“Lukaku? Inter also chooses idols for young people. Fundamental marketing to grow”

“For Suning, retail was at the heart of the business. We have always worked by analyzing what consumers want. We have transformed from an offline company to a company where online revenues today exceed those offline. What we do with football clubs is try to help them target content for different areas. Last year we worked with City and Liverpool with a co-marketing initiative in Chinese black friday, it was a great opportunity to see what kind of products are bought or what kind of content people want to see. We do charity events, many clubs: yesterday, for example, Real Madrid that gave us the Clasico to auction them to raise money for coronavirus. We use our digital experience to bring clubs, leagues and players close to the fans. “In his speech at the FT Business of Football Summit in London, Steven Zhang, president of Inter, dedicates an important parenthesis to the digitalization process that is also affecting world football.

“Today, in all businesses, two themes are important: globalization and digitalization – the words of the president of Inter reported by Football and Finance -. Our partners are no longer local, they want to approach internationally. If we think about 5 or 10 years ago it seemed impossible that today we could have a team for Facebook or one for Tik Tok, probably there wasn’t even a social media team. Technology has changed but our partners are asking for it, also to target consumers. The games last only 90 minutes, but what can you do with all consumers after those? Today 99.9% of people do not watch a game in full, they are distracted by smartphones, social media, anything. As a company, how can we cut our work and content based on this and what can we do to attract them? It’s one of the biggest challenges but also a great opportunity. ”

Speaking of the winter shopping campaign, in which they arrived Eriksen, Young is Moses, three players who played in the Premier, Zhang explains that the investment strategy was exclusively technical and not commercial: “Looking at the English championship, the most interesting thing is what they are doing in terms of marketing and commercial initiatives. But regarding the choice of the players, the important thing is to have a competitive team on the pitch, because in the end we are a football club. At the center are the matches, the sports results. When we look at the players we do not look at the nationality or league they come from, but the their sporting abilities. Secondly, what I appreciate most for players like Lukaku o Young is that they are not only good players but also good people. As a club that uses digital content a lot, we also choose idols for the younger generation. Evaluating players with skills and personality to give the right message is important for Inter. This is why we have chosen these players and we think we have made the right choice, the results are proving us right. In the next few years will we be a club that will buy more than sell on the market? Like Inter, our target is to fight at the highest level. In this case, investing in the market and choosing the right players is the key, but we must always follow the rules for football to be sustainable in the long term. This is why marketing and commercial skills are fundamental for growing in today’s football “.

Changing the subject, Zhang thus speaks of the development of the A league: “Obviously I will never be satisfied with the work to promote our league. Champions and Premier do many successful commercial and marketing activities because people always think about innovation. We have the responsibility and obligation to be innovative and push the league to go ahead, but it will never be enough. Even the infrastructures today do not give great services for our fans. Once these things have improved we will see Italian football improve “.

Duty statement dedicated to the fight against racism, an issue that is very close to Inter: “I believe that education is the most effective way to fight racism. We wrote it in our name, Internazionale, no matter where you come from, what is your color, we are united, the president also comes from China. We believe that by promoting these campaigns and educating people, especially the youngest, accidents will decrease. Against racism we can use digital content to promote messages, educating them is the most important thing to change the reality of today “.