Back to school: a hard lesson in re-branding

Here’s a branding debacle that’s close to my heart: an uproar took place over the last several weeks among alumni and students of Michigan State University, my alma mater, when a re-branding initiative with NIKE went decidedly sour — because the proposed new branding got leaked too early.

It’s a textbook case of the consequences of a new brand identity being exposed before the marketer has the opportunity to roll it out with the proper PR and support, which costs them the opportunity to “acclimatize” their constituency.   In this case, it’s alumni and students, but they could just as well be a company’s customers, stakeholders or even the general public.

Proposed NIKE redesign

MSU and NIKE teamed up to create a new branding initiative on behalf of the university and its athletic department, to be debuted this April.  The Spartan helmet logo (on the right) would evolve into something purportedly more historically accurate (at the left).  Unfortunately, the new logo was discovered as it went through trademarking and got posted to the Web…stirring an immediate furor among the Spartan faithful.

Existing MSU logo

The argument even involved MSU’s renowned men’s basketball coach, Tom Izzo, who took exception to those who raised a fuss about the logo, saying he was “disappointed” they didn’t appreciate the opportunity for a distinctly fresh new identity.  But the damage was done…and Athletic Director Mark Hollis told the media in early February that there’d be no change to the established logomark.

It remains to be seen how this will affect the  rest of NIKE’s apparel, uniform and branding program for MSU, but it shows how carefully a branding process needs to be managed, especially if you’re dealing with an entrenched logo and identity.  The dialogue got out of control for MSU, and without the opportunity to premiere the new look the way they might have preferred — gradually or with flash and splash — the initiative was lost.  Other schools, like Oregon, have gone through the NIKE re-branding process and have minimized discord by managing the conversation.

Most marketers — small or even large — probably will never have to deal with similar outcries, since there’s usually less emotional investment involved.  But the Pepsis, even the AT&Ts and Comcasts of the world, have learned the hard way to tread carefully and make certain their intentions and rationales are heard when they modify an identity that’s had any kind of traction in the marketplace.