Influx

As some of us were fortunate enough to witness at this Summer’s World Cup, there’s a global sport capable of turning normally rational people into highly irrational creatures.

To see just how huge a global following soccer has, take a quick look at this graphic from the recent Google Zeitgeist, showing the volume of searches by sporting contest.

For many soccer fans, the sport and their club is something they devote all their energies and with increasing ticket prices, most of their money too. After they’ve forked out their hard earned cash on tickets and merchandise, can clubs extract even more from them?

If you are Manchester United, one of the biggest sports brands in the world, the answer is affirmative, especially if you do something special like publish a book, but it can’t be just any
book, it needs to be one with the following characteristics….

- Limited edition- 1,000 only
- Signed by the Manchester United legends- Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton
- 400,000 words of great sports writing penned by the UK’s leading sports journalists
- Contains 2,000 images and illustrations
- Cost $6,000
- 800 pages
- Weighs in at over 80lbs

This is an extreme example of a one-off creation for fans only and only possible for brands with the stature of Manchester United.

However, for other brands with a loyal following, it’s worth thinking about and trying to answer the following question.

What can you provide for your loyal fans that’s high quality, special, exclusive and scarce that will get them craving and others talking?