Succulent lambs to the slaughter by AMcKellar89

[Smile 26,600]

Good Read I thought  

Succulent lamb: a phrase which, as bizarre as it seems, alludes to the great sway Rangers Football Club, or perhaps more accurately Sir David Murray, once held over the Scottish media.

The term refers to the food served by the Rangers chairman in meetings with friendly journalists who would report favorably in return for exclusives and inside information in return. 

Murray understood the value of brand management, media relations and the need to have journalists onside for the inevitable moments when our club would require them. Murray, for all his many, many faults, understood the true value of public relations, at least in the first half of his tenure. The same cannot be said for our current board of directors. Lamb is very much off the menu.
 

“Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. PR is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior.” - The Chartered Institute of Public Relations

The above, quite clearly, has not truly been appreciated at Rangers for well over a decade as our club has allowed itself and our fans to become a punch-bag for the media and rival supporters, epitomized most disappointingly by the poisonous summer of 2012.

For years we adopted an outdated and counter-productive approach of “dignified silence”, allowing the vacuum created to be filled by others. And, let me tell you, the narrative they have built up has not been beneficial to Rangers in any way, shape or form.

Our club has allowed, over a period of time, the continued and disgraceful dehumanizing and abuse of our support. We have made ourselves an easy target and at times when there was no shortage of people lining up to take a kick.

And that’s the problem with saying nothing. If we don’t comment, someone else will.

Look no further than the events of the last week. Two knuckle-draggers were pictured at our stadium racially abusing Scott Sinclair. It was as abhorrent as it was vile. And our club’s response? Silence. Deafening silence.

The result of that has been clear for all to see. Celtic had their players tweeting, their manager commenting and stories about a “hate mob” on the back-pages until the middle of the week. Their orchestrated campaign continued with players posing with a t-shirt emblazoned with the message “Love Celtic, Hate Racism” and their supporters proudly displayed a banner with an anti-racism message. That's the same club that employs Leigh Griffiths and was “seriously disappointed” at the ban handed to Aleksandar Tonev. 

Yet, because of Celtic’s un-matched PR, there are no mainstream media comment on such hypocrisy – just compliant journalists helping with the over-the-top milking of what was, of course, a horrible situation. An article in The Herald entitled “Scottish football a backwater? Racist abuse and anti-Catholic songbook doesn’t help our case” again reinforce the growing link being made with racism and our club on the back of two morons in a crowd of 50,000.

At the time Rangers needed to be proactive, not reactive. Our club is very much open to all and runs numerous terrific initiatives within communities that we should be proud of. The problem is we quite simply don’t promote this anywhere near enough.

We could, in any attempt to salvage something remotely positive from this situation, have invited an anti-racism initiative to the stadium the next day and had players endorsing their positive message just as Celtic have done. It seems like pretty simple stuff if I’m being honest.

Instead, we allowed ourselves to be put on the back foot, issuing a minimal response condemning the gestures and spending the rest of the week fire-fighting the association with racism or, worse, simply waiting for the embers to burn out of their own accord. Then, just as the fire does die down, we organize a SRTRC anti-racism event with Wes Foderingham – over a week later. And days after Celtic did the same at the PFA Awards dinner.

All of this begs the question – just what on earth is it that James Traynor and Level5 actually do?

I know for a fact that a number of prominent journalists in Scotland are in complete disbelief over how poorly Rangers handles it's public relations and brand management.

They cannot comprehend that the club thought it was a good idea to employ somebody almost universally disliked and, worse, distrusted in media circles to head up the public relations of the new regime at Rangers and queried what exactly a former tabloid hack really knows about the various different aspects of modern PR. Valid points, I would say.

These journalists cannot understand that a huge club like ours has such a dreadful, antiquated, and ineffective approach to public relations and that we persist with this despite the obvious failings.

The amateurish, old school methods deployed by Level5 no longer work in the modern world. Good PR isn’t limited to angry, rambling statements and taking pot-shots at everyone and anyone on the club website. It might work in the sports pages of the Record but it certainly isn’t enough for an institution like Rangers.

