2014/12/4

1

COURET Matthieu, GRAZZINI Martin, CAO Mengxing,

ZHANG Bingce, SUBRAMANYAM Kumar

Umbro is one of main actors on the five-a-side soccer market

in France

This industry is facing for 3 or 4 years a concentration

phenomenon

Umbro lost its parnership with Soccer 5 since this company

merged with Urban Football to become Urban Soccer

Aim of the study

which strategy should Umbro adopt on this market ?

Market study

Consumer profile analysis

Questionnaire methodology and results

Strategic benchmark

Recommendations

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FFF members is stagnating, five-a-side soccer attraction

is skyrocketing

1 million of French people regularly play five-a-side

soccer

It represents an opportunity for (new) stakeholders to

invest

Soccer centers:

Dominated by independents (30% of global turnover)

Several mergers (Temple du Foot/Le Five and Urban

Football/Soccer 5)

Le Five: 24 centers / Urban Soccer : 22 centers

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Equipment manufacturers:

Nike, Umbro, Adidas and Asics

Beverages:

Coca-Cola, Vittel, Powerade

Medias:

RMC, L’EQUIPE, France Info and Libération

75%

25%

The average time spent in the

center

Time spent on the

field

Time spent outside

the field (bar,

restaurant, shop…)

2H30

A regular football player pays his membership card 100€

A five-a-side player spends in average 250€

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10%

35% 45%

10%

Customer profile by age

Less than 17

17 to 25

25 to 35

More than 35

25%

45%

15%

15%

Customer profile by SCP

Employees

Executives

Students

Others

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We conducted 16 qualitative interviews

They allowed us to understand :

the reasons and the values driven by five-a-side football

the consumer’s consumption habits and the

important factors related to his experience

the role of an equipment manufacturer

10%

50%

30%

10%

Age of the interviewees

Less than 17

years old

17-25 years old

25-35 years old

More than 35

years old

62,5% 18,75%

12,5%

6,25%

Socio-Professional

Categories

Students

Employees

Executives

Others

• Only men have been

interviewed

• Play on average 4 times

per month, so 1 time per

week

• They are regular players

An entertaining, sporting and relaxing moment with friends in a

qualitative structure

Verbatim: “A modern football development, a new alternative to

regular football”

Passion, teamwork and friendship

Emphasis more on technique, the game is faster

and requires more communication

Values

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60% 20%

10%

10%

Where are the interviewees

used to play five-a-side

soccer? Rennes (Cap Malo)

Paris

(Aubervilliers)

Lyon (Sport dans

la ville)

Poitiers (Arena

Sport)

Reasons to choose a

soccer center:

• Cheap and easy to

access

• More convenient,

easier to organize

Customers’ expectations:

• 82% of the interviewees put balls and bar/restaurant in their top 3 and

60% would like a sauna/jacuzzi

• Coaching and discovering activities are expected

Customers and sponsors’ relationship:

• 75% are sensible to a sponsor if it provides the brand top quality

equipment and price reduction

• Only 40% have already bought products.

Verbatim: “I have actually bought shoes, because I know they are

specialized products made for artificial field”

93%

60% 50%

30% 10%

0

20

40

60

80

100

Nike Umbro Adidas Puma Reebok

Proportion of top-minded equipment manufacturers

sponsoring soccer centers

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BENCHMARKING

Performance benchmarking

-Compare products and services

Process benchmarking

-Derive from performance benchmarking

-First identify the weak competing points of their products or

services and then focus on the key processes to eliminate those

weaknesses

Strategic benchmarking

-Identify the winning strategies of successful companies

-Compare the strategic goals in order to spot new strategic

choices

STRATEGIC BENCHMARKING

Search for industry best practices that lead to superior

performance (NIKE)

Evaluate the competition performance in terms of sponsoring

soccer centers

Website analysis of different soccer centers all over France

(109/232)

http://www.mag5.fr/ANNUAIRE-des-centres-Retrouvez-les-232-complexes-de-France_a563.html

