Given US Soccer’s euphoric victory over Algeria today, and the subsequent qualification for the World Cup Round of 16, I thought it was a good time to share a feature article I wrote for my recent class “Public Relations and Public Affairs from a European Perspective” that just concluded last week in Bologna, Italy.
re·al: English [ree-uhl, reel] – adjective
1. true; not merely ostensible, nominal, or apparent: the real reason for an act.
re·al: Spanish (ray-ahl] – adjective
Translation to English: Royal
1. of or pertaining to a king, queen, or other sovereign: royal power; a royal palace.
Real Madrid CF, based in Madrid, Spain, is one of the most powerful, lucrative and popular club sports teams in the world. It averages about 75,000 fans per game in attendance and pays it’s player an average equivalent of $6.2 million. The locals call the sport it participates in football.
Real Salt Lake, Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, is not one of the most powerful, lucrative and popular club sports teams in Utah*. That honor would go to the city’s National Basketball Association participate, the Utah Jazz , let alone on the international scene. It averages 16,000 fans per game in attendance and it pays its entire team $1.6 million. The locals call the sport it participates in soccer.
The definitions of “real” and its translated Spanish twin “royal” help explain the discrepancy in popularity and financial success between two clubs with ostensibly similar names. If you ask a Spanish speaking individual, with no knowledge of the club, what Real Madrid CF may be, the chance is strong that this person will deduce, simply from the clarity of the name “Royal Madrid Club of Futbol”, that it is the Madrid-based football club that has a perhaps self-aggrandizing, but historically significant (and, indeed, very real) tie to royalty.
If you ask an American individual, with no knowledge of the club, what Real Salt Lake may be, the chance is strong that the person will stare at you blankly, or perhaps, ask if it is some sort of extension of the Utah Tea Party. You see, there is nothing “real” about Salt Lake – in the context of either the Spanish or English – except for that fact that it does, despite what its average attendance may suggest, exist in some tangible context. The team is neither “royal” nor is it representing what it truly stands for, an American colloquialism called “keeping it real.”
Similarly, FC Dallas, the Texas-based soccer club, is not a football club, as the “FC” would suggest. Because Americans don’t call it football. They call it soccer. As any American with a beating pulse can tell you, the real football team** oh yeah, another thing: they call them “teams” and not “clubs” from Dallas is called the Cowboys. They’re nickname, it should be noted, is America’s Team.
As coomunications or public relations practioners, we think there is a message strategy solution to every issue, and usually we are right. But something that practitioners tend to overlook is that for a message to be effective, the issue itself needs to be sound***. Of course, as any practitioner can tell you, it is also something organizational officials in general tend to overlook – or flat out ignore . What US soccer is dealing with is an issue that can’t be resolved solely by messaging.
American soccer’s communicative message is clear: The worlds most popular game, here in the USA! This message is ineffective though, because the product is ineffective. Major League Soccer – the 17 year old professional league in the United States – has simply taken the aspects which make soccer popular throughout the world and apply that to an American public. But the American public already has their own popular games and their own culture that has developed within those games. They don’t want an imported culture, they want a fundamentally changed soccer that fits within the already established sports culture in the United States.
MLS is misguided to impose the European perspectives of soccer on Americans. American football, baseball and basketball thrive in the States specifically because they are wholly American games with wholly American personalities. While naming your team after an influential team abroad may gain international attention (or, more likely, snickers) it is simply not going to register with the new American publics you hope to persuade.
This is an important lesson in public relations**** as well as, clearly – and perhaps more appropriately – marketing that cuts both ways. An American practitioner would do well to keep the case of American soccer in mind when dealing with a new European public. Just as you can’t sell a European knockoff to an American, you are going to have a hard time approaching your European publics from an American perspective. What are the unique characteristics of your publics? How can you cultivate your issue or message so that it adapts to these lessons?
An insightful case study, keeping within the realm of sports, would be the way that basketball – a wholly American sport – has been accepted throughout Europe. The clubs have not imported Americanized names; there are no Madrid Bulls or Bologna Lakers. Perhaps more importantly FIBA, the European basketball governing body, has adapted the rules to emphasize the technical aspects of the game that suit the culture that has developed around soccer; namely fundamentals. They have communicated to their prospective publics that this isn’t the American game, this is a European one***** right down to the name FIBA, a clear parallel is drawn to the instantly recognizable soccer governing body, FIFA . From both a messaging standpoint and a practical standpoint, FIBA has done everything the MLS has not, and so basketball has thrived in a formerly hostile foreign climate.
Every four years at this time Americans read countless articles like this about the country’s resistance to the world’s most popular game. Either they’re on the cusp (this next generation has played soccer since they were 5; they’ll love it!) or they’ll never get (it’s not aggressive enough; it’s not American enough).
What’s over looked in these argument is that simple messaging is not enough. The youth soccer argument clearly points to excitement and even interest in the game. But cultural differences in how the game is presented and how it is communicated have prevented the US from fully embracing this foreign product. Not only does soccer in America need a technical overhaul that takes into account these cultural differences, but it needs a communications strategy that takes these very same differences into account. And that’s a lesson that should apply to all communication and public relations practitioners.
*That honor would go to the city’s National Basketball Association participate, the Utah Jazz
**oh yeah, another thing: they call them “teams” and not “clubs”
***Of course, as any practitioner can tell you, it is also something organizational officials in general tend to overlook – or flat out ignore
****as well as, clearly – and perhaps more appropriately – marketing
***** right down to the name FIBA, a clear parallel is drawn to the instantly recognizable soccer governing body, FIFA
