Know your customer
Eric Dier has branded supporter criticism of Gareth Southgate as ‘crazy talk’ after the England boss has been attacked for his overly defensive approach, being too loyal to certain players or even his political stances.
So says the leading paragraph on what is a thankless task of an article, relaying what Eric Dier said to the press yesterday in Qatar.
One of the primary rules of business is to identify your customer. This is of huge importance because it provides laser beam levels of clarity in one’s thinking.
It allows you to establish if your idea is likely to make much money, and what you might need to do in order to get it to work for you.
We live in troubling times, and the adverts on our television sets tell us repeatedly that most people are in a close personal relationship with a person of colour. Advertising campaigns insist that in most social settings one will find oneself within a few feet of someone with dyed hair, piercings, and an obsession with pronouns.
These ‘new and improved’ ways of showing the way the world is, at least in the minds of the agencies producing the content are fundamentally at odds with reality.
Whilst it was ruddy bloody brave of the Evening Standard to mention Wokegate’s pestilential agenda against what he perceives as things that are wrong with the world, why is it taken as just ‘one of those things’?
And there’s the rub, very few indeed give a toss what Wokegate thinks about the world. He is employed to manage the national side, not host Sunday sermons on demand.
Before a ball has been kicked, this World Cup has highlighted the folly of inflicting causes even humanitarian ones upon customers.
Budweiser can’t sell their beer, and god only knows what the average fan experience is likely to be in a country that has not experienced a period of enlightenment.
Against the backdrop of Sky owners Comcast haemorrhaging money, with subscriptions being freely cancelled, the nonsense of a One Love armband, and mumbling about challenging an oppressive regime, whilst reporting back on football matches only serves to undermine the event.
If one were keen to find out more about the appalling way these people live, the very last folk I’d want to narrate that experience are mealy-mouthed football pundits. The whole business is so desperately insincere.
Nobody wants their TV set to moralise at them, as witnessed by the change in viewing choices consumers have made in the 21st century. It’s all changed. Newspapers are now just blogs operating under household names. People are streaming podcasts to get their news intake. Some folks get all they need for just about everything they need from social media platforms.
Football’s greatest strength is the football.
Everything else wants binning with immediate effect. From the terminally sick kiddies to the kneeling and those wretched rainbows.
‘Can I have your shirt?’ No. Get out and take your piece of cardboard with you.
If the broadcasters had the balls to represent their customers, then they would retain more of them.
Over the last few weeks, it’s been rumoured that two high-profile footballers are dating. My money is at least one of them already being pencilled in for some class of punditry position, even if they have nothing to offer. Because that’s not the point. What a prize!
What the customer wants is the football, and an uninterrupted view, at that.
“We live in troubling times, and the adverts on our television sets tell us repeatedly that most people are in a close personal relationship with a person of colour. Advertising campaigns insist that in most social settings one will find oneself within a few feet of someone with dyed hair, piercings, and an obsession with pronouns”
I’ve had this discussion just this week with a friend of mine. ( yes, I have friends)
Doing a bit of digging into the figures it turns out that mixed race marriages account for just 2% of the UK population. If an alien popped to earth and watched TV for 24 hours only , they’d come away thinking it was 100% that way.
It seems that nowadays the smaller your demographic the louder your voice. Eric Dier would fall into that category. He’s the only one who thinks he’s a good footballer ( defender) He shouts loud the hope is, nobody’s listening.
So the WC first programme starts on the Biased Corporation. First question from FA cup head Lineaker about it bring a winter WC and Shearers only response. Its weird !
It’s more than that you moron
Great commentary H. Fully agree we live in troubled times.
I work in the business world every now and then and for sure my first rule is KYC. But there’s a distinct difference between supporters, fans and customers. By and large FIFA’s customers are the large multinational corporates that line their pockets abetted by the captive governments that look the other way. They don’t really give a sh!t about the fans who contribute very little to the top and bottom lines, nor the supporters who largely cease to exist in the corporate ownership umbrella.
I’ll bet anyone here anything Annie’s Leo and Ronnie advert gets more likes than anything else at this dusty event. That’s all you need to know.