Swinging voters will only ever join when we are successfull, I know 5 of these type and all have the money but aren't going to waste it on watching wins for the year.

Throwing hundreds and thousands of dollars at them while we are unsuccessfull is throwing money down the drain. They will come aboard when we start winning again and that is when we throw the money and value adds in to keep them aboard for when the wheel turns downward again.

It is like my own situation where I was going to buy a Melbourne Victory membership but the time i got around to it, they were shite and I saved my money for better things. Will I buy one this season? I'll see who we recruit and how the pre-season pans out before decide.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

But the groundwork has to be laid now, when the end of the shite-ness is in sight.

Get the people on board, who will the savour the successful times when they come. And they will.

And when those successful times come, and there's more money about, then the die-hards who "stuck fat", will get rewarded with something, even up to, say, 50% off the next year's membership. Think of it as like the membership version of "No claim Bonus" with insurance.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

This thread is a beauty. It's great to see hearts and minds moved together , driven by their navy blue pride and passion.

You can't fail, once you start moving in this 'can do' direction as you guys have today, you just can't fail.

Whilst great ideas have been brainstormed on other threads, mainly to raise immediate funds, the composition of todays ideas are inspiring, and focussing at the heart of the challenge for today and the long term, rather than short term fixes. Inspiring.

Marketing and Membership. That's it!!

I, as an interstater see the potential of finding support / memberships for Carlton amongst those who are more inclined to support a non local team; in my case the Swans.

They just have to see the value. Value will come from most importantly the satisfaction of having a sense of belonging, as would people looking to identify with and associate with some form of tribal entertainment, (and footy is the easiest way to do it ) may see Carlton as their preferred tribe. If targeted and marketed to. You can't get more tribal than joining the thousands of Carlton tragics.

There's a huge untapped market outside Melbourne, in every state.

Go for it. All of us.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I've been a social club member for many years now but I really see no point in getting it again this year. I was lucky to get access to the medallion club last year for a few games and it's pretty hard to go back from there to sitting with the cheersquad and drinking in the sticks room.

I really don't know what membership to get this week.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

The point of my post was that the concept of being a member (and what it means to a victorian club) is more important than caps, badges, etc.

That's what the club needs to get out and bang the drum about. That's how you go from 30,000 members to 40,000 members to 50,000 members.

If the club arranged a social club with the view of the ground and level 2 seating social club membership would sky rocket. I'd be willing to pay up to $700 or $800 if they could give me something worth it.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

It is ok to come onto a forum of committed Blue-Bloods and call on us all to buy memberships. Even if there was no advertising at all, the membership package consisted of the crusts of bread from Pagan's last lunch and they took away entry to games and all of the other benefits, there would still be some of us that signed up. We are not the people that need convincing. A call to arms from the faithful aint what's needed. We had that with the Fight Back rally etc.

Comments that we dont want or need uncommitted members etc are short sighted and ridiculous. Anybody prepared to tip $$ in is very welcome I'd imagine.

For most people short of the few tragics wasting their time on web boards, footy and their devotion to a club of choice is not necessarily the most important thing in either their life or their annual budget. If you cant give them a reason that they place some inherent value in to join up, then they wont. They will be happy to scan the Herald Sun on a Monday etc. To think that we will be swamped by wagoneers when we become successful is ridiculous also. We have had record memberships SINCE we started bottoming out. Where were all those wagoneers in 95, 99 etc. Sure we might get a few more on board, but we aint going to start eclipsing the filth just by getting into the finals. If what we offer is bad enough, even some of the die hards might go for things like the AFL memberships etc. Worse still we will lose people to the Victory, Storm etc etc. If we are interested in corporates, then you can forget any of the emotional mumbo-jumbo about club loyalty etc it's all about value.

People need to see a value in what they are getting. For some tragics, that value is maintaining their sense of loyalty to an old friend, feeling proud about helping the club when it is down etc. For others it might just be access to exclusive web material or a membership cap. Whatever that value is, wherever it is, if it is economical for us to give it and derive a return from it we should be pursuing it.

If the club thinks the cost of investing in the future is too expensive, then maybe it should add up the cost of staying in the past and make a comparison, or are we currently living the experiment?? Easy for me to say I know, I am just a punter out in web-land. The worse it gets and the further behind we drop, the less value potential or current members might perceive out of the club, the more will drop off the wagon. At the very least we need hope. In lieu of reality and results, a vision or hope for the future might be enough to carry a few more. At least the filth could pin their hope against all odds on Big Ed.