Celtic used the media, rather disgracefully, to apply pressure to a referee prior to our semi-final at Hampden. They then used it to build the association of Rangers fans with racism through the Scott Sinclair incident. They know how to play the game and they aren’t afraid to take the gloves off in doing so. And we let it pass without as much as a peep.

While I wouldn’t advocate stooping to their level there is absolutely no doubt that a modern, professional firm who actually specialize in PR and not sports columns could provide us with so much more value for money than the incompetents we currently have running the show. You wouldn’t hire a plumber to fix your electrics, so why hire a former sports hack to handle our most sensitive PR and defend our reputation beyond the back pages of the Daily Record?

Rangers have nobody with the relevant experience in issues like crisis PR or delivering a sustained, message-focused campaign to change or promote perceptions of a brand. What do Traynor and Level5 know about positive image enhancement? What do they know about community engagement or creating and building a brand? The evidence would suggest very little.

While Celtic have successfully built a romanticized image around their origin, Brother Walfrid and the core values they believe define their football club, our institution and support have had our reputation defined by jealous, bitter rivals and others. We have allowed ourselves to be portrayed by our enemies, for lack of a better word, as some sub-human, knuckle-dragging “klan”. And we didn’t do anywhere near enough to counter it.

Yes, in recent years, we’ve taken action against BBC Scotland and individual journalists such as Graham Spiers and Keith Jackson but the club don’t make clear enough why they’ve had to take these steps. In the last few days another Daily Record journalist – indeed their online sports editor - has joined Jane Hamilton and their paid Celtic blogger in having past sectarian tweets and anti-Rangers bile exposed. What have Rangers said? Absolutely nothing.

They may well understandably be fed up of being patronized by the Record Editor Murray Foote’s ongoing tacit support for such bigotry and inaccuracies regarding our club but as powerless as we may be to stop such content, the club should be informing every Rangers supporter to take their business elsewhere. Celtic did so in the past and are reaping the rewards now. Sure, banning newspapers or taking away the privileges of journalists may not be the best long-term strategy but if organizations can’t be worked with positively then make it clear why. Don’t leave people guessing – fill the vacuum and make your point.

With that in mind, our club needs to define what it stands for, what it means to be a Ranger. David Mason, the club’s historian, said: “for me, it is about standards and tradition and about the values that Bill Struth instilled into our institution”. From the Gallant Pioneers’ humble beginnings we established ourselves as the premier club in the land, upholding values like class, dignity, and sportsmanship. That is Rangers.

PR is about much more than the back page of a newspaper. The club needs to start looking after our image, our identity. And you don’t do that by employing those who have absolutely no idea what those are, never mind how to champion them.

At best right now we are constantly reactive rather than proactive. At worst we are completely inactive. It is an embarrassingly negligent approach for a firm receiving not inconsiderable sums for their services.

What concerns me, however, is that our board seem completely ignorant as to just how abysmally poor our PR is. Or maybe they actually believe that Level5 do a good job for us? One is as worrying as the other.

There are firms out there who actually specialize in public relations. I suggest we consider hiring one. Only then we may match Celtic off the park – as well as on it.ught.

 

[there'sonlyoneamoruso 1,724]

Read that the other day. It's 100% spot on. We need to be proactive instead of sitting in dignified silence.

The tarriers have taken their lead from the Shinners here in NI where everything is subject to spin due to well placed people in the media.

[RDFM 3,809]

I hate when writers take a new paragraph seemingly after every sentence.

[JohnD 157]

29 minutes ago, Smile said:

Good Read I thought  

Succulent lamb: a phrase which, as bizarre as it seems, alludes to the great sway Rangers Football Club, or perhaps more accurately Sir David Murray, once held over the Scottish media.

The term refers to the food served by the Rangers chairman in meetings with friendly journalists who would report favorably in return for exclusives and inside information in return. 

Murray understood the value of brand management, media relations and the need to have journalists onside for the inevitable moments when our club would require them. Murray, for all his many, many faults, understood the true value of public relations, at least in the first half of his tenure. The same cannot be said for our current board of directors. Lamb is very much off the menu.
 

“Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. PR is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior.” - The Chartered Institute of Public Relations

The above, quite clearly, has not truly been appreciated at Rangers for well over a decade as our club has allowed itself and our fans to become a punch-bag for the media and rival supporters, epitomized most disappointingly by the poisonous summer of 2012.

For years we adopted an outdated and counter-productive approach of “dignified silence”, allowing the vacuum created to be filled by others. And, let me tell you, the narrative they have built up has not been beneficial to Rangers in any way, shape or form.

Our club has allowed, over a period of time, the continued and disgraceful dehumanizing and abuse of our support. We have made ourselves an easy target and at times when there was no shortage of people lining up to take a kick.

And that’s the problem with saying nothing. If we don’t comment, someone else will.

Look no further than the events of the last week. Two knuckle-draggers were pictured at our stadium racially abusing Scott Sinclair. It was as abhorrent as it was vile. And our club’s response? Silence. Deafening silence.

The result of that has been clear for all to see. Celtic had their players tweeting, their manager commenting and stories about a “hate mob” on the back-pages until the middle of the week. Their orchestrated campaign continued with players posing with a t-shirt emblazoned with the message “Love Celtic, Hate Racism” and their supporters proudly displayed a banner with an anti-racism message. That's the same club that employs Leigh Griffiths and was “seriously disappointed” at the ban handed to Aleksandar Tonev. 

Yet, because of Celtic’s un-matched PR, there are no mainstream media comment on such hypocrisy – just compliant journalists helping with the over-the-top milking of what was, of course, a horrible situation. An article in The Herald entitled “Scottish football a backwater? Racist abuse and anti-Catholic songbook doesn’t help our case” again reinforce the growing link being made with racism and our club on the back of two morons in a crowd of 50,000.

At the time Rangers needed to be proactive, not reactive. Our club is very much open to all and runs numerous terrific initiatives within communities that we should be proud of. The problem is we quite simply don’t promote this anywhere near enough.

We could, in any attempt to salvage something remotely positive from this situation, have invited an anti-racism initiative to the stadium the next day and had players endorsing their positive message just as Celtic have done. It seems like pretty simple stuff if I’m being honest.

Instead, we allowed ourselves to be put on the back foot, issuing a minimal response condemning the gestures and spending the rest of the week fire-fighting the association with racism or, worse, simply waiting for the embers to burn out of their own accord. Then, just as the fire does die down, we organize a SRTRC anti-racism event with Wes Foderingham – over a week later. And days after Celtic did the same at the PFA Awards dinner.

All of this begs the question – just what on earth is it that James Traynor and Level5 actually do?

I know for a fact that a number of prominent journalists in Scotland are in complete disbelief over how poorly Rangers handles it's public relations and brand management.

They cannot comprehend that the club thought it was a good idea to employ somebody almost universally disliked and, worse, distrusted in media circles to head up the public relations of the new regime at Rangers and queried what exactly a former tabloid hack really knows about the various different aspects of modern PR. Valid points, I would say.

These journalists cannot understand that a huge club like ours has such a dreadful, antiquated, and ineffective approach to public relations and that we persist with this despite the obvious failings.

The amateurish, old school methods deployed by Level5 no longer work in the modern world. Good PR isn’t limited to angry, rambling statements and taking pot-shots at everyone and anyone on the club website. It might work in the sports pages of the Record but it certainly isn’t enough for an institution like Rangers.

Celtic used the media, rather disgracefully, to apply pressure to a referee prior to our semi-final at Hampden. They then used it to build the association of Rangers fans with racism through the Scott Sinclair incident. They know how to play the game and they aren’t afraid to take the gloves off in doing so. And we let it pass without as much as a peep.

While I wouldn’t advocate stooping to their level there is absolutely no doubt that a modern, professional firm who actually specialize in PR and not sports columns could provide us with so much more value for money than the incompetents we currently have running the show. You wouldn’t hire a plumber to fix your electrics, so why hire a former sports hack to handle our most sensitive PR and defend our reputation beyond the back pages of the Daily Record?

