PUT YOUR SHIRT ON KAIZEN! SOFTWARE ENABLES INNOVATIVE SPONSORSHIP DEALS

Dedicated followers of fashion will be all too aware that there has been a second coming of football shirt design over the last couple of years. Intricate prints and bold colours are in as a younger audience are increasingly looking at replica shirts as fashion statements – and Kaizen is helping clubs to tap into this new revenue stream.

Famously, Margate FC teamed-up with The Libertines for a front-of-shirt sponsorship that spawned several iterations and worldwide acclaim. The club’s General Manager, Deny Wilson remembers how it came to be, “The planets aligned for us really. The Libertines – still culturally relevant – were focusing a lot of time and energy into the local area and we were on the lookout for a sponsor. When we made the announcement we knew that sales were going to be massive based on the initial reaction – thankfully the Kaizen system allowed us

to process everything!”

Wilson estimates that normally a club of comparable size might sell 100 kits on any given season. The Libertine-inspired strip prompted thousands of sales. “Without Kaizen we simply would not have been able to process the volume. The system streamlines the information and takes it off e-mail enquiries, which are very time consuming. Added to that the fact we can run daily sales reports, it’s now a vital component in the running of our club”.

The system is being used with similarly productive results at Woking. Sam Loxton, the club’s Commercial Director points out that the club do not have a wealthy benefactor and so have to be mindful not only about expenditure but also work hard to maximise their commercial-focused income. “We’d seen what other clubs had done and felt it was a way to engage fans, so we spoke to Kaizen about the viability. Once they said that their system could handle it, we started the planning”. The idea is that fans purchase space on the shirt to have their name embroidered, with packages starting at £25 and going up to £2,500, depending on size and position on the strip. Kaizen is facilitating those sales on a club branded portal which as Loxton describes, “Gives our fans confidence and makes it attractive to get behind the shirt, which is what our social media campaign is called”.

Clubs at NonLeague level who are not using Kaizen are really missing out. This software can be suit moulded to the needs of your and business the technical support is first class - Deny Wilson, General Manager, Margate FC