Gor Mahia is Kenya’s top brand. What will come of this ?
Gor Mahia has been named Kenya’s best sports brand by ICERTAS (International Certificate Association) The firm places the Kenyan Premier League champions among top corporate and personalities who it terms as most saleable brands. This according to a report in the Daily Nation
Who are ICERTIAS ?
It is a Swiss organization that conducts research about customer satisfaction, product quality and customer behaviour using innovative research scheme and methodologiesis primarily focused on the global recognition and promotion of product quality and value. They have conducted research studies in well over 40 countries in five continents.
The fact that this is an Independent non-biased consumer research firm lends this study a significant degree of credibility.
Significance
This finding puts Gor Mahia ahead of every other sports team as far as Kenyans are concerned. Gor Mahia officials should be able to parlay .
These findings are significant in that they should open the eyes of potential sponsors. “Gor Mahia is a big brand and we hope to have a shirt sponsor soon,” said Rachier to the Nation.
Gor Mahia continues to have an impact away from the field
Meru governor recently cited Gor Mahia as one of the reasons he is spending Ksh 200m to upgrade Kinoru stadium in Meru and millions more to set up a sports academy in his county.
Munya said his government considers sports as a major business for locals due to high number of people attend matches at the stadium, hence the heavy investment.
“People spend in our hotels when teams come to Kinoru stadium. Food suppliers will also get business. When Gor Mahia came to play Tusker, all hotel rooms were full. We want to sustain this.” said Munya.
So how can Gor Mahia take advantage of these findings ?
The evidence clearly suggests that Gor Mahia should be receiving far greater sponsorship than all other sporting entities. So why is’nt it ?
Consider rugby for example. The amount of sponsorship that Kenya rugby receives considerably dwarfs football. The Kenya XV team recently penned a Ksh 75 million sponsorship with EABL. This is almost twice what any Kenya football team receives. But if you think that is amazing then consider the fact that the Kenya sevens team has a sponsorship from Kenya Airways that is worth a whopping Ksh 400 million over two years. And we havent even mentioned the sponsorships that Kenya rugby receives from entities like Bamburi cement and so forth.
Therefore we must ask ourselves why rugby is so successful at garnering sponsorship and what can we learn from them.
Firstly its a question of and public perceptions. Rugby is seen as well run, transparent, fashionable and marketable.
Secondly its a question of public relations . Gor Mahia has an uphill task in this regard. But the hill can be climbed. Gor Mahia fans have been on relatively good behaviour of late. The club lost to arch-rivals Ingwe recently and fans left the stadium peacefully. They were eliminated from the Shield last weekend and once again fans left peacefully.
If I were Ambrose Rachier I would highlight the peaceful behaviour by publicly congratulating the fans for being calm. I would take every opportunity to highlight the positives. Remember the media is quick to highlight even the slightest negativity from Gor Mahia fans. Its therefore up to the club EC to highlight the club’s positives. Aside from garnering sponsors, it will bring more fans to the terraces. And why not build on the sentiments expressed by Meru governor Peter Munya which bolster what this column has been saying for a long time : Gor Mahia is good for this country. It must be said however that Mr. Rachier has indeed fought a good fight in ridding the club of bad elements. More needs to be done by him and other stakeholders including fans.
Will history repeat itself ?
Three years ago, media monitoring company Realforge reported that KPL attracted media coverage worth Sh686 million over the period of March to November with Gor Mahia enjoying a coverage worth Sh200 million as Advertising Value Equivalent. This was by far the highest of any Kenyan team. It was around the same time that Gor Mahia entered into a partnership with Tuzo. Will this ICERTIAS study be a harbinger of good things to come ?
For our fans good behaviour to continue,our officials,players must show commitment to their work.We do not demand winning every match but we demand for commitment and industry in every match.
Good piece but let us not forget gor mahia brand was built in the 1970’s and 1980’s when the team was a force to reckon with in east africa. We lost our footing in the last two decades and our idle, bhang sniffing and drunk fan base in nairobi simply messed the corporate outlook and plot! Did you see how organized kisumu fans were last weekend ?
Today, an average kenyan is below 30 years and can hardly relate with gor mahia unless Offcourse it’s through peer and media pressure.
