Why China is in Evertons’ hands

Jun 7 2008 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

FORGET the gold medal winners in Beijing this summer – it’s Everton who are leading the way in China.

You won’t see them on the podium any time soon, however. In terms of establishing their own empire, they have entered the marathon rather than the sprint.

“It’s a 10-year plan,” said chief executive Keith Wyness. “We’re only three years into it but we are leading the way.”

How they are doing it is the big question. The seemingly impossible task of keeping up with the financial clout of perennial Champions League entrants such as Manchester United and Chelsea on the field would, you assume, be mirrored off it.

After all, everyone form Chorlton to China must crave ‘Ronaldo’ on the back of a red shirt, surely?

But Wyness says: “Other clubs have got it wrong I think, and that includes the Manchester Uniteds, Arsenals, Chelseas. They go in and concentrate on the merchandise sales.

“You’re seeing big problems in the market, shirts are being sold for 50p that sort of thing. So I think that’s a very hard market to focus on.”

“The scale is too big to be cost effective. We had to think outside the box.”

Or inside the box, if it’s television sets you’re talking about.

That’s the medium Everton decided to use to get their brand across, via Hunan, China’s second biggest TV network, on which they launched Soccer Prince – the search of China’s next football superstar that resulted in 19-year-old Jin Hui winning a stint at the club’s academy.

But it’s not the importing of talent show winners to Goodison Park that is the idea behind the scheme, as Wyness explains.

“A show with a big Everton content all the way through has been watched by 130 million people and that had been a huge success in terms of keeping our brand name up there,” he says.

The US version, Soccer Dreams, will air next year as the first of 10 more franchises the club are hoping to secure on the same format.

And in conjunction with this expansion – and underpinning the second series of Soccer Prince next year – will be a new drive to market the Everton Way, the online syllabus that allows players to be a click of the mouse away from taking the same route to the top as Wayne Rooney.

All of which leaves Wyness only too happy to buy into the labelling of the Soccer Prince show as football’s answer to the X Factor.

“Simon Cowell is a good example,” he adds. “Imagine if there was a course of how to become a pop star. It would have hundreds and thousands of wannabes trying to buy it.

“So we’re saying to people, you need this manual if you want to do well in the next series.

“A test sales drive in America has already got 10,000 subscriptions so from 130million people you would hope to see some numbers.

“But it is very serious and there’s nothing of this depth or quality in the market place so that is one of our big strengths for international development.

“And the TV show has been crucial for that platform to get what Everton stands for across. Everything falls into place behind that because it shows we practise what we preach and that suits the Chinese values.

“Trying to understand that culture is crucial. Rather than trying to impose Everton on them we’ve got to go about it the way they would accept it.

“They have seen too many clubs come in, had one meeting, promised the world, grabbed things, made a big mess and disappeared.

“We have been consistent in following up on what we promised, coming back again and again and we are now delivering things and they can see we are serious about it.

“It’s nothing more than what Everton stands for but we are just executing that over a period of time.”

Which is why it’s not just the Everton Way the club has to play along with though – it’s the Chinese way too. A philosophy of building trusted business links and relationships over time does, however, seem dangerously at odds with the quick-fix financial culture of the Premier League.

After all, there’s a transfer window ticking by and nobody is getting any closer to the Champions League monopolisers – even when Everton led the chasing pack this season they still finished 11 points behind fourth-placed Liverpool.

But Wyness feels that patience is a virtue that will eventually pay off when the long-term financial goals are realised.

“Everybody is impatient,” he adds. “But five years would be quick in this climate.

“I wish I could get results in a year because with the pressure of the Premier League you are always tempted to push that bit harder.

“But I know that’s the wrong way to do it.

“Even 10 years with the Chinese way is a very short time but we are building a strong foundation and it will go on.

“There has to be an ultimate goal to be revenue positive but you have to show willing first in China and we tried to balance that. We are doing it in the right way and winning friends.

“The big thing for me is when you are battling against the big four, international fans are like adolescent fans.

“A lot of kids go through a phase when they support one of the big four then suddenly they don’t any more.

“International fans are a bit like that but we explain what Everton stands for, the People’s Club and what we can give back it gives them a reason to support us and we win loads of fans.” Everton had a head start in China due to the sponsorship deal with Thai beer Chang and raw interest generated by Li Tie in his Goodison stay between 2003 and 2006.

But Wyness, who had business dealings in the country in previous jobs, knew he had to rely on more than just pure fanaticism to make inroads into the market.

“It’s also important to get government co-operation in China and play the political game,” Wyness adds.

“We’ve worked with B&Q and Tesco – completely separately from the Kirkby project – and with Shanghai Disabled Association, there’s two coaches out there working and we are the only club building those grass roots connections at political level.

“It shows we are interested in long-term commitment and giving back and it’s very important to be seen to do that in China.

“We are there for the long-term commitment at all the levels that matter so we are getting a good hearing from the government.”

Which can only be enhanced by the direct involvement Everton has had in helping victims of the recent devastating Sichuan earthquake, the death toll of which could yet rise to 100,000.

“It’s not something we would ever do with a big fanfare,” said Wyness.

“A good example was the tsunami. We worked very hard with Chang from the morning of the tsunami on the Boxing Day and we built a village that had been destroyed.

“We’ve already done quite a lot of fundraising for the earthquake.

“But we do it very quietly and would never look to make a marketing opportunity out of a disaster.

“That’s why we win friends – they know we are doing it for the right reasons.”