Case No. 4: MIGHTY REDS GO FOR IT!

Name: Samer Mohamed Daghash

Date: 19/7/2013

Place: Eslsca Mohandessen

Under supervision of: Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shalaby
1) How do you think the Mighty Reds might be considered members of a
reference group? A brand community? A consumer tribe?
Might reds are considered as reference group posses referent power as
copying behaviors of a prominent person they admire (The Liverpool team)
and same is with the Egyptian Team El-Ahly fan club. Both clubs fans
were proud of wearing red clothes with name of the club or logo on it to
express their belonging to those clubs. They do this mainly in game day, or
during participating in social activities belonging to the club.
In 1996, a group of El-Ahly Club supporters started an
online forum that connects El-Ahly fans from all over
the world. They was called ALU (Ahly Lovers Union),
showed its real spirit in the Real Madrid vs. Ahly
game in 2001, when they carried a 40-meter long
Ahly flag. Then AFC (Ahly Fans Club) was established
that sat behind the goalkeeper and wore red shirts. However, when the
fans traveled with El-Ahly club abroad for support, they faced Ultras groups
for other teams and saw the way they cheered for their clubs; they knew
they needed to change.
El-Ahly Ultras (UA07) fan club was launched in November 2006 by members
from ALU and AFC. They worked on the idea of becoming an independent
fan club and to take the Curva Nord (North Stand) section as their place in
the stadium.

The fan club traveled with their team for the first time for the Ahly vs.
Ismaili game in Ismailia in 2007, where they made flare show celebration,
which added to their financial burden. Therefore, they started selling
products, such as shirts and caps, to provide more funding for the group.
El Ahly Ultras has a division that comes up with the songs, such as El Nadi
El Ahly Da Ghali Alina (El-Ahly Club is precious to us). They recently
released the music album Greatest Club in the Universe that includes
many of their songs; the group insisted on making the album free to
download online because they believe that all the fans should be able to
memorize their songs. The album received 150,000 download hits in the
first three days alone.
El-Ahly Ultras doesnt only support El-Ahly football teams, but all Ahly
teams in other sports as well. El-Ahly basketball games are known to be a
regular place for El-Ahly Ultras.
Liverpool fans club and El-Ahly fans share also in building up a brand
community for sport wear and gifts with club logo, some stores help in
financing El-Ahly Ultras and most make use of the likeliness of people to
Ahly club and consequently will purchase products carry its logo.

So, El-Ahly can also be referred to as a brand community and a lot of

companies are trying to make a benefit of
its large community by sponsoring of El-Ahly
and to relate their logo with El-Ahly logo to
gain marketing benefits. An example of
those companies is Etisalat.

Also, El-Ahly is considered as a consumer tribe. After the revolution in

January 2011, several clashes occurred in area of Kasr El Aini Street with
army that resulted in the death of many protestors, among whom 19-yearold Mohamed Mostafa, an El-Ahly Ultras member, the group showed their
solidarity. They accompanied Mostafas family to the morgue and his
funeral. They also organized five buses to transfer people from the morgue
to the mosque where a prayer was held for Mostafa. During the game that
followed Mostafas death, El-Ahly Ultras cheered and the games
choreography consisted of a triangle referring to Mostafas engineering
studies, and a tennis racket referring to Mostafas favorite sport.
They were dealing with each other like one big family and this occurred also
in several protests against capturing of some of its members after many
games or during the revolution activities.
El-Ahly established El-Ahly academy with 9 branches in different
governorates across Egypt. These clubs takes care of the new players and
train them and organize regular competitions between the various
branches, and is organized by the age stages. They produces a range of

talented players in the small age stages and Participate in games with
teams from other clubs and academies.
2) What kind of opportunities does the existence of the Mighty Reds
present to marketers? Develop a list of specific marketing and
promotional tactics.
1. Use the website of the club and their fan website and also their social
networks pages (Facebook) to make advertising through banners and adds
in a website you knew how much fans use it, e.g Cocacola had a big red add
on El-Ahly fans website says to be one, why not.

2. Advertising in Magazines and newspapers and street billboards for

sponsorship of the club and relating the marketed product with the club
logo like communication companie and sportwear companies.

3. Sponsoring events and fans gathering to either by distributing free

samples of the product in the event or helping in transferring of the
gathered people to the event place, this will raise the image of the
company or the product being sponsoring doing this:
a. gives people free minutes in that day to connect with each other, will
make people like this company more.
b. Provide buses to help in transfer and put the company and product logos
on the bus.
c. distribute free refreshments on the fans (Mineral water, sodas, juices)/
4. If you are marketing for charity purpose or hospital, you can make use of
the team players in photos and TV adds to encourage people to donate to
that place

5. TV and radio adds showing the relation of the product with the club
either supporting a program in it or sponsorship and take the opportunity
of marketing your product. Also try to make those adds during the time of
game or during half time to make maximum watches and hearing.
6. Sales promotion by taking the opportunity of making something related
to the club winning like: We are celebrating the winning of El-Ahly club
today, our company is offering 10% discount on. Or we are giving free
minutes for

7. Printing logo on the players shirt will help in marketing the brand.

8. Relate your product with El-Ahly club logo to increase its sales among ElAhly fans and community like mugs, shirts,

9. Use El-Ahly mobile application: AKHBAR ALAHLY (most of El-Ahly fans

and most of football fans installed it on their smart phones) for advertising.

Dear Dr. Ahmed

I hope I was near to what you requested from us in this case.
I am attaching also a pdf version to avoid photos wondering across the word file.