In recent months, Newcastle fans have done brilliantly in collectively protesting against the horrendous regime currently destroying our beloved club.
It is evident that the protests are having an impact across the board, not only at club level, but also slightly affecting Ashley’s’ other business interests too.
There is always the term ‘Bad press is good press’, and our fans protests’ outside of Sh.. Direct do effectively publicise the brand (although I agree it may not be in the best light, but the logo/brand can predominantly be seen in protests’ all the same).
I agree that the protests outside of Sh.. Direct may have directly affected sales on each of these occasions, whilst affecting Ashley’s reputation within the organisation (as the press suggested, there was discomfort at their recent AGM towards MA).
We however, still provide MA with ammunition to say ‘Hey guys, we’re getting free publicity on the back of their protests.’
That relates to a valid point on the lips of all our fans, that Sh.. Direct already take advantage of our club to get FREE worldwide advertising on every square inch possible within St James Park, whilst being horrifically plastered on top of the stadium too.
Marketing is generally a massive outlay financially for organisations, yet Sh.. Direct have our club bent over a barrel to reap the rewards of the marketability of the Premier League, yet have no costs for the benefit.
That provides a niche.
What if Sh.. Direct competitors can tap into a market of free advertising and publicity on match days.
Quite simply, they can. How can they? Because we can do it for them.
What would be worse for MA and his cronies, a sign suggesting we are ‘United as a City’, or a sign that simply reads www.startfitness.co.uk, or www.mgsportswear.co.uk (I think you get the gist).
I am aware that club officials will more than likely request stewards to take the banners down (as they did on the weekend).
However, we as fans should collectively work against the stewards to prevent this from happening (bearing in mind most stewards will probably be NUFC fans anyhow).
Now, I am not condoning any sort of violence or humiliation against the stewards, but a calm prevention in place to stop the stewards getting to the banners (people standing in-front that will require physical force to enforce removal).
Pre-match protests could also be angled towards the marketing of competitors (and stewards, nor anybody else, could do a thing to prevent this).
This in itself would give Sh.. Direct a shake-up, because by absolutely no stretch at all would shareholders of Sh.. Direct tolerate their direct competitors gaining free marketing in their playground.
If fans are able to work strategically then we could actually benefit from free marketing of our protests, as a result of marketing other companies.
As we know, MA likes to have his hand in quite a few pies, so if the fans are to take this avenue forward, we just need to be careful we don’t market a company partly owned by the man himself.
We’re all aware that MA’s heart is in his wallet, so let’s try and get him where it hurts.