Yes, I know how you feel. Benni McCarthy misses another sitter; Bafana Bafana record yet another draw against the footballing equivalent of Outer Mongolia, and we all trudge away to bemoan our national side’s poor finishing and their dreadful record. But, what about the other repercussions, the intangibles, the things to which we can’t apply an exact measurement?

By that, I mean, Bafana Bafana, the brand. How is it affected by poor results and, more specifically, how have the last 18 months of under-achievement, under coach, Joel Santana, impacted on the national team’s brand?

Well, for Interbrand Sampson’s, Jeremy Sampson, it’s very simple. In his eyes, for a brand to achieve and to maximise its value, it has to be successful. “If you look at brands such as Real Madrid or Manchester United, they are great brands and are worth a lot of money. But, one of the reasons that they are great brands is because they win. That’s one of the challenges of sporting brands”, says Sampson.

One would imagine then that, by deduction, Sampson’s implication is that the value of Bafana Bafana, as a brand, would have decreased over the past six months or so, as Santana presided over a period that saw the national team win just one fixture (at home to Madagascar) in nine games? “Indeed”, says Sampson, “it’s a fairly weak brand, to be honest, and until they start winning, it won’t gain much more attraction with sponsors etc. Its position is weak and that will remain until it starts returning to winning ways.”

Not so, says The Brand Union’s, Anthony Swart, but for entirely different reasons. “I wouldn’t call the Bafana Bafana brand weak, at the moment”, says Swart. “The perception of the brand and the emotions of its followers are affected massively by the immediate results, yes. But, like most other brands, the supporters will forgive very quickly.” Swart believes that two creditable victories over respectable football nations and the malaise of the past year or so will be forgotten. He’s also of the opinion that there’s an almost “default setting”, due to the patriotic fervour attached to national sports teams, that allows brands such as Bafana Bafana to retain their value, despite a run of poor results. “When you talk about the brand valuation in a national team, to some extent, you always have a value to your brand, because, irrespective of how bad they are, they’re still our South African national team.”

So, that should make the job of South Africa’s football administrators an easy one, when promoting the Bafana Bafana brand, shouldn’t it? Well, yes, yet it’s a fact that the national team does not have its own dedicated brand manager, and the marketing of Bafana Bafana is taken care of by a team of no more than five in-house SAFA employees, who are also tasked with marketing all of the governing body’s other football properties.

Sampson and Swart may not agree on the value of Bafana Bafana as a brand, as it stands right now, but they sing from the same song sheet, when they both identify sound administration as vitally important in building the value of the brand. “I think that a lack of sound administration affects the perception, or value of the brand, more than a defeat in a particular week. Results are relative (depending on who you play against), but administration isn’t – you expect there to be a system that runs properly,” says Swart. For Sampson, it comes down to “the absolute basics of running a business. We talk about a brand being like a personal relationship – you do as you say.” And for Sampson, that means players and administrators alike, ‘living the brand’ and behaving in a professional manner. It also means total support of the team, managed in a professional way, with the players briefed on how to behave and how to speak, from the top officials down.

That, in turn, leads to greater merchandising opportunities and football officials being gifted with the opportunity to really maximise the value of the brand of their national team. “All these little things build up, engendering a feeling of warmth and goodwill, so that the individual members of the public almost become brand ambassadors for Bafana Bafana,” Sampson adds.

But, the team has to win, and the returning coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, has a big task on his hands. Yes, sponsors are lining up to be a part of Bafana Bafana’s 2010 experience, but those stats could well be skewed by the fact that the World Cup offers investors great mileage, in terms of the tournament itself. The real test will be beyond next year’s football showpiece and whether or not sponsors continue to see Bafana Bafana as a strong brand; one with which they would like to be aligned.