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| Source: Daily Mail |
The 1980’s -2000 was the decade of major development in
business and a jolly good time for the global economy. Advancement in
technology all over the world and the rise of the brilliant minds of the far
east countries many Japan played a pivotal role in the economic boom in all
major business sectors, even in the commercially developing football leagues in
Europe, many the Premier League and La Liga.
Japan in the 1980’s was booming many new industries coming
up and new innovations, gizmo’s and gadgets were introduced to the world. Many
companies were willing to invest in the Silicon Valley’s newest competitor and
the major Japanese giants like Sony, Toyota, Fuji, Panasonic, Sharp Electronics
and Canon were looking to tie up with foreign companies to build and increase
the global brand exposure. English football was and still is a popular hub for
these companies. One such example is the relationship of Sharp Electronics and
Manchester United.
Sharp was United’s first ever shirt sponsor from 1983 –
2000, one of Sharp’s lengthiest Sponsorship deal till lasting 17 years and
during the era when United won 7 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups, 1 League
Cup, One UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup (Now known as the UEFA Super Cup) and 1 UEFA
Champions League.
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| Source: MEN |
After Renaming in 1970, Sharp launched the first ever LCD
calculator and went on to build to design and manufacture radio’s, TV sets and other
small electronical devices until it set sights on the English footballing
market to get global traction and brand exposure with one of the most
successful and historic clubs in Europe. In 1983, Sharp signed a deal with
English giants Manchester United in a deal to make them the club’s first shirt
sponsor and kick started a new era of global brand endorsements in English
football. The deal for an initial 5-year period for 500,000 pounds. The amount
was a big sum back in the day but a rather small sum in today’s footballing
world as it would technically be as much as Alexis Sanchez’s weekly wages
including bonuses and other amenities. Sharp had a successful promotion of
their goods being part of a trophy winning side which saw global icons grace
and hold their products a grand photo shoot with the likes of Denis Irwin and
then manager Ron Atkinson endorsing the Japanese companies range of products
likes calculators, radio sets, printers and small generation 1 computers and tv
sets.
Due lack of technological advancements there were not many
specialised advertisements and hoardings per say but in their starting kit in
the 1982-83 season had Sharp Electronics printed. A smart move by a marketer
which would help understand the brand objective and recognition. The company
were new in the global market, not many people knew that they were an
electronics company. Sharp Electronics made a clear motive in a marketing point
of view. Gradually moving on to only Sharp when their brand became recognised
in the late 1980’s and once they became a household name in England, Sharp
decided to endorse their latest product of a Viewcam which debuted in 1993 in
their famous black kit printed Sharp ViewCam all the way to 1997. They switched
back to Sharp till 2000 and had a massive increase in shirt sales in the treble
season of 1998/99 especially their Champions League winning red kit and the
famous Adidas blue kit which was more of a trending fashion statement back in
the day with every massive United fan owning the kit worn during the FA Cup
final. Sharp also had a very famous controversial kit of the infamous grey kit
during the match against Southampton in which United wore their grey Sharp
ViewCam kit which was coinciding with Southampton’s home kit which caused too
much confusion and Sir Alex made them change during half time into their blue
and white strips kit.
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| Source: Squaka |
Sharp had a competition in the English Premier League with Japanese
Electronics company, JVC. JVC was Arsenal’s kit sponsor from 1981-1999.
Although they were two years before Sharp and one of the first Japanese companies
to invest in English football, Sharp was relatively stronger in a brand positioning
and marketability point of view, as United won more trophies in that period and
Arsenal were a lesser know club back then. Adidas, Arsenal’s kit sponsors
during that time and produced some exceptional kits, especially their famous
yellow JVC kit and their stripped blue kit.
Although, we can never judge a book
by its cover. As soon after Arsenal’s deal with JVC came to an end, one more
Japanese company SEGA, all geared up and ready to invest in Arsenal. It wasn’t as
it planed out for the video game giant. SEGA had launched its newest console
the Dreamcast one of the 6th generation console. The Japanese forked
out a massive 100 million in their marketing budget but, could grow the hype.
SEGA signed a deal with Arsenal with their latest Dreamcast logo on Arsenal’s
original home kit and the SEGA logo on their yellow kit. But, SEGA’s rival,
Sony had just launched its own PlayStation 2 console during that time frame and
sales in England were off the charts. There was so much demand for the much
advanced, both quality and quantity wise that Sony brushed past its competition
leaving SEGA into losses. The aftermath caused SEGA to become extinct in the
video games market and made it a thing of the history books. SEGA didn’t extend
their deal with the Gunners and was forced to cancel its contract with other
European clubs like Sampdoria. The heavy investment in Arsenal and very less
return on investment and lack of sales forced SEGA to exit the console market
thereafter.
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| Source: Getty Images |
A successful time with Sharp, JVC and an unsuccessful one with
SEGA in the 1990’s has still seen increase in Japanese interest in the English
football market with the likes of Yokohama tires signing a multimillion-pound
long term deal with Chelsea becoming their shirt sponsor by signing a major 200-million-pound
deal with Chelsea roughly estimating to 40 million a year for 5 years in 2015. The
deal the second highest earning per year, only behind Manchester United who are
on top with the 53 million a year deal with American car tycoon, Chevrolet.
Nissan, a major player in the Japanese car industry and in
the world, partnering up with the Premier League and become the official
sponsors of the Sky Sports Premier League covering all the weekend action,
previews, reviews, statistics. It was a masterstroke by the brand by promoting
the newly built partnership with videos of enthusiastic football fans in UK
rushing room to catch the weekends games in the newly launched Nissan vehicle.
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| Source: Sky Sports |
There hasn’t been a big Japanese player in the Premier in
recent times but still the likes of Manchester United have kept faith in small
and upcoming Japanese companies like Yanmar who are the Red Devils Official
Tractor partner, yes you heard right! Yanmar have launched a new tractor naming
it after United and it is also used to maintain the grounds of Old Trafford
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