Logo You Don't

How do you feel about logos appearing on the shirts, jerseys, and sweaters of professional sports teams?

I guess there are really two questions to ask:

• Are they distasteful?
• Whether distasteful or not, is it smart branding?

We've seen equipment manufacturers put logos on their products since time immemorial.  Bauer.  Wilson.  I think I got hit in the head once with a Spalding-branded baseball (thank goodness the logo was printed, not embossed).

The bridge from that obviously legitimate to the slightly exploitative was built by Nike, followed shortly thereafter by the other footwear companies, all of them wanting to expand sales to other parts of athletes' bodies.

The one exception has always been NASCAR, where drivers have waded through their jobs wearing what a good CMO friend of mine calls "brand soup."  Outfits and equipment alike are nothing but billboards, and messy, crowded ones at that.

What has any of that pro logo-ing accomplished for sports equipment brands?  I can imagine it has helped them with sales: if my favorite pro prefers one protective ear-cup over another, well then I want one, too.  So it's really a marketing tool in this instance, isn't it?  It sells more of whatever it is that’s been logo-ified (I can't explain what the NASCAR branding accomplishes, other than giving everyone a headache).

But now we're seeing corporate logos on sportswear that has absolutely nothing to do with the equipment. 

What piqued my curiosity was the announcement that McDonald's golden arches logo is going to be featured on all of the WNBA team jerseys during the next season's opening week.

So not only does McDonald's not make sporting gear, but some might consider its product offering not altogether in keeping with the spirit of competitive sports, women's health or, well, ease-of-movement in general.  It's not like they're selling cigarettes or guns, but I don't know. 

And I understand that the Red Sox promo'd EMC’s logo on their jerseys during exhibition games in Japan.  Supposedly other sports leagues are thinking about similarly exploiting 

Driving all of this latest initiative is:

1. The failure of other branding outlets to offer any availability (see a lot of sports stadiums in need of corporate sponsors anymore?)
2. The ongoing challenge of proving that brand logos do much of anything other than get some exposure, and
3. The damn-the-torpedoes approach of pursing said logo placement anyway

Does a McDonald's logo on WNBA player uniforms say anything about the McDonald's brand?  Or is it just clutter...more visual "noise" that we consumers can ignore.

Or maybe when is McDonald's planning to announce its new line of women's basketball jerseys? 

Hummm...now there's a really dim bulb idea!

Comments

[BIG Kahuna]

Fast food has been doing this for ages with movies. Spiderman comes out and suddenly there seeling a spiderman ring with every kids meal.

In this case you're 100% correct. I'll bet the althetes themselves don't even eat at McDonald's. It's just a big waste-o-money. Does McDonald's really think that the logo will drive people to their restaurants or even build brand image? Ah, it won't.

I'm really not sure why there is such an infatuation with putting a logo on sports teams. Maybe it's ego driven but in most cases it makes no sense.

[Martin Bishop]

This link shows the entire history of soccer shirts of my home team, Leicester City (just relegated to the third division for the first time in its 124-year history).

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Leicester_City/Leicester_City.htm

You can see from this chart that logos started appearing on shirts in the UK around 1980 so, by this time, no-one gives it much thought.

What's interesting is that some of the sponsors make more sense than others. Both Alliance Leicester and Walkers Crisps have a local connection--the others don't.

The lastest sponsor, Topps Tiles is not only not connected at all but is also not even a "big" company--kind of embarassing that that was the best that Leicester could get (although appropriate given their new status)

[Aja Nicole]

I think that these logo placements are for people like me . . I see the arches and 2 out of five times I will make my way to one in the next couple of days. This only works with well established brands, brands where one just has to see the logo and think of the association. Also, this works well with food because while I am not in the market for a basketball, soon or ever, I am hungry every day :-)