You may have heard it before: if you want your club to reach the next level, you need a strong sports club brand. But what exactly is a “brand” and how do you build a strong one for your business?
What is a brand?
Some people equate a “brand” with a logo. A distinct and memorable brand, however, is much more than that. A strong brand is the sum of all the experiences your customers (and potential customers) have with your business.
An established and strong club brand is not only recognized by the logo on your website and club jackets, but in the way your coaches deliver coaching, what your customers say about your club online and offline, and in the way your athletes represent your club values.
As Simon Sinek explained in his famous Ted Talk, great businesses, leaders and brands all start with a “Why?”. If you can clearly communicate why your club offers the services it does, you will be well on the road to building a strong brand.
Naturally, a powerful brand takes time to build. Maybe you already have a brand but it needs a refresh. Or, perhaps your club is new and starting from scratch. Either way, this blog is written with you in mind.
The benefits of a strong sports club brand
We recently wrote about how to grow your gymnastics club, and in many ways those tips could be applied to all sports clubs. However, one thing we didn’t touch on in that article was the benefits building a brand.
What are the benefits of a strong sports club brand?
If your brand reinforces exemplary characteristics, your club can help create exemplary community members. Helping shape quality citizens will have a ripple effect across your community. For your business, it will mean that people will not only like having your athletes around, they’ll want their own kids to become members too. In this way, a strong sports club brand can act as a sales and referral engine for your club.
Determining your sports club brand and identity
There are thousands of sports clubs across North America and each one has its own unique identity. In order to determine the identity of your club, try writing down five of the most important core values of your current or prospective athletes. These core values can help you clarify why you offer your services. It may be helpful if other key stakeholders in your club do this exercise as well.
If you need help brainstorming, ask questions like:
- What kind of experiences are we trying to deliver that are unique to our club?
- How do we want our athletes to carry themselves?
- What sort of characteristics do we want our coaches to instill?
- When our athletes grow up and leave our gym, what life lessons will they take with them?
- How does our club fit into the greater community?
Use your core values to create a mission statement, name and logo
Once you’ve established your club’s core values, you’ll want to use them to create a clear and succinct mission statement for your club. For example, if your core values are “Respect, Precision, Strength” your mission statement may read something like this:
“At Jill’s gymnastics club we respect our competitors and our sport by training with precision so that we may gain the strength to compete at our best.”
This mission statement should inspire your club name and logo, so that all elements work together to create a clear, cohesive brand.
Be sensitive to the greater story playing out in society
Numerous sports clubs have been struggling with insensitive logos and brands over the last decade. That’s because as time goes on and paradigms shift, language and images that may have once been acceptable quickly become recognized as unacceptable. Of course, some may find it hard to predict how paradigms will shift, but there are a few measures you can take to establish a long-term brand.
- Build your brand around timeless qualities instead of temporary slang or fads. Can you picture a gymnastics club named after the 2017 Fidget Spinner trend? Seems a bit ridiculous, but slang words and dated references have the same effect. Make sure your brand can stand the test of time by focusing on the core qualities of athletic success.
- Ensure your logo can adapt and stand alone. Ask yourself, would our logo be recognizable if we updated it or if someone saw our logo without our business name? A good logo can stand alone and be easily recognized after it’s updated.
- Get feedback from a diverse group of people when finalizing your brand. Naturally, we’re all limited to our own viewpoint. When you embrace feedback and input from a diverse group of people, you’ll help guarantee the long-term strength of your brand.
What does it mean to “stay on brand?”
When determining your sports club brand, it’s important to be honest about what your core values really are. That’s because once you finalize your core values you need to be able to live them. Living your core values is the essence of “staying on-brand.”
If your club creates a beautiful logo and paints your three core values across the walls of your gym, you have to make sure your coaches and staff can walk-the-walk.
So, choose your core values wisely. Your coaches, staff and athletes should all embody your brand.
If you have any doubts, check with your coaches and staff to ensure everyone is on-board with the vision of your club. You may also want to consider running a short training class to give your coaches some tips on how their coaching can enforce the strength of your brand.
Would your athletes wear your brand on a shirt?
If you want to do one final check before solidifying your brand, consider asking current or prospective athletes what they think. Does your story and the core values of your brand excite them?
For clubs with an existing membership, ask yourself if your athletes feel a close bond to your brand. Does it make them feel proud? Most importantly, would they wear your brand on a track suite or shirt?
For many athletes, wearing branded club clothing is a thing of pride. If your athletes aren’t interested in wearing your club brand, it may be a sign that you’re not speaking their language. Consider including your athletes in a brainstorming session if they don’t show interest in the brand you’ve already created.
Spread your sports club brand
Once you’ve determined your brand and finalized the design of your logo, it’s time to spread the mark.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, a good brand will act as a sales engine for your club. Like any sales tactic, your brand and logo should reach far and wide.
Make sure your brand is included in any signage, uniforms, car decals and stickers, advertisements, and of course your online properties such as your website and social media.
Be disciplined about your brand
Not everyone likes to play “brand police” and enforce their official brand marks, but it is an important practice. Don’t depend on your staff to attempt to create or recreate important brand assets on the fly.
If one of your core values is “Precision” the last thing you want to see is a newspaper story with a poorly recreated logo that your part-time staff created to meet a deadline. Your logo needs to be consistent wherever it appears.
To guarantee consistency, it’s important to create official image assets for your brand. With these official logos and images, you can quickly respond to newspapers, sponsored partnerships, and any other groups that your club may partner with.
Be open to evolving your sports club brand over time
After a lot of hard work brainstorming, proofing, finalizing and spreading your brand, you may feel that you never want to alter your brand. But of course, every brand changes over time.
The good news for you is that the evolution of a brand is slow. At most, you’ll want to consider updating your brand once every seven to ten years. That’s not to say you’ll have to update your brand in that time frame, but it’s good to consider it.
Simply taking the time to stop and look around at other brands can help you determine whether or not your brand needs a face lift. If you feel like your logo and brand is ten years behind everyone else, it’s a good sign you should begin brainstorming an updated message or design.
Many brands continue with their same message and design for a long, long time. With branding it’s not about staying on the cutting edge, it’s about staying relevant and inspirational to your target audience.
If your athletes, coaches, and community are engaged and inspired, your sports club brand is in good health.
Summary: The strength of your brand is the strength of your bond
In order to develop a strong sports club brand, you first must cultivate your club’s core values. Try to answer the question, “why do we offer our services?” Once your values are determined, use those characteristics to create a succinct mission statement. Your core values and mission statement should then inform your logo and name.
During the naming and logo creation process, make sure to include a diverse group of people in a sensitivity check to help ensure your brand resonates well with everyone.
Next, you’ll want to check with your coaches to make sure they can “walk-the-walk.” You may also want to consider completing some coaching training to show how your coaches and staff can embody your brand. Lastly, you’ll want to check-in with your athletes to get their feedback and gauge whether or not they feel a bond with your brand.
When all of these parties feel engaged and happy, it’s time to spread your brand and enforce your official logos and statements.
As time passes, revisit your branding to keep it fresh and reflective of your club.
