Why does Gazidis feel van Persie is the most marketable?

[sabret00the]

Basically, I've noticed that van Persie is speaking a lot nowadays. I highly doubt that he's doing it on his own, so i can only assume that this is part of Gazidis's marketing plan. I mean it's basic understanding that you have to get your image out there and being in the papers daily is a good way to achieve that by why van Persie?

Obviously most people would point to Fabregas, but we all know that only means an article on arsenal.com everyday refuting claims that he's Barca bound. <insert conspiracy theory about how the club isn't sure he's here long term here>.

Is Robin the best option? And is the additional exposure helping at all?

 

[fabo]

...Sabre is obsessed with Robin.

I like how Robin holds himself in interviews, bit of maturity and banter about him. Tbf whatever criticism he gets, he bleeds for this club and you can see how much he cares when he speaks.

 

[Lord Dula]

dont think it's a ploy

 

[Swish]

Why can you only assume it's Gazidis Sabre? I personally don't believe its a marketing ploy at all.

 

[banduan]

It's a PR ploy. Not directly to do with marketing.

You nominate spokespersons and make sure ideas go through them. Communications is about ideas and you want spokespersons who share your ideals and can thus communicate straight from the heart. You avoid those with thoughts elsewhere, you avoid those who might communicate the wrong message.

Unfortunately our PR seems to lack control over the Chairman.

 

[sabret00the]

Why can you only assume it's Gazidis Sabre? I personally don't believe its a marketing ploy at all.

I'm not sure I'd call it a ploy. But I also don't think Gazidis or anyone in management is letting players like Robin talk for talking sake. Since Gazidis has come to the club, the site has been at it's busiest churning out story after story and maintaining presence in the media. With how much Robin has been the face of that presence, you have to come the conclusion that this has at the very least been OK'd, if not pushed for by marketing. And marketing is what Gazidis's first point of focus/deployment is.

 

[Swish]

So who would you propose to be the spokesplayer instead?

Gallas can't open his trap for obvious reasons, Fabregas can't open his trap because the media put a Barca spin on everything he says, Walcott has come under criticisms from the fans from speaking and now van Persie is also coming under criticism.

 

[sabret00the]

Walcott needs to look up the word 'concise' and he'll be fine. But in regards to van Persie, I think he's the best choice in all honesty.

 

[scytheavatar]

Van Persie = most handsome, sexy of our footballers.

FACT.

 

[banduan]

It's not marketing at all... unless you have an incredibly broad definition of it.

 

[arsenalsocks]

Anyone else remember that clip of the interviewer askin Bendtner why he wore pink boots, and Van Persie leaning forward behind him and going 'it's all about the money with him'?

 

[sabret00the]

No? Link?

 

[arsenalsocks]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuJ0E1gpPTo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuJ0E1gpPTo</a>

 

[est]

Great! Like all those brilliant interviews Henry used to give.

 

[atmosphere]

Would marketing not be part of Tom Fox's job?

 

[Alfonso]

Well, he is one of the only few players in the squad that can actually speak English, which helps :wink:

Another factor is that he is media savvy, borderline charismatic and comes across quite intelligent (for a footballer anyway). The last time we had a player like this was Thierry Henry. He is also one of longest serving players so he knows Arsenal inside out and the right things to say.

In many ways RvP is a marketing mans dream, good looking, slightly edgy, footballistically sexy and comes from cool country. Women want to date him and men want to be friends with him kinda thing.

Even though I dont rate him as much as some on here, had it not been for his injuries he would have been one of the very big names in world football as he is the total package from a marketing point of view.

Plus, there is not much competition at Arsenal (imagine Eboue being our poster boy). Apart from Cesc who else could fulfil this role? Clichy I guess. But Theo has a long way to go, every time I hear him speak he talks in cliches.

I guess there is Arshavin too, who comes across very good as well, but he has only been here for 9 months.

 

[Arsenal in Aus]

I don't see this higher profile of RvP as an accident. The management of the 'business' side of the club is too switched on to ignore the public face of the team, namely the players that are used to represent the club to the public. Even tiny businesses care about whom of their employees are in the public eye. Businesses that advertise on tv for example use either their best looking and most eloquent employees, or actors. I have no doubt that a club as huge as Arsenal, with the club's obvious business acumen, would have put careful thought into which players should have a higher media profile (since they can't use actors!).

The club would consider a few factors:
1. Good looks - it's shallow, but no-one finds ugly players appealing.
2. Good spoken english - the player must come across as articulate and understandable. An accent is fine, even a bit exotic, but the player's speech must be easily understood. The club would also be conscious that to a British audience, some accents might be less appealing than others (it's not nice, but in my experience French and German accents aren't the most popular in Britain. And Spanish accents tend to lead the player to be referred to as a waiter - ring any bells??).
3. Longevity - a player must have been at the club for some time to have credibility.
4. Ability - the player must be good at the game to be popular and well received.
5. Attitude - a player who is percieved to have a poor attitude will never be used to represent anything, let alone a multimillion pound club.

RvP basically ticks all the boxes, and conversely very few of our other players do. He's an obvious choice.

 

[14teranga]

The obvious choice would have been Cesc but I reckon VP is the best option.
Obviously we are a young team with a passing game.

Cesc is young, captain, passmaster and good looking too. He's been here long enough to endorse to club's philosophy...
But he is a mild and lacks a bit of credibility with his Barcelona bounds and his interviews are not always the best. They lack panache and sometimes open to ambiguity. He can use phrases like "What can I say? I am an Arsenal player but you never know in football".

In the other hand Van Persie focuses on Arsenal in his interviews about the brand, the philosophy, what's important (the trophies yes but the other things). He is passionate when he talks, he likes his football, he is a long time gooner with the Bergkamp bound. Plus he is direct and clear with his thought. He is a good footballer, good looking, relatively young and has the talent to flirt with the WPOY. He also has a bit of a bad boy thing in him.

 

[Klaus Daimler]

I don't think it's a marketing ploy. Most of the articles surrounding Robin has either been about him being kicked in the head by that lanky City cnut or Robin himself saying that he's not happy with his form and that he needs to work more on certain aspects of his game. Or Robin saying that it's a necessity for strikers to go down easy sometimes when they're getting contact. It's not the stuff any sensitive PR agent would try to build a brand upon.

I think that the explanation for whatever amount of exposure Robin gets in post-match comments on the official site has got more to do with the fact that he's scored in three different games this past month. And that he was voted our player of the season last year.

 

[Captain]

Robin is our most marketable player by far. It's not even a debate.

Walcott comes second but he isn't really a guaranteed starter and is too young.