Son Heung-min (손흥 민) Update

Son Heung-min (손흥 민) Update

Son-Heung-min-손흥 민


Today, Tottenham Hotspur Blog News (THBN) has looked into the future of Son Heung-min, so in Tottenham Transfer Talk today, here is your Son Heung-min (손흥 민) update.

In addition I'm going to talk about South Korea, China, the difference in fans, new markets, club branding and marketing.

Tottenham have more fans in South Korea than in the UK. 

11million people between the ages of 16 and 69 say they support Spurs.

Tottenham have become the most popular foreign club in South Korea with more than 20%  (more than 1 in 5) of the nation now allied to the North London side, according to Nielsen Fan Insights.

Their most recent survey of South Koreans aged 16 - 69 gave Spurs a total of 21.4% support, which equates to the aforementioned 11 million fans.

There is only one reason for that and that is Son Heung-min (손흥 민).

On the back of that we have shirt sponsorship with AIA and other commercial deals with Asian companies.

Son has been fantastic for the club both on and off the field.

It is important that we maintain that fanbase rather than have them flit to another club should he be sold.

Bayern Munich have reportedly made an inquiry, at least that is what journalists are reporting and were allegedly told we wouldn't entertain anything under 75m.

Currency Converter

€75m - £63.83m - US$88.35m - AUS$115.94m

Sorry but that isn't true, Bayern Munich are NOT looking to sign Son, it is simply his agent putting out a story to put pressure on Spurs to give the pay rise he wants for his client.

It is FAKE NEWS. 

Could you see Daniel Levy letting Son Heung-min (손흥 민) go that cheap while there are still 2 years left on his contract!

One of the problems with journalists is that they are lazy folk, they don't convert figure from foreign press but merely change the currency sign, thus giving a false representation, quite apart from making stuff up.

Anyway, Sonny is under contract until 2023 and Spurs want to extent that contract.

Son will of course want to see improvement at Spurs and signs we are going in the right direction.

He is another supporter of Mourinho in the squad and is happy at Spurs.

Clubs will always enquire, they will always talk to his agent and suggest he runs down his contract, this happens all the time, it's just something every club has to fight against these days.

A fanbase is the biggest asset a club has, without it there is no club, or at least not a successful professional football club.

New fans naturally develop into a community, with various factions but to many a UK fan, foreign fans are irrelevant.

Nothing, quite frankly, could be further from the truth.

Foreign fans bring in more commercial income than UK fans, through deals like the one with AIA for shirt sponsorship, all down to us having Son Heung-min in our ranks.

Asia hosts a third of the world's population, and some of the fastest growing economies in the world.

In foreign markets Tottenham promote the brand rather than promoting the team at home, you don't see us pushing the brand name too much on UK soil do you.

Abroad it's a different kettle of fish.

The younger generation today will follow a player, like Son, as a celebrity and will move allegiance as the player moves.

While we have to use an Asian player to market to an Asian audience, we also want to promote the club, the brand, to retain the fanbase when a player does move.

Tying in with local companies, who work with and market to Asia, for instance, in association with us, instils our name in many a mins who have never heard of us before.

Manchester United stole a march on all their Premier League rivals by signing Japanese player Shinji Kagawa back in June 2012.

They cornered the Japanese market, gaining first entry pioneer advantage and increased their range of commercial deals, they have more than anyone else in the Premier League, a lot more.

They have launched numerous marketing operations, including the establishment of overseas club shops to sell branded football-related and non-related products, built lasting commercial relationships with other global brands, participated in Asian-based tournaments and toured the area in pre-season, conducted website promotions, developed football schools (not afraid to use the word soccer where appropriate), and the recruitment of South-Asian players, who serve the dual purpose of strengthening the squad and as a marketing asset in the area.

Manchester United, therefore, enjoy a high level of brand awareness in Asia, something we have been cultivating ourselves with the arrival of Sonny.

Those figures above demonstrate the success of this line of marketing.

We propose to do the same in America, where we hope our tie up with the biggest sport in America, the NFL, and eventually a London-based franchise playing at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

That gives us immediate brand awareness right into peoples homes and that is a commercial goldmine.

Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool copied the Manchester United model in Asia and their continued representation in the Champions League aided that.

Tottenham are playing catch-up and marketing is another reason why we need consistent Champions League football back again.

Quite frankly, it is for these marketing purposes that the major clubs want to be guaranteed Champions League football, they want to be guaranteed to be playing against the top teams every season, retaining and building their brand and a foreign fanbase demands it.

