Marketing to the Kent Community – A Charlton Athletic FC Case Study

Like a phoenix out of the flames, Charlton Athletic Football Club has established itself over the last decade as a modern, professional club both on an off the field.

Having returned to its spiritual home, the Valley, after eight years on the road, playing at different grounds, the club has established a core, loyal following. So why and how did the club position itself as a successful club on and off the pitch and why did they market themselves to the Kent community, a decision which may not have been an obvious one at the time?

‘Corporate Social Responsibility is at the heart of the club said Steve Sutherland, Commercial Director of Charlton Athletic Football Club.  ‘A football club is the heart and soul of the community and we weren’t there for our community for 8 long years when we were playing at other grounds.’

It’s no wonder that their approach which has won many plaudits from government and inside the game has made it a central activity not just in the immediate South East London area but the surrounding counties such as Kent and abroad.

Steve illustrated the club’s ethos by talking about the Charlton Community Trust, an initiative which began when the Charlton returned to The Valley in 1992 with just one member of staff, a bag of footballs and a telephone.  This has now grown into an organisation that employs hundreds of football coaches and comes into contact with thousands of youngsters on a weekly basis.    Steve said, ‘All community initiatives undertaken by Charlton are now under one arm, which can take on projects and apply for funding that the football club itself can’t.  The wider picture is that not only are we using the power of football, and other sports, to target, educate and help hard-to-reach people through a huge number of programmes, we are also taking the name of Charlton to its community.  The advent of the trust means we will be able to even more effectively deliver a strategy to ensure that all our community work is geared towards the four main government targets around reducing crime, improving health, raising educational attainment and increasing pathways to employment.

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in staffing, income generation and Charlton’s reach across the South East, with a huge amount of projects and programmes being delivered in Greenwich, Bexley and Kent. Said Sutherland: “All of our efforts are geared towards becoming a community-orientated organisation. It’s all part of developing a sustainable business case in which all our community activities ultimately lead to the expansion of the Charlton brand and the supporter base of the football club.  This is now widely known as ‘return on social investment’, and many other well known brands, such as Marks & Spencer and EDF Energy, are developing their business strategy around this philosophy. Corporate social responsibility is increasingly becoming important, and we are ahead of the game in the football sector and should be able to capitalise on our community investment by increasing our commercial return over the coming years.

Steve also demonstrated some of the other steps that the club has made to re-engage its supporter base since returning to the valley.  These have included:

• Incorporating a college and gymnasium on site whilst its Training grounds in Eltham have its Academy/Professional and community facilities next to each other
• Taking the strain out of visiting a match by putting on the Valley Express.  For just a fiver, Kent fans, on match day, can get transport via coach to the Valley.
• Affiliating itself fully with all of the Kent media.
• Producing training initiatives for kids of all ages throughout Kent including estates sessions, the Charlton Challenge award scheme, Toddler Soccer, literacy and numeracy courses, fun football courses, beach football, curriculum coaching, after-school coaching etc
• Free roadshows and community events throughout the summer across Greenwich, Bexley, Kent and Bromley.
• Expanding its operation overseas, with officers carrying out pioneering work in deprived communities in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa, and, from 2008, Kingston in Jamaica.
• The club through its trust also runs courses enabling people to gain their first coaching qualifications, and many youngsters who have started out on football courses have progressed to gain a coaching certificate and then employment with Charlton Community Scheme Solutions, becoming role models to their peers in the process.
• Strong database management.  Segmenting and incentivising its customer base with keen prices including special offers for season tickets.

And the spin-offs.

The transformation from a wasteland with no facilities, and a commercial department of 8 in a portacabin to a team of 250 working in a modern professional stadium is astounding.

Having one of the biggest community projects in Europe not only has attracted plaudits but full grounds, sponsorship partners and maybe even the next major star its community projects

Ian Lockyer, Chairman of the Kent CIM said, ‘As Branch Chairman, I believe it is important to show our members the marketing success from over the entire county.  Charlton Athletic is a success story on and off the pitch and through many sound marketing initiatives has made itself the largest football club serving South East London and Kent.’

PS the escorted tour of the ground was excellent, worth the entrance money alone.  Gave a great insight to the running of a football club.

To keep up to date with Kent Branch activities go to http://www.cimkent.co.uk