Rangers have nobody with the relevant experience in issues like crisis PR or delivering a sustained, message-focused campaign to change or promote perceptions of a brand. What do Traynor and Level5 know about positive image enhancement? What do they know about community engagement or creating and building a brand? The evidence would suggest very little.

While Celtic have successfully built a romanticized image around their origin, Brother Walfrid and the core values they believe define their football club, our institution and support have had our reputation defined by jealous, bitter rivals and others. We have allowed ourselves to be portrayed by our enemies, for lack of a better word, as some sub-human, knuckle-dragging “klan”. And we didn’t do anywhere near enough to counter it.

Yes, in recent years, we’ve taken action against BBC Scotland and individual journalists such as Graham Spiers and Keith Jackson but the club don’t make clear enough why they’ve had to take these steps. In the last few days another Daily Record journalist – indeed their online sports editor - has joined Jane Hamilton and their paid Celtic blogger in having past sectarian tweets and anti-Rangers bile exposed. What have Rangers said? Absolutely nothing.

They may well understandably be fed up of being patronized by the Record Editor Murray Foote’s ongoing tacit support for such bigotry and inaccuracies regarding our club but as powerless as we may be to stop such content, the club should be informing every Rangers supporter to take their business elsewhere. Celtic did so in the past and are reaping the rewards now. Sure, banning newspapers or taking away the privileges of journalists may not be the best long-term strategy but if organizations can’t be worked with positively then make it clear why. Don’t leave people guessing – fill the vacuum and make your point.

With that in mind, our club needs to define what it stands for, what it means to be a Ranger. David Mason, the club’s historian, said: “for me, it is about standards and tradition and about the values that Bill Struth instilled into our institution”. From the Gallant Pioneers’ humble beginnings we established ourselves as the premier club in the land, upholding values like class, dignity, and sportsmanship. That is Rangers.

PR is about much more than the back page of a newspaper. The club needs to start looking after our image, our identity. And you don’t do that by employing those who have absolutely no idea what those are, never mind how to champion them.

At best right now we are constantly reactive rather than proactive. At worst we are completely inactive. It is an embarrassingly negligent approach for a firm receiving not inconsiderable sums for their services.

What concerns me, however, is that our board seem completely ignorant as to just how abysmally poor our PR is. Or maybe they actually believe that Level5 do a good job for us? One is as worrying as the other.

There are firms out there who actually specialize in public relations. I suggest we consider hiring one. Only then we may match Celtic off the park – as well as on it.ught.

 

Hopefully someone/anyone at Rangers reads your well put post as its true in its entirety. There must be an overhaul of media and public relations in order to at least try to match Celtic's manipulation dominance in this area. Its critical to be pro active as you rightly say in managing media and public relations and ensuring the correct messages are being put out there.

[Docspawn 412]

Good post m8.

[ritchieshearercaldow 22,123]

Let's face it the scum are dominant in Scottish football until that changes they'll rule the roost in every aspect, we know our board are useless but until we are a major force no one's interested in what it says.

 

[Malkster 4,874]

this needs a bigger stage

 

[Pennyboy 140]

25 minutes ago, Malkster said:

this needs a bigger stage

 

Exactly mate it does!!! But the sad state of affairs is that in this present climate it never will be......

[bluesteel 218]

Great post from the OP, it saddens me to see how Rangers standards have disappeared (when SDM walked in),

journalists had to get articles or stories approved by Bill Struth,before getting past the sports editor of the now known Rhecord, a guy whose pseudonym was Waverley,the whole Country spoke in a whisper of awe when talking of Rangers, in my travels,before reputable car radio,I would ask any random passer by,you get the football scores? Invariably the most common reply was Rangers won. I am of the opinion that those days will never return but, as the OP indicates we must get the club back on the rails.

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,624]

So much in that article / blog I agree with Smile. 

???

[Bad Robot 21,141]

A fantastic read which just pisses me off as the truth hurts.

