1. 2014/12/4
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COURET Matthieu, GRAZZINI Martin, CAO Mengxing,
ZHANG Bingce, SUBRAMANYAM Kumar
 Umbro is one of main actors on the five-a-side soccer market
in France
 This industry is facing for 3 or 4 years a concentration
phenomenon
 Umbro lost its parnership with Soccer 5 since this company
merged with Urban Football to become Urban Soccer
Aim of the study
which strategy should Umbro adopt on this market ?
 Market study
 Consumer profile analysis
 Questionnaire methodology and results
 Strategic benchmark
 Recommendations

2. 2014/12/4
2
 FFF members is stagnating,five-a-side soccer attraction
is skyrocketing
 1 million of French people regularly play five-a-side
soccer
 It represents an opportunity for (new) stakeholders to
invest
 Soccer centers:
 Dominated by independents (30% of global turnover)
 Several mergers (Temple du Foot/Le Five and Urban
Football/Soccer 5)
 Le Five: 24 centers / Urban Soccer : 22 centers

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 Equipment manufacturers:
 Nike, Umbro,Adidas and Asics
 Beverages:
 Coca-Cola,Vittel,Powerade
 Medias:
 RMC,L’EQUIPE,France Info and Libération
75%
25%
The average time spent in the
center
Time spent on the
field
Time spent outside
the field (bar,
restaurant, shop…)
2H30
A regular football player pays
his membership card 100€
A five-a-side player spends in average
250€

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4
10%
35%
45%
10%
Customer profile by age
Less than 17
17 to 25
25 to 35
More than 35
25%
45%
15%
15%
Customer profile by SCP
Employees
Executives
Students
Others

5. 2014/12/4
5
 We conducted 16 qualitative interviews
 They allowed us to understand :
 the reasons and the values driven by five-a-side football
 the consumer’s consumption habits and the
important factors related to his experience
 the role of an equipment manufacturer
10%
50%
30%
10%
Age of the interviewees
Less than 17
years old
17-25 years old
25-35 years old
More than 35
years old
62,5%
18,75%
12,5%
6,25%
Socio-Professional
Categories
Students
Employees
Executives
Others
• Only men have been
interviewed
• Play on average 4 times
per month,so 1 time per
week
• They are regular players
An entertaining, sporting and relaxing moment with friends in a
qualitative structure
Verbatim:“A modern football development,a new alternative to
regular football”
Passion,teamwork and friendship
Emphasis more on technique, the game is faster
and requires more communication
Values

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60%20%
10%
10%
Where are the interviewees
used to play five-a-side
soccer? Rennes (Cap Malo)
Paris
(Aubervilliers)
Lyon (Sport dans
la ville)
Poitiers (Arena
Sport)
Reasons to choose a
soccer center:
• Cheap and easy to
access
• More convenient,
easier to organize
Customers’ expectations:
• 82% of the interviewees put balls and bar/restaurant in their top 3 and
60% would like a sauna/jacuzzi
• Coaching and discovering activities are expected
Customers and sponsors’ relationship:
• 75% are sensible to a sponsor if it provides the brand top quality
equipment and price reduction
• Only 40% have already bought products.
Verbatim:“I have actually bought shoes, because I know they are
specialized products made for artificial field”
93%
60%
50%
30%
10%
0
20
40
60
80
100
Nike Umbro Adidas Puma Reebok
Proportion of top-minded equipment manufacturers
sponsoring soccer centers

7. 2014/12/4
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BENCHMARKING
 Performance benchmarking
-Compare products and services
 Process benchmarking
-Derive from performance benchmarking
-First identify the weak competing points of their products or
services and then focus on the key processes to eliminate those
weaknesses
 Strategic benchmarking
-Identify the winning strategies of successful companies
-Compare the strategic goals in order to spot new strategic
choices
STRATEGIC BENCHMARKING
 Search for industry best practices that lead to superior
performance (NIKE)
 Evaluate the competition performance in terms of sponsoring
soccer centers
 Website analysis of different soccer centers all over France
(109/232)
http://www.mag5.fr/ANNUAIRE-des-centres-Retrouvez-les-232-complexes-de-France_a563.html

