The B2C interactions between the FA and your average England fan straddle a veritable chasm of experiences; compare David Beckham’s swirling World Cup qualifying free-kick in 2001 to the forlorn figure of Steve McLaren, motionless under his England umbrella, as Croatia denied his under performing Golden Generation a place in the 2008 European Championships. The dejected England fans to have shuffled home on that occasion were faced with the option of ‘churning’ – spending their hard-earned cash on the high street, going to watch their local club or taking up golf.In this sense, the FA holds a trump card that most B2C providers could only dream of – a customer experience-defying loyalty. Every day the Fizzback solution helps our clients to engage with their customers and recover those who, without our intervention, would likely defect to the competition. Unlike the FA, the vast majority of organisations are unable to benefit from next to no direct competition or call upon unnerving commitment - the rarest of customer traits. Sporting events may polarise the customer experience to breathtaking highs and soul-destroying lows but the accompanying customer loyalty borders on logic-defying: especially with the spiralling cost of following football in the Sky Sports era.
A couple of weeks ago, (pun aside) the boot was on the other foot. The FA – B2C providers of customer experiences gone by – became B2B providers in their ill-fated 2018 World Cup bid in Zurich. Clearly FIFA’s ‘loyalty’ towards the FA wasn't quite as experience-defying as in the case of the average England fan, despite FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s claims in October than England could “host a World Cup tomorrow”. After months of lobbying, the FA presented a bid with royal, political and celebrity endorsement that was seemingly unrivalled both technically and financially – but would leave Switzerland bitterly disappointed.In this B2B interaction, the FA clearly hadn’t understood their customer. The aftermath has seen widespread condemnation of the role of the English media; Gary Lineker thought it appropriate to resign as a columnist with the Mail on Sunday following their damaging exposé (though he can still be found on the Match of the Day sofa following Panorama’s arguably more damaging revelations on the eve of the vote). The FA is certainly not alone in the sense of external media forces at work; the vicious tongue of the English media and its impact on the 2018 bid equates to firms whose brand image is threatened by the increasing prominence of social media – something Fizzback is increasingly incorporating into its clients’ platforms. Media can change everything; and if you listen to FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, may have just turned a polished World Cup bid worth millions of pounds to a mere folly dismissed in the first round of voting.
Unlike the loyal customers following the national team in the B2C environment, the FA was up against viable B2B competition and in the end were usurped by the tears of Arshavin and a solid Russian bid. The pessimists amongst us will claim these shores will never see another World Cup with recent voting history suggesting FIFA may be moving towards a Blatter-inspired “Third World Cup” legacy. What we can take with certainty from this unfortunate incident, however, is the indubitable power of the media in influencing how customers view brands and businesses – and at Fizzback we’re acting accordingly to ensure our clients have the tools necessary to tune in on the social media buzz around their brands.
Andrew Robson