These pedo harbouring cunts have it down to a fine art and us, well there's nothing in the tank.

I read the online evening times and every article have numerous derogatory comments about our club, fans and community with very little comments on any other teams. These fans are well drilled as it's a pastime to them and nothing gets done even by our own fans and although one or two readers do try to reply, it's always against the deluge.

A recent example was regarding a councillor and the Orange and yes they are part of our Rangers community but the comments quicky reached over 300 with most just being bile and trolls.

Its the same all the time and we do very little to counterargue and yes the club are failing us massively on this.

Reputation is eveything especially in a fast changing society and once we eventually get our retail deal sorted I can only imagine what these cunts will be writing as they froth over their keyboards and putting the daily boot into us.

[SteveEarle 9,731]

I really do wonder what Jim Traynor does.  I would have no issue clearing him out and starting with a more professional PR company.

Traynor had more than his fair share of 'succulent lamb' back in the day.....

[pcbear 10,913]

12 minutes ago, SteveEarle said:

I really do wonder what Jim Traynor does.  I would have no issue clearing him out and starting with a more professional PR company.

Traynor had more than his fair share of 'succulent lamb' back in the day.....

He was a hard hitting miss nothing journo prior to being on our payroll, now he is the polar opposite and it is now time to shed the freeloaders.

Our PR "machine" is the equivilant of a spluttering stop start car always in the garage, there is so much good about Rangers it frustrates the life out of me with nothing positive ever reported.

[SteveEarle 9,731]

3 minutes ago, pcbear said:

He was a hard hitting miss nothing journo prior to being on our payroll, now he is the polar opposite and it is now time to shed the freeloaders.

Our PR "machine" is the equivilant of a spluttering stop start car always in the garage, there is so much good about Rangers it frustrates the life out of me with nothing positive ever reported.

I remember him well!  If I'm not mistaken he seemed like a Rangers hater until the blue pound was offered to him. A man of principal or money..??

[thedonald 8]

If fans took concerted actions that removed the last board why can't the same be done to force this board into proactive action,the author should have addressed that situation instead of avoiding it.

[pcbear 10,913]

11 minutes ago, SteveEarle said:

I remember him well!  If I'm not mistaken he seemed like a Rangers hater until the blue pound was offered to him. A man of principal or money..??

The same as every other fucker who have parked their arses in the comfy chairs for the last 5 plus seasons, they would not know principles if it bit them in their lard arses.

[ThenNowForever 232]

The scum using horrible incidents like the Sinclair one to promote themselves is sickening when you consider some of the incidents their club have been involved in.  Where are the banners when their own fans do something wrong? There are not any because they couldn't give a fuck about racism unless it is to try and hurt our club. Great OP and that is something I have felt strongly about for a while but what can we do when the club won't lead from the front....

[Blue Avenger 22,567]

 

34 minutes ago, thedonald said:

If fans took concerted actions that removed the last board why can't the same be done to force this board into proactive action,the author should have addressed that situation instead of avoiding it.

Good point.

[Inigo 32,526]

Very good article.

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,624]

4 hours ago, thedonald said:

If fans took concerted actions that removed the last board why can't the same be done to force this board into proactive action,the author should have addressed that situation instead of avoiding it.

Because the ones who led the campaigns were / are employed or rewarded by the current board, wont challenge their benefactor, but would likely turn on anyone who led protests similar to those they conducted.

 

[Bears r us 30,773]

Outstanding article, we seem to have no one at the head of our Club who cares as we the fans do about our reputation. Why ffs can so called Rangers men allow this to happen, do they not care that across the city they have PR machine that is pumping out propaganda 24/7, and we do nothing to combat it.   

I really do despair at times the direction we are heading in with no signs of anyone doing anything about it. 

[With Heart and Hand 8,949]

am no reading all that

[jimgers 565]

7 hours ago, thedonald said:

If fans took concerted actions that removed the last board why can't the same be done to force this board into proactive action,the author should have addressed that situation instead of avoiding it.

