International soccer star David Beckham swept into Miami – pretty much like a hurricane – with grand plans for a major league soccer stadium.
But, unlike a hurricane, he hasn’t made much of an impact. He’s missed shots at two potential sites, and now there’s a petition circulating to move the project to the old Orange Bowl site.
Frankly, the guy is not winning with his brand, so I took a few minutes with branding expert Bruce Turkel to talk about Beckham’s bungling.
“His brand has a lot to do with why we’re talking to him in the first place,” said Turkel. After all, he’s good looking, from England, and married to once-celebrity singer Posh Spice, he said.
“People pay attention, but I’m not really sure he and his team did their homework on how our community works,” Turkel said. “I don’t think they strategized it very well.”
The Beckham team made a huge mistake, Turkel said, in identifying the Port of Miami site as their “preferred” site.
“As soon as you say preferred, it means you have other ones. So they lost any negotiating power, I think, that they would have had,” he said. “I would prefer that you give me $1,000, but I would take $800 or $500. That’s not a really good way to negotiate.”
From my perspective, the Beckham team’s biggest faux pas, so far, has been to call themselves the “anti-Marlins,” not thinking that a significant part of the community likes the Marlins.
Turkel said it never makes sense to come into town and start making fun of who’s already here.
Momentum seems to be building behind the Orange Bowl location for Beckham’s new stadium, so stay tuned! It’s a good site, if we can’t have the Miami Intermodal Center location.
If anything, there’s sure to be more to talk about in coming weeks.
Click here to listen to the full exchange between Jim Fried and branding expert Bruce Turkel on Beckham’s branding.
