Andrew
Arthur Choga
“What is your favourite colour?”
This was usually a time-honoured enquiry when people were getting to know each other back in the day.
Nowadays, this is not really considered important.
However, for sporting teams, colours are everything.
A club’s colours are the major rallying point around which fans come together.
Clubs have traditionally been identified by their playing kit, which is usually in their chosen colour.
Dynamos have often been referred to as the “Boys in Blue” and CAPS United as the “Green Machine”, while Highlanders are known as Matengwane (the fork-tailed drongo), which is a small black bird that rises early and is not easily intimidated.
Globally, clubs are also identified by their colours.
Liverpool have long been The Reds; Newcastle are called the Magpies, after a black and white bird; and Coventry City are the Sky Blues.
Barcelona are nicknamed the Blaugrana, after the dark shades of blue and garnet stripes on their kit.
Real Madrid are called Los Blancos (The Whites). AC Milan are the Rossoneri (red and black).
These names have stood the test of time.
The commercial impact of having an identifiable colour is immense.
Colours form the basis of branding since they are the design basis for all corporate imagery associated with a club.
Official websites, stationery, replica kits and merchandise are designed based on the club kits.
The team logos also play a part.
In addition, colours allow the brand to present itself consistently.
The light blue of Manchester City, for example, is understood and presented uniformly on all the team’s branded material.
Essentially, once registered, a brand allows a club to claim intellectual property over any material that bears its brand.
It also ensures suppliers are guided accordingly when preparing products, including uniforms, for the club.
If, for any reason, suppliers come up with a variation of colours, this is agreed to by the club and communicated to the team’s stakeholders.
Once the brand is clearly defined, it becomes easier to declare unapproved products as counterfeits.
So, it enables the club to monetise its brand. Locally, at any game, a glance into the stands will reveal various shades of the team’s colours.
Most “replica” jerseys on display at local grounds do not generate income for the clubs.
This must be addressed for teams to realise meaningful revenue from brands they have built over the years.
Clubs must take the first step of defining their own colours, ensuring they are known, and they stick to them.
They must make the right replicas and merchandise available and accessible at competitive prices.
Bulawayo Chiefs have done a great job in defining their colours, commissioning their own apparel maker and making kits and other merchandise available to their fans. It is embarrassing to turn up at a Chiefs match in a home-made jersey.
So, there is scope for win-win partnerships between clubs and some of the tailors who are making replicas without authorisation from clubs.
Communities can be engaged to produce other apparel — not replica jerseys — to a standard set by the club and agreed to in brand manuals and binding agreements between the concerned parties.
Football clubs are not wild fruit trees, where anyone can walk up and grab some fruits.
They are business entities that have to meet inherent costs of running a club and generate positive returns for shareholders.
Merchandising is a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide and it starts by defining a club’s real colours.
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