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Soccer Center Video

Game Food & Beverage

Sports

Manufacture Media Others

UrbanFootball

(Totally 16, 11 in Paris) PlayStation POWERADE NIKE L' OREAL

Soccer5

(Totally 16) PlayStation POWERADE NIKE L' OREAL

Le FIVE

(Totally 24, 7 in Paris) PlayStation GATORADE, Pepsi RMC

Futbol Futbol

(Totally 13) PlayStation

GATORADE, Pepsi,

TROPICANA,

ORANGINA,

SCHWEPPES

WSB

SoccerPark

(Totally 9) PlayStation GATORADE Adidas

Soccer United POWERADE Adidas

Teams5 PlayStation,

EA Sports Pepsi NIKE

Radio Africa 1,

Le 10 sport

Marmara, Mercedes-

Benz, Beur FM, Wati

B, Skyrock, Enyya

Communication

Evad'Sports

GATORADE, Pepsi,

ORANGINA,

SCHWEPPES,

HEINEKEN

Adidas

Offside Foot Indoor PUMA TRG/EPS CONCEPT

DreamFoot POWERADE Umbro 2Hevent

SPORT N DOOR N/A

Chart of sponsors in Soccer Center. (Resource: Mag5, 22/08/2014)

27%

17%

32%

10%

14%

Sample of Big Soccer

Centers in France (41)

UrbanFootball Soccer5 Le FIVE FUTBOL FUTBOL Soccer Park

38%

62%

Sample of Soccer

Centers

in France (109)

Big Centers Others

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Big Soccer Center Independent Soccer

Center

Average Number of

Sponsor 4.575 3.29

Max

Futbol Futbol Bordeaux-

Cestas (15)

Futbol Futbol Bordeaux (14)

H Park Clermont (18)

World Soccer Indoor Lons (15)

Team5 Roissy-en-France (15)

Min 3 (relatively small standard

deviation) 30/64 without sponsors

Rate of Sponsorship by

Sports Manufactures 67.5% 28.125%

50%

34%

4% 5% 7%

Sports Equipment Sponsors Occupancy

NIKE

Adidas

Umbro

Puma

Others

Sponsors

Video Game Food &

Beverage Sports

Equipment Media

• Most of the centers have official partners specialized in video

game, food & beverage and sports equipment industry.

• As a lot of local centers emerge, there are still some of them

without sponsors (e.g. SPORT IN DOOR).

• Unlike partners of food & beverage industry, normally there is

only one sponsor that manufactures sports equipment.

Strengths Long history focus on football equipment (Founded in 1924)

The first and the leader of equipment brand of five-a-side football

market

High quality products

High customer loyalty

Weaknesses Less partnerships with soccer center

Less recognized brand image

Outdated and less updated equipment design

Opportunities 2014 new partnership with FC Nantes and RC Lens

Up going growth in five-a-side industry (2 million players)

Lots of emerging local soccer centers

Threats Fierce competition (e.g. NIKE took over Soccer 5’s sponsorship and

merged it to UrbanSoccer)

SWTO Analysis of Umbro

Strengths High occupancy of current market

World known reputation

Well designed and updated equipment

Weaknesses

Opportunities Sponsorship with France National Team

Up going growth in five-a-side industry

Lots of emerging local soccer centers

Threats Adidas dominance in European countries

Faked imitation from other local brands

SWTO Analysis of NIKE

-Brand image

-Financial support

-Current situation

-ILC (Industry Life Cycle)

-Hard to imitate

-New strategic choices

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Set up a national parntership with Le Five

Back-up strategy: convifoot or another group of

independents

Focus on Nantes and Lens, two partners in the football

industry

Cross-industry alliance (co-branding)

Set up a national parntership with le Five

24 soccer centers on the national territory (7 in Ile-de-

France)

Le Five hasn’t developped a national partnership with an

equipment manufacturer yet

Possibility to develop a flagship in Paris

Presence in Nantes and Lens areas

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Back-up strategy:

Convifoot or another group of independents

Reach an agreement with a group of independents

Name a unique representative which would be

responsible for the whole strategy with Umbro

Convifoot, 30 centers located all over the French

territory (1 of them in Lens area)

Increase Umbro’s exposure among its 1300000 players

per year and medias

Back-up strategy:

Convifoot or another group of independents

Difficulties to develop a global strategy with everyone

of the centers

More informations needed about their actual

partnership with Adidas

Focus on Nantes and Lens, two partners in the

football industry

Capitalize on Umbro’s brand awareness in those two

cities through the partnerships with those clubs

Develop a real strategy with two club on the five-a-side

football market that could benefit to both.

Co-branded soccer centers (e.g. Manchester United and

Power league’s partnership)

Five-a-side academies

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Cross-industry alliance (co-branding)

The basic idea of strategic alliance is the agreement

between two or more companies which share the same

categories of target customers or pursue the similar

objectives

Aim for synergy, enhance bargaining power

Each partner shares information of soccer centers or

the rivalries actions

Example: the Sports Kit by Nike and Apple (product

level)