To the EC is my word to you…….shift gor mahia base to kisumu and come up with a strategy of how you can mobilise the 4 million fan base into a solidifying force before venturing into meru’s, machakos’s and nairobi’s of this world.
without any doubt, kogalo is a brand, infact what that firm has done is to highlight the same. its only kogalo that is loved and hated in the same measure, for those who love kogalo, they do it with a passion and for those who cant identify with kogalo, they dislikes us with a passion simply because there is something in us that they like or admire. therefore what kogalo needs is to perform to perfection and soon sponsors will be falling over each other to embrace us. its that simple. now that kogalo is out of the go-tv shield, the whole competition has lost meaning, and if you dont believe so, ask fkf how much money they would have gotten in gate collections collectively at the end of the competition. therefore, kenyan soccer needs kogalo more than kogalo needs it.
@Jakoyo transformation starts with you and me for us to take this club to greater heights.
Since Gor Mahia has been named Kenya’s best sports brand by ICERTAS, our office and all stakeholders need to do something to take Gor Mahia to the place we belong. Just imagine that we are placed KPL among the top corporate and personalities in terms of the most saleable brands.
Office, let us do something different to promote this great club. This club can great jobs both directly and indirectly to our Kenyans from all over the country.
On sale of our brands, let all our faithful fans act do policing in order to deter counterfeit or fake merchandises. It is time to start from somewhere and grow of business philosophy.
Fans and bloggers, let us put behind all the negativities that have been posted in this site in the past few days for the benefits of taking this great club to where it belongs and to gain our cardinal objectives.
The Executive Office, please engage fans for better ideas and certainly you will learn a lot from our fans.
@Jakoyo, the transformation of Gor Mahia must start with you and me for us to take this club to greater heights.
Since Gor Mahia has been named Kenya’s best sports brand by ICERTAS, our office and all stakeholders need to do something to take Gor Mahia to the place where we belong. Just imagine that we are placed KPL among the top corporate and personalities in terms of the most saleable brands.
Executive Office, let us do something different to promote this great club. This club can create jobs both directly and indirectly to our Kenyans from all over the country.
On sale of our branded merchandises, let all our faithful fans act as policemen and do policing in order to deter counterfeit or fake merchandises sales. It is time to start from somewhere and grow of business philosophy.
Fans and bloggers, let us put behind all the negativities that have been posted in this site in the past few days for the benefits of taking this great club to where it belongs and to gain our cardinal objectives.
The Executive Office, please engage fans for better ideas and certainly you will learn a lot from our fans.
When AR says ‘we hope to get a sponsor soon’ does that mean thay we are pegging our hopes on hope or is there something ‘cooking’?
Ooh Laa la..!! “BW JUST PERFORM AND AVOID LAME EXCUSES”..!
BW i have just noticed that you do visit this site regularly if what i have just read from @Futaa.com is a true story.
I always differ with you and feel cheated with the kind of post match comments that you allude to whenever the teams performance is below par. Where as “OTHERS” will simply buy your explanation and bury their heads under the sand; “SOME” of us do read in between the lines of your comments with tooth comb and “we do say it as it is”. SIMPLY THAT IS “GOR MAHIA” for your take.In this great CLUB and with its huge of fan base; you have your job well cut out.
THE BALL IS ON YOUR COURT; PERFORM AND YOU WILL BE EXEMPTED.
ALL THE BEST DURING THE DERBY AND BAG THOSE POINTS AS PROMISED.
Looks like BW has also noticed that some of us in the social media put undue pressure on the players and TB. Commnets like ‘we must win this match no matter what’ in this day and age does not wash.
We must realize that too much pressure causes undue damage whether physical or psychological.
So fans let’s urge the team forward to win but be ready to accept that ball hudunda. Even the opposing team wants to win else we would now be unbeaten and already crowned leage champs.
@ Jakoyo : I fully agree with u.Kisumu City stadium is a blessing to the revival of the MIGHTY GOR MAHIA OF EAST AFRICA. My advice is, let Mayienga play about 4 of our home matches in ksm plus matches against Chemelil,Muhoroni, Sony and Western Stima, 8 matches in kisumu.This will definitely revive our largest fan bases in kenya.