8. 2014/12/4
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Soccer Center
Video
Game
Food & Beverage
Sports
Manufacture
Media Others
UrbanFootball
(Totally 16, 11 in Paris)
PlayStation POWERADE NIKE L' OREAL
Soccer5
(Totally 16)
PlayStation POWERADE NIKE L' OREAL
Le FIVE
(Totally 24, 7 in Paris)
PlayStation GATORADE, Pepsi RMC
Futbol Futbol
(Totally 13)
PlayStation
GATORADE, Pepsi,
TROPICANA,
ORANGINA,
SCHWEPPES
WSB
SoccerPark
(Totally 9)
PlayStation GATORADE Adidas
Soccer United POWERADE Adidas
Teams5
PlayStation,
EA Sports
Pepsi NIKE
Radio Africa 1,
Le 10 sport
Marmara, Mercedes-
Benz, Beur FM, Wati
B, Skyrock, Enyya
Communication
Evad'Sports
GATORADE, Pepsi,
ORANGINA,
SCHWEPPES,
HEINEKEN
Adidas
Offside Foot Indoor PUMA TRG/EPS CONCEPT
DreamFoot POWERADE Umbro 2Hevent
SPORT N DOOR N/A
Chart of sponsors in Soccer Center. (Resource: Mag5, 22/08/2014)
27%
17%
32%
10%
14%
Sample of Big Soccer
Centers in France (41)
UrbanFootball
Soccer5
Le FIVE
FUTBOL FUTBOL
Soccer Park
38%
62%
Sample of Soccer
Centers
in France (109)
Big Centers Others

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Big Soccer Center Independent Soccer
Center
Average Number of
Sponsor
4.575 3.29
Max
Futbol Futbol Bordeaux-
Cestas (15)
Futbol Futbol Bordeaux (14)
H Park Clermont (18)
World Soccer Indoor Lons (15)
Team5 Roissy-en-France (15)
Min
3 (relatively small standard
deviation)
30/64 without sponsors
Rate of Sponsorship by
Sports Manufactures
67.5% 28.125%
50%
34%
4% 5%
7%
Sports Equipment Sponsors Occupancy
NIKE
Adidas
Umbro
Puma
Others
Sponsors
Video Game
Food &
Beverage
Sports
Equipment
Media
• Most of the centers have official partners specialized in video
game, food & beverage and sports equipment industry.
• As a lot of local centers emerge, there are still some of them
without sponsors (e.g. SPORT IN DOOR).
• Unlike partners of food & beverage industry,normally there is
only one sponsor that manufactures sports equipment.
Strengths Long history focus on football equipment (Founded in 1924)
The first and the leader of equipment brand of five-a-side football
market
High quality products
High customer loyalty
Weaknesses Less partnerships with soccer center
Less recognized brand image
Outdated and less updated equipment design
Opportunities 2014 new partnership with FC Nantes and RC Lens
Up going growth in five-a-side industry (2 million players)
Lots of emerging local soccer centers
Threats Fierce competition (e.g. NIKE took over Soccer 5’s sponsorship and
merged it to UrbanSoccer)
SWTOAnalysis of Umbro
Strengths High occupancy of current market
World known reputation
Well designed and updated equipment
Weaknesses
Opportunities Sponsorship with France National Team
Up going growth in five-a-side industry
Lots of emerging local soccer centers
Threats Adidas dominance in European countries
Faked imitation from other local brands
SWTOAnalysis of NIKE
-Brand image
-Financial support
-Current situation
-ILC (Industry Life Cycle)
-Hard to imitate
-New strategic choices

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 Set up a national parntership with Le Five
 Back-up strategy: convifoot or another group of
independents
 Focus on Nantes and Lens, two partners in the football
industry
 Cross-industry alliance (co-branding)
Set up a national parntership with le Five
 24 soccer centers on the national territory (7 in Ile-de-
France)
 Le Five hasn’t developped a national partnership with an
equipment manufacturer yet
 Possibility to develop a flagship in Paris
 Presence in Nantes and Lens areas

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Back-up strategy:
Convifoot or another group of independents
 Reach an agreement with a group of independents
 Name a unique representative which would be
responsible for the whole strategy with Umbro
 Convifoot,30 centers located all over the French
territory (1 of them in Lens area)
 Increase Umbro’s exposure among its 1300000 players
per year and medias
Back-up strategy:
Convifoot or another group of independents
 Difficulties to develop a global strategy with everyone
of the centers
 More informations needed about their actual
partnership with Adidas
Focus on Nantes and Lens, two partners in the
football industry
 Capitalize on Umbro’s brand awareness in those two
cities through the partnerships with those clubs
 Develop a real strategy with two club on the five-a-side
football market that could benefit to both.
 Co-branded soccer centers (e.g. Manchester United and
Power league’s partnership)
 Five-a-side academies

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Cross-industry alliance (co-branding)
 The basic idea of strategic alliance is the agreement
between two or more companies which share the same
categories of target customers or pursue the similar
objectives
 Aim for synergy, enhance bargaining power
 Each partner shares information of soccer centers or
the rivalries actions
 Example:the Sports Kit by Nike and Apple (product
level)