Merchandising in football is the use of products and services created specifically to both promote and market football leagues, teams, clubs and players. The aim of the research, which focused on the comparison of merchandising strategies between Slovenian and European football clubs, is to show that merchandising has a large but untapped potential in Slovenian football clubs, while the larger European clubs have already developed the concept well, as reflected in the year-on-year growth of their revenues, and to investigate the factors influencing the success of merchandising strategies from a financial point of view. Methodologically, the thesis is based on a qualitative case study involving semi-structured interviews, analysis of financial data in annual and credit rating reports and a comparison of official online and physical club shops. The results show that (current) sporting successes supported by winning trophies, a larger global fan base and a high level of group identification of fans with the football club have a significant impact on the financial results of football clubs from merchandising, with Slovenian clubs lagging behind European clubs mainly due to a smaller fan base and modest budgets. The financial success of merchandising in football clubs is further enhanced by the strength of the football club's brand, media coverage on the local and global market, attendance at home matches and transfers of football stars.
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