At the end of the long conversation there was a new picture of the world’s best boxer – or at least a confirmation that a personable and clever businessman is at work here: Dr. Wladimir Klitschko and manager Bernd Bönte, to convey the diverse activities outside the boxing ring for the readers of absatzwirtschaft in an exclusive interview. Tenor: A self-confident long-term strategy and careful brand management are trumps.
The Klitschko Management Group (KMG) draws the experience from the personal advice of the two successful pugilists in order to transfer guaranteed success to other experts and artists, events and entertainment as well as to companies in East and West. “I see a great future for the economy and therefore for KMG, because we know the markets in the east and west well and there are huge markets waiting in countries like Ukraine,” said Dr. Wladimir Klitschko especially with a view to the time after his boxing career. He and his brother Vitali are already acting as “door openers” and contact brokers for corporate customers from the business world. For example, KMG helped a pharmaceutical company to accelerate the approval of drugs for the Eastern markets.
In addition to these business services, the Klitschko Agency would like to establish itself as a quality provider in the care of potential top athletes and ambitious artists. For example, KMG brought a promising rock band from Vienna to Hamburg, where the hopeful ensemble is currently recording their most likely hit record in the studio. “Anyone who, like us in the summer at Schalke, can manage a boxing event with an extraordinary entertainment program as a framework, which is attended by 61,000 satisfied spectators, can certainly organize any other entertainment spectacle,” says KMG managing director Bernd Bönte, describing another mainstay in the Portfolio.
Of course, for two exceptional athletes like Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, boxing and its marketing remain the main concern of the Management Group. Mostly on its own, but also with reliable partners, the team around the two heavyweights organizes fights such as tours in countries between north and south or west to east. The next battleground has already been determined to be Bern in Switzerland. The trio Bönte / Doppel-Klitschko still sees a lot of potential for the once disreputable sport, which today attracts a colorful audience with potent target groups. The same applies to the Klitschko brothers as testimonials, whereby the product must exactly match the advertising medium. “Less is more here,” emphasizes Bönte. In the interview, his partner Wladimir Klitschko also found clear words about dangerous and endangered journalists, counteracts critics robustly and speaks about his worries – especially for his opponents in the ring. The interview with Klitschko / Bönte in the next issue of absatzwirtschaft, No. 12/2009, promises unusual insights.
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