Manchester United: Brand of Hope and Glory

MU founded in 1878 as newton heath football club. Club name changed to Manchester United Football Club in 1902.MU aim to increase revenue and profitability following several strategies, by expanding their growth. It is one of the top international-English football clubs, under Louis Van Gaal’s management, Manchester United (2014g), This Analysis will be structured around three tasks to cover the external factors , internal factors and the challenges analysing MU, using the strategic tools.

Ethics is the application of one’s personal beliefs and the impact on how a person makes decisions regarding the relationships involving a company. The most common agents that involve a person’s decisions are owners, employees, customers, clients,

The role of Manchester United in attracting businesses is very significant. The club can attract businesses itself but can only do this for businesses that benefit from the actual matches taking place, such as pubs and hotels. On the other hand, the club functions as a publicity channel for the region. It draws attention, and is always a good way to start a conversation. In this way, the club has indirectly made a large contribution to bring businesses and investments to the region. The brand name is known all over the world and puts

Johnson, G., Scholes, K., & Whittington, R. (2006). Exploring Corporate Strategy (Text and Cases) (8 ed.). Prentice Hall.

Today, strategies are vital for businesses, in many cases it helps to achieve a competitive advantage. Increasing competition in most sectors and technological development has led to accelerated changes in the global economy. In order to meet the market needs, strategies encourage and enable the adaptation of companies in a changing environment (Tribe, 2010).

We can also relate corporate strategy with strategic marketing as follow ( Nancy Upton, Jan 2001)

“Investors are stakeholders that buy shares in a company.” (Baskerville, May 2011). Their primary interest in knowing that the company is doing well so that they can put their money into the company for a greater return. Lenders are external stakeholders who lend money to that enterprise on either a short or a long term basis usually charging a fee or interest to make some money in return. Lenders are regularly composed of banks or other types of financial institutions. Suppliers are also interested in how a company is doing because they want to make sure that they will get paid for their products and services at a later time. Customers are stakeholders that want to know the financial strength of a company because they want to know that their supplier is going to be a dependable source. Competitors are also financial stakeholders because they have a need to know where their companies lie in the market and the only way to see that is by comparing their group to others. Media plays an important part as external stakeholders because they “use the information to publish in their mass communications outlets” (Baskerville, May 2011). Labor unions although are not interesting in putting their money into a business they

Corporate Ethics: Principles and values that govern the decisions and actions of the business are called corporate or business ethics. These may be written or unwritten. The basic meaning of ethics is deciding between what is wrong or right (good or bad) and doing what is morally correct. It govers the behavior of each individual and the organization as a whole.

Corporate strategy is the game-plan developed by top management for how a corporation intends to compete within its respective industry (Goold et al. 1995). It concerns two main issues; what business should the company be in and how the corporate office

A company’s Ethical behavior pertains to the perceived duty of businesses to adhere faithfully to all federal and state laws and avoid activities that undermine the welfare of investors,consumers and employees in the pursuit of profit.

In 2005, a shocking news hit the city of Manchester, home of the EPL’s most successful club with a history of more than a hundred years: Manchester United. Their beloved club was to be acquired by an American business tycoon, Malcolm Glazer. What concerned the fans even more was the fact that most of the capital used by Glazer to purchase the team was debt and that he would load £525million of debt on to the club itself. This was problematic because it meant that money otherwise could be used to acquire top talents, improve training facilities, or towards the club’s CSR activities would be used to pay back Glazer’s debt. The leveraged buyout of the club was directly against the interests of the fans who are the most important stakeholder.

-To keep going and to make stronger and log term alliances with the current sponsors, as well as with the TV partners the Club has.

The importance of major stakeholders is moreover reinforced by David Boddy (2011:96) who argues that stake holders can influence considerable dominant managers, also the businesses which choose ‘ignore’ stakeholders can be in danger of a decline in their business activity. What David Boddy is essentially trying to convey is stakeholders are an integral part of the business and managers have to take consideration of these stakeholders when carrying out business activities, if not then the business may suffer negative consequences.

Manchester United has created a strong brand name associated with performance and rich tradition. It is really easy to

The financial environment surrounding football is very volatile. The pursuit of success, and the associated financial gains, has led to teams adopting aggressive spending strategies, which often lead to financial distress. In recent years the cases of Portsmouth, Southampton and Crystal Palace in England and Gretna, Livingston and Dundee closer to home have highlighted the consequences of overspending. Others have suffered highly publicized financial difficulties resulting from poor financial management by club owners, with fans of Manchester United