As I walk around town......

[portugull]

Last September I wrote to Simon Baker our Chairman. It was a constructive letter and I concluded by saying "in all the years I have supported United I have always felt that the biggest weakness through all eras was afailure by the club to sell itself to the local population"
Some weeks later I received a belated acknowledgement but nothing more.I do not think the Board have any understanding of Marketing in the modern world.
With so many competing attractions not to mention demands on time and financial restraints we have GOT to do something topromote the club or we wii eventually die.

[cosmic74]

Great idea Fletch, maybe couple that with the same along the sea front and we might be making small steps to enhancing the clubs status in the local area. But as Portugull says, it is all down to the club funding and believing things like this are worthwhile, and by the sounds of his reply from Simon Baker, it sounds like the club don't think enhancing the clubs status is the way forward.

The question remains then. If the club don't see things like this as a way of enhancing the club and boosting crowd figures, then what exactly do they see as a way forward???

I am away working for the next 5 weeks, so maybe I will find the time to send a well constructed email to the club about ways to promote the club in the bay. Maybe it would be good if others could do the same, and maybe we can heap a little pressure on the board.

[YellowMurphy]

Our main problem is our attendances, if other teams looked at our attendances, they would see at least 3 attendances below 2,000, and rarely breaking the 3,000 barrier. Pretty much a benchmark for a conference club, this needs to be addressed pretty soon. Lower the prices to Adults £10, and Kids to £5. You see every now and again, clubs do fan days where they let fans in free or for maybe £1. Why have we never considered this. If they fear that lowering the prices would have a serious effect on the income, they may be right. But it would be a good long term investment, as club merchandise sales would rise, and so would matchday food and programme sales. Most people I know (including me) have been influenced by their family and friends to come and have then became long term fans, we should recognise this. I know we do some sort of schools thing, where the schools get in for a discounted price. Im not saying completely slash the prices permanently, just maybe some games against some small teams like Barnet, Macclesfield, lower the prices and go out to win. You never know, more fans may even have a positive effect on the pitch! If the club did decide to do some sort of price lowering scheme, they would have to advertise it right, not just on the official site and in the program, because the people who view that usually go regardless! I dont know how they would advertise it, but surely theres a way?!

[usagullmichigan]

Our main problem is our attendances, if other teams looked at our attendances, they would see at least 3 attendances below 2,000, and rarely breaking the 3,000 barrier. Pretty much a benchmark for a conference club, this needs to be addressed pretty soon. Lower the prices to Adults £10, and Kids to £5. You see every now and again, clubs do fan days where they let fans in free or for maybe £1. Why have we never considered this. If they fear that lowering the prices would have a serious effect on the income, they may be right. But it would be a good long term investment, as club merchandise sales would rise, and so would matchday food and programme sales. Most people I know (including me) have been influenced by their family and friends to come and have then became long term fans, we should recognise this. I know we do some sort of schools thing, where the schools get in for a discounted price. Im not saying completely slash the prices permanently, just maybe some games against some small teams like Barnet, Macclesfield, lower the prices and go out to win. You never know, more fans may even have a positive effect on the pitch! If the club did decide to do some sort of price lowering scheme, they would have to advertise it right, not just on the official site and in the program, because the people who view that usually go regardless! I dont know how they would advertise it, but surely theres a way?!

Problem is they have tried something like this. You still nee d to promote the club in the right way. Why would any come to Plainmoor for a quid if they don't have any interest in the club?

[YellowMurphy]

Problem is they have tried something like this. You still nee d to promote the club in the right way. Why would any come to Plainmoor for a quid if they don't have any interest in the club?

Thats what Im saying, if the club advertised it for a cheap price, people who may not usually come would come, and if we won, playing decent football, this person may come again, and get their friends to come, if promoted in the right way, we could get more fans while being financially stable. Can you tell me what they have tried aswell, I can remember nothing apart from a F.A Trophy game against Rushden and Diamonds which kids got in for a quid, thats all ive got.

[cambgull]

They need to start with the basics in getting the name out there. My local team here, St Neots Town have banners around the main bridge into town and posters in most of the pubs, and through that alone, they've gone from around 500 per game to over 1,000 (although being top of the league, having a pretty much brand new stadium and utterly annihilating teams in a couple games, including a 13-0 and an 11-1 must help somewhat!). Once people start remembering a team exists and constantly being reminded that theres a game happening on Saturday, does help the numbers and its about time TUFC starting doing this too. As a now exiled gull, I suppose I have been more active in seeing when games are since I've moved away from town. When you live further away, you plan the day around your trip. When you live 5 minutes from the ground, it's all too easy to not bother today as theres always next week.

