Herman Miller Announce Partnership With Bath Rugby
Herman Miller is pleased to announce that it will be working with Bath Rugby as an Official Corporate Partner for the 2011/2012 Premiership season.
Over the past year, Herman Miller has built a strong commercial relationship with the club. As a customer they have made a considerable investment in our products, and services, provided by our local dealer, Workscape, with their new administrative headquarters and training ground at Farleigh House in Wiltshire developing at a pace. Under new ownership, the club have made significant investments in building their brand, focusing on heritage, performance, innovation and corporate responsibility - attributes and values which are aligned to our brand strategy across the UK and EMEA. In addition, our UK manufacturing capability based in Bath allows us to be operationally excellent – therefore aligning the ‘Bath’ brand to Herman Miller helps reinforce and strengthen our position.
We are also keen to engage our employees in a meaningful programme that improves the lives of others within our local community. The Bath Rugby Community Foundation has won awards at a national level and has been recognised by Parliament for its work. It is for these reasons we have decided to partner with the club, both on and off the field, but there are also some important commercial and brand benefits.
Bruce Craig, owner of Bath Rugby, and his management team, have successfully brought a number of new organisations onboard this year and are keen to foster and increase the Business-to-Business networking opportunities amongst their corporate partners. Our commercial and marketing teams will be tasked with building relationships with the likes of Cadburys, Visa, Lloyds, Canada Life, Toshiba, JP Morgan, Deloitte, PWC, Barclays, Orange and John Lewis. Whilst many of these organisations have established relationships with Herman Miller, the opportunity is to strengthen these ties and make new connections.
Herman Miller's brand will be prominent, taking pride of place on the teams’ UK and European home and away kits - well positioned in striking Herman Miller red on the lower back of the shirts. This will be supported by strategically positioned advertising on hoardings and in match day programmes. Sky, ESPN and ITV are scheduled to feature Premiership Rugby so you'll be sure to see our name and brand on TV, not only in the UK, but across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and America. An impressive 1800 hours of broadcast air time will be watched by a demographic, closely aligned to our target customer segments.
From July 1st 2011 until July 1st 2012, Herman Miller staff will be eligible for a 10% discount on Bath Rugby merchandise by presenting a business card or access swipe card with supporting ID at their 1 Argyle Street shop in Bath. In addition our corporate hospitality allocation will be used as reward for those that engage in the Community Foundation Programme.
We look forward to a successful partnership with Bath Rugby as we raise our profile in the UK and beyond. Watch this space for more updates and for the opportunity to get involved in their community work.