It's got bugger all to do with football, everything about building the brand.

Understanding the needs and wants of consumers and adjusting offers to satisfy them is at the heart of successful marketing.

What does a consumer think about when they hear your brand name?

That is in effect, brand equity and commercial partners want to align with that brand equity so they can tap into it themselves, become synonymous with a brand.

That can occur with long term tie-ups and working with the club with communities and area with newsworthy joint ventures.

Brand equity consists of four main area:
  • Perceived quality
  • Brand loyalty
  • Brand awareness
  • Brand image

A strong brand equity means that customers have a high brand-name awareness (Tottenham Hotspur)...

Maintain a favourable brand image...

Perceive that the brand (Tottenham Hotspur and associated nicknames like Spurs) is of a high quality...

And are loyal to that brand.

Companies tap into brand association so when someone recalls the brand they recall the associated company as well.

That is likely to result in more sales for the associated company so it is in Spurs best interests to retain a high profile, which a player like Son enables us to do.

Spurs launched e-commerce stores in China ahead of our game in 
Shanghai in 2019, not only selling club merchandise but also game related merchandise.

In recent years there has been a move away from fake merchandise to buying the original 'name' brand at a premium price.

Handy when you are opening branded shops abroad or tapping into the worldwide online market.

Spurs launched on Tmall, the Alibaba-owned online retail platform, and multi-purpose app WeChat, becoming one of the first clubs to do so.

We have in fact, been increasing our digital presence in China for the past 12 years, another huge untapped market.

Last season we became the first Premier League team to livestream on WeChat, producing an hour long programme ahead of the North London derby.

  • Hour-long show was broadcast on WeChat, Yizhibo, Douyin and Weibo
  • Livestream included historical footage and fan engagement activities
  • Spurs currently ranked as 12th most popular soccer club online in China
  • Spurs currently ranked as 5th most popular Premier League club in China

According to Ecosports, the Chinese-language broadcast recorded 1.4 million views across 
the four social media platforms, WeChat, Yizhibo, Douyin and Weibo.

By comparison, Juventus had 11.2 million.

Spurs became the first Premier League outfit to launch on video platform Douyin in 2018.

The world is shrinking, giving us more opportunities for growth and therefore income and therefore money to spend on the team to bring the success we all crave.

We have catching up to do.

As Alex Ferguson said on the BBC, you have to be a success off the field before you can be a success on it.

Brand image is primarily driven by the players’ and coach’s imaIge, so Son, Harry Kane and José Mourinho are important elements.

With any transfer the marketing value has to be taken into account, that's why it's ridiculous that journalists suggest a paltry £120m for Harry Kane, that's £100m short.

The Sun have at least come out with a sensible, nothing below £175m figure.

Italian press talk about EUR 160m.

Currency Conversions

£100m - €117.49m - US$138.30m - AUS$181.43m
£120m - €140.98m - US$165.94m - AUS$217.81m
£136.13m - €160m - US$188.31m - AUS$247.26m
£175m - €205.64m - US$242.06m - AUS$317.71m

If a player moves and supporters move with them then the brand image isn't strong enough so developing it and the passion for it is crucial in markets where it isn't handed down from generation to generation.

That may happen in the future but, quite frankly, we are still in the foundation stages of developing Tottenham Hotspur into these emerging markets.

That may be hard for fans in Europe to understand, where support is a lifelong commitment.

These markets don't know that, perhaps American do, but Asian markets and the Chinese are player driven support.

We tried to sign a player from the Chinese league, which gave us exposure in China, he also happened to be a South Korean.

It didn't come off, his club wouldn't release him, but he won't be the last Asian we look at with an eye to the Asian market.

Forget all the crap, stop and think how you would define the Tottenham brand and what values would you want to promote to these new audiences?

The brans at home may be different to how it is marketed abroad, taking into account the values in Asia or China.

How would you therefore promote the club?

If we accept that player profiles are very important in new markets, Spurs as a club need control of a players image rights, in conjunction with the player and his agent.

When we tried to sign Paulo Dybala (Paulo Dybala Update), that wasn't the case.

A third party (company owned by his former agent) owned his image right although his current agent obviously disputed that.

If we wanted to use Dybala images to promote the Tottenham brand in China for instance, we would be rather handcuffed.

There is more to a transfer that meets the eye, this was a cog that didn't line up with all the other cogs so scuppered the deal.

Anyway, I have prattled on enough for today, probably back tomorrow with further insights, depends which order i post the articles written, there are several.