I haven't renewed my season ticket for this very point, if the board won't fight on behalf of the support and the clubs reputation, then i'm protesting by not renewing. Ok that's a very small protest in the grand scheme of things, but i think there will be many more not renewing, many i know are sick to the back teeth of the dignified silence routine. If there is an inquiry as to why there is a downturn in season ticket numbers, hopefully Bears will point to the DS bullshit as one of the main reason.

[eejay the dj 31,964]

9 hours ago, Smile said:

Good Read I thought  

Succulent lamb: a phrase which, as bizarre as it seems, alludes to the great sway Rangers Football Club, or perhaps more accurately Sir David Murray, once held over the Scottish media.

The term refers to the food served by the Rangers chairman in meetings with friendly journalists who would report favorably in return for exclusives and inside information in return. 

Murray understood the value of brand management, media relations and the need to have journalists onside for the inevitable moments when our club would require them. Murray, for all his many, many faults, understood the true value of public relations, at least in the first half of his tenure. The same cannot be said for our current board of directors. Lamb is very much off the menu.
 

“Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. PR is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior.” - The Chartered Institute of Public Relations

The above, quite clearly, has not truly been appreciated at Rangers for well over a decade as our club has allowed itself and our fans to become a punch-bag for the media and rival supporters, epitomized most disappointingly by the poisonous summer of 2012.

For years we adopted an outdated and counter-productive approach of “dignified silence”, allowing the vacuum created to be filled by others. And, let me tell you, the narrative they have built up has not been beneficial to Rangers in any way, shape or form.

Our club has allowed, over a period of time, the continued and disgraceful dehumanizing and abuse of our support. We have made ourselves an easy target and at times when there was no shortage of people lining up to take a kick.

And that’s the problem with saying nothing. If we don’t comment, someone else will.

Look no further than the events of the last week. Two knuckle-draggers were pictured at our stadium racially abusing Scott Sinclair. It was as abhorrent as it was vile. And our club’s response? Silence. Deafening silence.

The result of that has been clear for all to see. Celtic had their players tweeting, their manager commenting and stories about a “hate mob” on the back-pages until the middle of the week. Their orchestrated campaign continued with players posing with a t-shirt emblazoned with the message “Love Celtic, Hate Racism” and their supporters proudly displayed a banner with an anti-racism message. That's the same club that employs Leigh Griffiths and was “seriously disappointed” at the ban handed to Aleksandar Tonev. 

Yet, because of Celtic’s un-matched PR, there are no mainstream media comment on such hypocrisy – just compliant journalists helping with the over-the-top milking of what was, of course, a horrible situation. An article in The Herald entitled “Scottish football a backwater? Racist abuse and anti-Catholic songbook doesn’t help our case” again reinforce the growing link being made with racism and our club on the back of two morons in a crowd of 50,000.

At the time Rangers needed to be proactive, not reactive. Our club is very much open to all and runs numerous terrific initiatives within communities that we should be proud of. The problem is we quite simply don’t promote this anywhere near enough.

We could, in any attempt to salvage something remotely positive from this situation, have invited an anti-racism initiative to the stadium the next day and had players endorsing their positive message just as Celtic have done. It seems like pretty simple stuff if I’m being honest.

Instead, we allowed ourselves to be put on the back foot, issuing a minimal response condemning the gestures and spending the rest of the week fire-fighting the association with racism or, worse, simply waiting for the embers to burn out of their own accord. Then, just as the fire does die down, we organize a SRTRC anti-racism event with Wes Foderingham – over a week later. And days after Celtic did the same at the PFA Awards dinner.

All of this begs the question – just what on earth is it that James Traynor and Level5 actually do?

I know for a fact that a number of prominent journalists in Scotland are in complete disbelief over how poorly Rangers handles it's public relations and brand management.

They cannot comprehend that the club thought it was a good idea to employ somebody almost universally disliked and, worse, distrusted in media circles to head up the public relations of the new regime at Rangers and queried what exactly a former tabloid hack really knows about the various different aspects of modern PR. Valid points, I would say.

