Mediocrity and rivalry rule out a Tottenham Hotspur rebrand by C21’s Garfunkel

As a fan of their north London rival Arsenal, I was amused to read that Spurs are reviewing their brand (DW 30 August).

Renaming is something that they will need to consider: Tottenham Hotspur is extremely old-fashioned sounding in a Boy’s Own comic kind of way, so that will have to go.

Repositioning is a tough one too, because their space as London’s elegant football team has obviously been taken by my team, Arsenal. And aligning culture with performance is even trickier.

Though Spurs are known as a club that plays attacking, flowing football to win games, Spurs fans have had to put up with stultifying football and mediocre results.

And when it comes to the visual identity, that strutting cockerel will definitely have to go – because there just isn’t anything left for them to strut about any more.

The club may not want to work with a brand consultant which supports Arsenal. But as an ethical branding consultancy, we like to see brand match reality.

So until their performance on the pitch improves, we wouldn’t want to work for them.

Adam Garfunkel

Head of consulting

C21

London E2

adam@c21.co.uk