This is an update of the story of our rebrand of Prozone, the football analytics and insight business, who at the start of 2009, like many SME’s, had a poor record and was struggling to achieve the huge potential its technology offered. It needed a serious improvement in form to turn things round and enable its owners to exit the business. The brand had a huge role to play.
This is the story of how our re-brand helped Prozone achieve all its objectives and secure the biggest prize of all, a successful exit. And we’re not just talking domestic success, the new branding helped drive massive international growth, secure key hires, land prized clients and made the Prozone name such a threat, the competitors only had one choice… to buy it!
In 2009, the business owners agreed a plan to exit and appointed a new MD to help achieve best value for their holdings. The new MD embarked on a sales and marketing-focused strategy, established key account managers and started to develop a product road map. Despite a good name with high levels of visibility, the Prozone brand was tired and poorly articulated.
To help maximize value, Thompson Brand Partners was commissioned to rebrand Prozone and was set the following specific objectives, which the owners considered would result in maximum returns at the time of their exit:
objective 1 - Establish the brand as the leading name in performance analysis
objective 2 - Increase sales and profitability
objective 3 - Develop the level of international business
objective 4 - Secure more major clubs as clients, especially Manchester United
The rebrand brief included a need to articulate the Prozone brand and what it stands for, the development of a new brand identity to help bring this to life, a clear brand hierarchy and the rollout of the new branding throughout the business, its communications and products.
Now 2 years later, as always in football, the results speak for themselves:
Sales up 37% in 2 years.
Annual operating profit up 129% in 2 years.
Return on investment on our design fee of a net-busting 3,800% in just 2 years.
International sales increased by 100% between June 2010 and June 2011.
US sales increased by 75% between June 2008 and June 2011.
Secured key new clients:
FIFA, UEFA and The FA. Liverpool, Barcelona, Red Bull New York, Spartak Moscow, and…
Manchester United! (taken from main competitor Amisco, who has since acquired Prozone)
The development of the Prozone brand has been a significant factor in the owners ability to sell their holding. This was achieved in June 2011 - a successful exit, bang on plan!
100% of the share holdings of Prozone Sports Limited were bought by the French based SUP, which owns the biggest competitor brand, Amisco. Together Prozone and Amisco will form the undisputed world leader. The Prozone brand is being retained in the UK market and its technology will be used by Amisco to the benefit of its own clients, which include Inter Milan, FC Bayern Munich, SC Lille and Canal+. Whilst we are not able to disclose details of the sales consideration, in retaining the Prozone brand, Amisco recognises its strength and potential. Brand value was a significant element of the sale consideration and we have a very, very happy client on our hands.
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