These journalists cannot understand that a huge club like ours has such a dreadful, antiquated, and ineffective approach to public relations and that we persist with this despite the obvious failings.

The amateurish, old school methods deployed by Level5 no longer work in the modern world. Good PR isn’t limited to angry, rambling statements and taking pot-shots at everyone and anyone on the club website. It might work in the sports pages of the Record but it certainly isn’t enough for an institution like Rangers.

Celtic used the media, rather disgracefully, to apply pressure to a referee prior to our semi-final at Hampden. They then used it to build the association of Rangers fans with racism through the Scott Sinclair incident. They know how to play the game and they aren’t afraid to take the gloves off in doing so. And we let it pass without as much as a peep.

While I wouldn’t advocate stooping to their level there is absolutely no doubt that a modern, professional firm who actually specialize in PR and not sports columns could provide us with so much more value for money than the incompetents we currently have running the show. You wouldn’t hire a plumber to fix your electrics, so why hire a former sports hack to handle our most sensitive PR and defend our reputation beyond the back pages of the Daily Record?

Rangers have nobody with the relevant experience in issues like crisis PR or delivering a sustained, message-focused campaign to change or promote perceptions of a brand. What do Traynor and Level5 know about positive image enhancement? What do they know about community engagement or creating and building a brand? The evidence would suggest very little.

While Celtic have successfully built a romanticized image around their origin, Brother Walfrid and the core values they believe define their football club, our institution and support have had our reputation defined by jealous, bitter rivals and others. We have allowed ourselves to be portrayed by our enemies, for lack of a better word, as some sub-human, knuckle-dragging “klan”. And we didn’t do anywhere near enough to counter it.

Yes, in recent years, we’ve taken action against BBC Scotland and individual journalists such as Graham Spiers and Keith Jackson but the club don’t make clear enough why they’ve had to take these steps. In the last few days another Daily Record journalist – indeed their online sports editor - has joined Jane Hamilton and their paid Celtic blogger in having past sectarian tweets and anti-Rangers bile exposed. What have Rangers said? Absolutely nothing.

They may well understandably be fed up of being patronized by the Record Editor Murray Foote’s ongoing tacit support for such bigotry and inaccuracies regarding our club but as powerless as we may be to stop such content, the club should be informing every Rangers supporter to take their business elsewhere. Celtic did so in the past and are reaping the rewards now. Sure, banning newspapers or taking away the privileges of journalists may not be the best long-term strategy but if organizations can’t be worked with positively then make it clear why. Don’t leave people guessing – fill the vacuum and make your point.

With that in mind, our club needs to define what it stands for, what it means to be a Ranger. David Mason, the club’s historian, said: “for me, it is about standards and tradition and about the values that Bill Struth instilled into our institution”. From the Gallant Pioneers’ humble beginnings we established ourselves as the premier club in the land, upholding values like class, dignity, and sportsmanship. That is Rangers.

PR is about much more than the back page of a newspaper. The club needs to start looking after our image, our identity. And you don’t do that by employing those who have absolutely no idea what those are, never mind how to champion them.

At best right now we are constantly reactive rather than proactive. At worst we are completely inactive. It is an embarrassingly negligent approach for a firm receiving not inconsiderable sums for their services.

What concerns me, however, is that our board seem completely ignorant as to just how abysmally poor our PR is. Or maybe they actually believe that Level5 do a good job for us? One is as worrying as the other.

There are firms out there who actually specialize in public relations. I suggest we consider hiring one. Only then we may match Celtic off the park – as well as on it.ught.

 

There is one at Ibrox but they have been told to pipe it down from King IMO

What is Murray meant to be doing . Hell knows

[True Azure 1,414]

Unless I am very much mistaken, we banned the guys for life who racially abused Sinclair. However the sellik fan who racially abused El Haj Diouff a few years back and was originally banned by Sellik sine die has had it rescinded and is back in the San Giro. Whats food for the goose..............?

https://themanthebheastscanttame.wordpress.com/2017/05/06/love-racism-love-celtic-in-you-come-son/