Committing regicide: rebranding the Football Kingz

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Abstract The New Zealand Knights Football Club was born out of the rebranding of the Football Kingz. Drawing on the concept of brand equity, this paper examines the management's attempts to manipulate the antecedents of brand equity. The paper draws attention to the difficulties of building brand equity after a rebranding exercise and highlights important implications for sports brand managers and for the way brand equity is conceptualised. (Submitted July 2006) Keywords Knights Football Club rebranding brand equity NSL Executive summary In 1999 the Football Kingz became New Zealand's first professional football club to compete in the Australian National Soccer League (NSL). Over the next five seasons the Kingz struggled to become a competitively and financially viable club. In February 2004 the club was sold to businessman Brian Katzen, whose intention was to enter the club in the re-launched Australian A-League. Upon the club's successful entry, the decision was made to enter an entity completely dissociated from the Football Kingz. In August 2005, after a complete rebranding process, the New Zealand Knights Football Club was poised to compete against the A-League's other seven clubs. Drawing on the concept of brand equity (Aaker, 1991) and the framework developed by Gladden et al (1998) and Gladden & Milne (1999), this paper examines the challenges of building brand equity following a revolutionary rebranding process. Specifically, the paper considers the management's attempts to manipulate the antecedents of brand equity identified by Gladden et al (1998) and Gladden & Milne (1999) as influencing the components of brand equity. The paper highlights the implications for sports brand managers and the way that brand equity is conceptualised in a sports-specific setting. Despite their best efforts, the club's management struggled to build brand equity and change the perception of the club among the sporting public. By the end of its inaugural season, the club had won only one game, spectator numbers were down dramatically and financial difficulties had resurfaced. Management were unable to capitalise on the antecedents of brand equity and in particular to capitalise on the antecedents of 'logo design' and 'star player'. The name and logo of the club have a tenuous connection to the club's home town, while the club's roster is dominated by low-profile foreign players. This meant that the club was unable to counteract negative influences flowing from the antecedents of 'tradition', 'media coverage' and 'success'. Consequently, with New Zealand players in the minority, no star player and a string of poor results, in the face of falling attendances the club struggled to provide an effective narrative to convince the public they should support 'their' team. For sports brand managers, the Knights' case has several implications. First, it highlights the difficulty of burying a brand. Although not helped by the club's playing record, arguably the problem was compounded by the degree of association between 'Knights' and 'Kings'. Second, the case emphasises the need for a club brand to have a strong narrative that connects the team to the community and to potential supporters. The case also indicates that brand managers must understand the factors that shape attachments to sports teams amongst their target market. Finally, from a research perspective, this case reinforces the usefulness of the brand equity framework and calls for further work along these lines. Introduction When do Kings become Knights? After a royal procession to the dungeons of the professional football game in this region, that's when. (Brown, 2005b) In 1999 a New Zealand-based professional soccer club made its first entry into the Australian NSL. Led by Wynton Rufer (whose goal had helped his Werder Bremen side win the 1992 European Cup Winner's Cup) and a roster of international players, the Football Kingz were to compete against the best club sides in Australia. …