[Fletch]

I can remember nothing apart from a F.A Trophy game against Rushden and Diamonds which kids got in for a quid, thats all ive got.

Adults for £12 against Walsall in the cup?

Oh and "Kids for a Quid" against Barnet in November

[bixieupnorth]

the membership scheme is another example of a great idea that doesnt seem to have been followed up. i was down for stockport match recently and went into the ticket office to buy £10 ticket and the receptionist had a list of all the members and it was on one sheet of a4!! i asked how many had joined at she said it was 84! so assuming a minimum tenner a month thats maybe a grand a month at best, offset the discount for those regular attendees and its hardly even worth bothering with!

[usagullmichigan]

Public transport to Plainmoor is a little bit shite aswell. How about shuttle busses. You get on the bus pay a pound or two and pay for the entrace fee into the ground at the same time. busses could run from Newton Abbot and Dawlish or Totnes through Paignton. When I lived in Stoke Gabriel I had to get about 3 busses at cost of around 8-10 Pounds and a travel time of 2 hours oneway.

[Plymouthgull]

Many of thse ideas seem good but the truth of it is that we need to appoint a marketing manager with a wealth of experience and success. Yes, it might be expensive in the short term, but in the long run we will feel the benefits. We need a marketing strategy for the next five years combined with clear attandance targets for each season. This is the only way we will shake off the apathy of so many in the bay and beyond. The population of the area inc N.Abbot, Totnes etc means we have the capacity to grow - the board needs to show a real will to do so!

[portugull]

Bixieupnorth`s comments re the membership scheme are absolutely on the money. The prime reason I wrote to Simon Baker was to express my disappointment at the complete failure by the club to market the membership scheme in a professional manner. I made six constructive suggestions, having been the person behind the idea, and what I have been told is that the club is monitoring the scheme with a view to improving it next season.

My concern is that because it has been so badly marketed is that it will be deemed a failure and will never really get off the ground. I cannot believe after all this time that there is no prominent location on the official website that we have a membership scheme. No mention in the match day programme, it just beggars belief. It would be so easy to do both things and I just get the feeling that no one is really committed to making the scheme a success. Nothing happens unless you make it happen. It is really disappointing.

[cosmic74]

As you can tell I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about this subject. I have been thinking about little else while driving for the last 3 hours down to cornwall and back. Cambgull's bit about St Neots town putting up posters and banners and keeping the teams existence in peoples minds and subsequently increasing crowds reminded me of a similar situation. 15 years or so ago, when I was living and working in Plymouth, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing advertising for Plymouth Raiders Basketball team, and it worked, even I, the hater of anything remotely american (apologies to our members in the US of A, nothing personal) actually went along a few times and enjoyed it. So this supports my original post, that posters, flyers, banners or anything similar could very well boost the attendences at Plainmoor!

Now we just need to convince the club to invest in the future!

Another idea could be to run competitions on local radio and the HE to win tickets for games, free advertising aswell!!!

[tommygull]

I agree with cosmic that there are so many empty seats at Plainmoor that giving out a few free tickets each week for competition prizes and even for school prizes is free. I also agree that a presence in the town is important and in this time of relative 'recession' gaining advertising space sould be cheap. Doing deals with local people such as a bus company to run trips between town and plainmoor and back should be pretty simple (seeing as most school buses are left dormant at the weekends they would do it on the cheap also!). I think the people who sit in pubs in torquay watching Jeff Stelling on a saturday are a target for the club and so advertising in these places would help also. As would advetising in the tourist information for holiday-makers. I'm sure that many a beach-going dad would love to get away from the kids for an afternoon if he knew there was some local footie available...

[SantaCruzScotty]

My mate said to me, why do Torquay have verry few people at the stadium, is it because your in a small town?
I said Torquay is a small town but everyone else comes from the outskirts of the bay.
he then said why dont you have the car parking sign (That tells you how many spaces are eft in the car park) and tell fans how many spaces are left in the stadium. i
But the main street (If im right) by TK Max, burger king and all of that should have a poster from the street lights or something in TK Max's window?
And maybe something towards the sea front/train station where many people come from anyway?

[Mendipgull]

This has been a problem for as long as I can remember: A few seasons ago I walked into a chippy wearing a yellow home shirt and was asked by the women behind the counter if Torquay were at home. The shop was the PLAINMOOR fish bar.