I dont want to be negative, its just annoying that some people seem to think that the same argument that a bunch of traditional old die hards use to convince themselves that they are stalwarts (and they probably are) is not necessarily going to wash with the masses. We need the masses more now than we ever have. You cant just keep playing the loyalty card with no hope or direction and expect people to keep tipping in unreservedly and without question on an open-ended basis.

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

Great post!

They should be focusing on the kid's market especially. That is where you get new members from.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

OK, now I'm scared. I agree with TheGame

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Your turning to the Dark Side

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

NEVER!!

You're not my Father!!

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Whatever happened to "ask not what your country can do for you..."?

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

Master Yoda just gave me a dressing down in another thread

But its to late for me

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Was that you in drag last night

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Time to go: Smorgon, Pagan

Nothing. The contributors who are criticising the CFC have bought their membership (barring TheGame and he's deciding what to choose).

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

The caps, badges, showbags, give aways, freebies etc are important for getting younger members and keeping them....I remember everyone laughing at the Essendon* duffle coat teenage set but its those kids who have grown up to be adult members and thats because they were looked after by the Essendon* football club while we were more interested in the corporates.....the club need to spend more dollars on marketing and attracting youngers members...cos they are the future.
We have a young list and its time to get a young supporter base to grow with them....we need our younger stars like Fev, Fish, Waite, Murphy,Setanta at the forefront of our marketing...

The do it for you club theme, we need you to survive isnt the right message to get young supporters..its has to be its cool to be a carlton member and this is why....we offer this this and this and so on.....you get more from us...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Speak to the juniors about Kouta they are mildly interested talk to them about Hollywood Fevola or Betts they generally get excited - need to sell our young new team rather than refer to our rich history

My 9 year old son is one of about 2 or 3 kids in his year at school (grade 3) that follow the blues. Most of the kids follow the Filth/Scum/Aints. Unless I had personally bribed and railroaded my boy when he was 5 or 6 so would he I daresay. Anyway, he is now locked into being old enough to know that you never change your team. He is interested in Fevola and Betts but he maintains that his favourite player is Jarred Waite. Apparently Jarred is one of the few Carlton players that command any respect amongst the 9 year olds in the playground.

Guys like Bentick, Simpson, Thornton, o'hAilpin etc might get a good run on TC, but to some 9 year old in a playground in the burbs that doesnt have a fanatical dad spending all day on TC, they are just other footy players. How spoilt I was as a kid having all of those greats to brag about. Having that duffle coat with 'Ken 9 Hunter'!! I remember how much sh1t we used to give anybody brave enough to own up to following the Aints. I hope my little boy isnt copping that at the moment.

I also reckon that my car is the only one I've seen getting around with the 'Baby Blue on board' window shade (bought for the 4 year old). Plenty of St Kilda/Filth/Scum stickers etc around.

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"Who discovered we could get milk from cows, and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Billy Connolly

You could view the problem as being the parents fault not passing on the Carlton following to there kids. If we re-ignite the passion in the parents, they will take the kids to the footy more to watch and discover new champions.

I was blessed that I grew up in a majority Carlton family and the Carlton centric town of Bendigo. Obviously Sexton was my idol growing up with Deano and any other Bendigo boy.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

And parents are a more pragmatic lot than kids. They will think that unless they get something decent for their hard-earned cash, then they will not sign up as members.

If there's nothing really in it for the kids, then the kids won't pester mum and dad to become members. If the adults don't get anything, then the parents will think "what a waste of money!" and not sign up.

The key thing is to offer something for everyone so that you can get families on board or at least the parents will give their kids something worth having.

As a few posters have said, it's all very well to try to get the "what can I do for my club?" ethic into them, but these kids don't have their own money. Kids don't think like that. Only the fanatics do. And that's us tragics on TC. I'm with Elwood - we have to be seen as cool. We can't just rely on our supporter base.

Our younger good players like Fisher, Simpson, Betts, Waite etc. have to be brought to the forefront of marketing and of selling the club to the media.

Having Collo tell us negative news every so often doesn't help. There is no flair, no positivity coming out of the admin at Carlton, particularly in marketing, to think that it's really cool to be on board at Carlton.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky