Why Crusaders fans aren't expected to flock to stores to buy new merchandise
Crusaders fan will be more likely to treasure their old merchandise than rush to stores to buy new gear in the wake of the franchise’s logo change, according to a marketing expert.
The 10-time Super Rugby champions unveiled their new emblem at a press conference on Friday, while also confirming the club would keep its name following an extensive brand review which followed after the Christchurch mosque attacks in March.
In a statement, the Crusaders said that the new logo – The Tohu – was representative of of the natural landscape within the Crusaders region, stretching from the top of the “Southern Alps to the depths of our moana”.
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The revelation of the new image has been the subject of controversy among Crusaders fans, with many taking to social media to voice their displeasure of the new logo.
Additionally, sports marketing expert Simon Arkwright told Stuff it was unlikely any impact of financial revenue had played a part in the Crusaders’ decision-making about the rebranded logo.
Instead, he suggested that the option to switch to a stylised red and black ‘C’ from the imagery that depicted the Christian crusades was done from a moral standpoint.
“The Crusaders marketing team has done a great job – they are probably the most recognisable Super Rugby team – but all their imagery was irrevocably linked with the Christian crusades,” Arkwright said.
“They had to drop that but if they’d decided to go in a radical new direction, I think they would have misplayed their hand.”
@CrusadersRugby have unveiled a new logo ahead of the 2020 @SuperRugby season.https://t.co/fJAHXHUITr#SuperRugby
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 29, 2019
Arkwright told Stuff that devoted fans would be more likely to take to the changes than half-hearted followers, but said that fans weren’t likely to buy jerseys with the new logo on it due to the sense of pride and history that the old logo embodied with the club.
The new jerseys for the 2020 Super Rugby season will not feature the new logo, as only the stylised Crusaders font has survived in place of where the full emblem would normally sit.
“Overseas, particularly with football in the United Kingdom, having all your team’s jerseys is important.
“Rugby is different – there probably won’t be a great rush to get new gear,” he said.
“We don’t have that real desire to go out and buy everything, that’s not really in our psyche.”
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In fact, Arkwright predicted that the trend would spike the opposite way, in that fans would push to buy older jerseys with the team’s original branding.
“It will probably go the other way and people will want to buy what they can before the new merchandise arrives.”
The Crusaders kick-off their 2020 Super Rugby campaign under their new logo against the Waratahs in Nelson on February 1.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Though Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
1 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
69 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
2 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real speech. They claim free speech. The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
69 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
2 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to commentslooking forward to RWC2027 …. Boks on mission impossible for the Three-in-a-row, ABs to prove they being on par, France wishing to crown the “DuPont-era”, Ireland knocking on the Semi-Door ….. until then we’ll probably have to deal with Weird Ben’s fantasy-RWC23 (fun fact is, the drivel always creates a flooding of comments) …..
221 Go to commentsBen Smith you really make some good points in this article, the Springboks were not close to perfect and good still beat the All Blacks, imagine if they were as good as they were against France what a hiding the All Blacks would have gotten… maybe another Twickenham drubbing
221 Go to commentsIt is a good argument to keep the Rebels for one more year but also isnt this just opening the door as well for keeping them beyond 2025. If they can create some sort of financial stability in the next year and if their performances lift as they have this season then how would RA even cull them after that? It might be the most cost effective decision at this stage and perhaps many people are guilty of keeping relationships going because of the cost to decouple but then again when does that ever work out well?
29 Go to commentsDear Ben Smith you are a genius! God please become the next all blacks coach that can take on the mighty BOKS. Your rugby acumen is second to none - imagine your dads sperm bounced as unfortunately as that oval ball did….we would not be blessed with your presence. Just as the all blacks were missing a man you too are missing a chromosome for 80% of your life, so your insights are not only profound but ring true from your own experiences. Just as the TMO interfered with citing an illegal pass I am sure your local authorities interfere with your illegal passes you make on women - How dare they!!! God forbid that rugby be officiated fairly. You are the right man for the job. Next all blacks coach is here ladies and gentlemen Miss Ben Smith (He/She/They/IT)
221 Go to commentsHuge engine this guy and great to see him back ..The amount of clean outs he does at the ruck are ridiculous !!
3 Go to commentsThe level of desperation in this article is just embarrassing.
221 Go to commentsSome silly trolling in the comments.
9 Go to comments