract then the profile of the club will be enhanced in their home country alongside these other initiatives to make the club more available and more appealing to the fans back home. Online social media is a positively booming market and it makes good business sense to open up the club to any potential fans who donâ??t speak English or even to make the club more appealing to different ethnicities within Scotland. Add to this the publicised charity work to which the club is employing itself and Rangers are demonstrating that we are a far more inclusive club than the media would like to portray us. This is a clear and distinct strategy which the club is employing to get a foothold in to what they must see as an emerging football market or perhaps as one Gersnet poster has hypothesized, to make the club more appealing to the Asian community in Scotland. I have often criticised what I saw as a foolhardy agenda by our neighbours across the city to buy in most often Asian and Oriental footballers to try and sell their perceived global brand. There seemed to be little evidence of any appetite for Scottish football in these countries. Particularly when competing with the PR machine of Sky and EPL football and La Liga in Spain too. It is still doubtful whether there is a real opportunity for Scottish clubs to take advantage of in Asia and I have yet to be convinced by any real evidence to the contrary. However, Rangers appear to be taking this very seriously. Bringing in the leading talents of Indian football, making the club more accessible to Hindi speakers via Twitter and the World Wide Web. Enhancing the clubâ??s reputation within the Asian community at home and perhaps abroad by supporting charitable and religious causes. Also in sending our Business Development manager to India to forge links within the Indian League and with its member clubs. It is a multi pronged charm offensive by the club to widen our appeal and steal a march on our rivals in what we must see as a potentially lucrative market. Time will tell whether this strategy will bear fruit but it appears to have more thought and consideration put into it than merely signing a top named player and hoping their supposed star status alone will sell a few shirts in Tokyo or Beijing or some other far off city. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 (edited) We made No.1 most popular article for the 24hrs between Sunday evening and Monday evening on Newsnow for the second week in a row mate. Well done! Edited November 21, 2011 by Zappa 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super_Ally 0 Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Just not as popular on here. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Just not as popular on here. It's just because people have basically already discussed it in the other thread mate. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super_Ally 0 Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 It's just because people have basically already discussed it in the other thread mate. Just a joke mate because this thread had no replies. I'm not fussed. If I brought a bit more traffic to the main site then great. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 It would be brilliant if between us all we could manage to get an article out every Sunday evening (when we aren't playing a match on a Sunday) because the interest for reading them on quiet Sunday evenings seems to be excellent. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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