Mary Lou became pretty snarky over this...
This story explains why Mary Lou was forced to alter the tattoo on her backside.
It all started when Mighty Penn State University landed with both feet on a little Texas high school.
Question: which institution was right….and why? The answer to this question has important implications for nonprofit marketing folks.
We start the conversation by urging you to come to terms with two elusive branding concepts:
- Your brand is not your logo. It is not your mission statement. It is not any trademarked or copyright-protected intellectual property. In fact, your brand is not anything created within your organization.
- Brands are the accumulated impressions and beliefs that determine people’s thoughts and feelings about your organization’s work and its achievements.
Your brand is lodged out there in the collective mind of the public. It evolved - and it exists - in a space beyond the direct control of your organization.
Your brand is an intangible and elusive little devil. Over time you can influence it, nurture it, nudge it in a different direction, embellish it a bit and perhaps rehabilitate it if it gets damaged. But, since your brand is essentially public perception, there is no way for you to assume complete control over it.
Nevertheless, your organization’s brand may be its most valuable asset. Protecting that brand is one of your biggest challenges. That responsibility has many elements. We’ll help you deal with some of them.
This is a saga in two parts. Look for resolution in the next post. But first, the David and Goliath anecdote – which leads directly to the story of Mary Lou’s tattooed butt:
AN IDENTITY CRISIS was imposed on Penn State, home of the mighty Nittany Lions. The threat originated far away in Buna, a small Texas town near the Louisiana border. Years earlier the students at little Buna High adopted the cougar as the school mascot. The kids fashioned a school logo featuring the big cat in all its menacing glory.
A few decades passed. But in 20o9, somebody noticed Buna’s logo is similar to the Penn State Nittany Lion logo.
Note these differences in scale:
- Penn State has 44,400 students. In grades 9 through 12 there are 387 kids entitled to call themselves Buna Cougars. 387! That is about the number of students in a class of Psych 101 at Penn State.
- The university’s annual operating budget is $1,888,867,000 – almost two billion dollars. The annual budget of Buna High School, home of the mighty Buna Cougars, is less than Penn State spends on football uniforms for the mighty Nittany Lions.
- To further put this thing in perspective, realize that the two schools with similar logos are 1,400 miles apart!
Nevertheless, university administrators were fearful. What if some Splendid Doofus got all confused and thought Buna High School was actually Penn State? Traumatized by the threat to the institution’s brand, university logo-mongers pulled up the institution’s drawbridge, locked its doors and called the lawyers. They prepared the institutions mighty resources to STRIKE!
The legal posse attacked. Buna was stunned. Buna was outgunned. The War of Logos was short. Buna rolled over. The university prevailed. A legal settlement was reached. The Buna Cougar was quietly euthanized. Penn State no longer had to feel its identity was threatened.
The Buna-Penn setlement agreement:
- a nondescript cougar relative would replace the original Buna logo - a distant-cousin feline whose generic features would not be confused with the mighty Nittany Lion.
- Buna’s athletic teams needed new uniforms.
- Cheerleaders had to buy new logo-sweaters.
- School stationary was reprinted.
- Logos on school walls and the gym floor were painted over.
- Mary Lou, (Buna High School class of 2009 and runner-up Home Coming Queen) was forced to have the local tattoo artist modify the Buna Cougar on her butt. The few who have been privileged to see the altered image now argue about whether the distortion of Mary’s cougar made it resemble a large bird or a small Buick. Either way, they agree the revised tattoo is in compliance. The tattoo on Mary Lou’s behind no longer threatens the identity of mighty Penn State. (Rumors about a classmate named Ethel have not been confirmed. Ethel moved to Fort Worth in time to escape the Wrath of Penn. As far as anybody knows, she still sports the Buna/Nittany Lion.)
These and all other representations of the original Buna mascot are being consigned to the logo land-fill. When this process is accomplished, life will return to normal in the little Texas school as well as at the mighty university located 1,400 miles away in College Station, Pennsylvania.
Penn State’s logo police will once again sleep well.
Your organization’s brand is one if its most valuable assets. Its logo is the graphic representation of that brand. Penn State’s tale of logo-anxiety relates closely to your own professional responsibility for brand management. So now we raise the basic questions:
Were Penn State’s logo police a bunch of bullies? OR did they have valid reason to suppress the similar logo of an obscure little high school 1,400 miles away?
I have already taken too much of your time with this post. The answer to the above question, plus your introduction to the Ptomaine Palace Pizza Shop, will be found in the next post. It is titled: Continuation: Buna Vs. Penn. Were the university logo police a bunch of overzealous clowns?
(Confession: I know you are wondering. Yes, Mary Lou is imaginary. As is her pal Ethel. But the rest of the Buna High School story is essentially true. That’s why the next installment is important to nonprofit brand managers.)
BOTTOM LINE: The bottom line for this post is in the second installment. It will show nonprofit executives how this incident has implications for their own organization and career.
FACTOID: Cotton is a commodity on the world market. Prices fluctuate, sometimes quickly and sometimes by surprising amounts. In Fall, 2010 the market for raw cotton hit a price spike. That translates to the price of T-shirts. Janice says you should expect them to cost an additional 10-15% for a while.
Be cautious. Don’t risk your brand by buying a lower quality T-shirt to represent your organization. Just buy fewer. The price will probably come back down in a few months. We’ll keep you posted.
The Nonprofit Branding Blog is a service of VisABILITY. Look for product info on our website. Raise questions or make suggestions to John (jburke@visability.com) or call Janice or John at 303-823-0327. Keep up to date three ways: befriend our Facebook page | follow our Twitter feed | sign up for periodic product announcements
You’re right John, the brand of a public media company can be a huge asset. Few stations, especially in the PPM era, achieve excellent listening results without a strong brand.
But we often undervalue and squander our brands, sometimes in pursuit of even very modest revenue gains.
A great example is Whole Foods…they could probably make a lot of money selling dietCoke…but it would go against their brand identity of selling only natural, unprocessed foods. So, they skip the easy money they could generate by selling dietCoke in order to strengthen and support their brand for the long haul.
Do we in public media always respect and uphold our brand with the same fortitude?
Good question, Peter. Here is a partial answer. Last night we had dinner with one of the key players in one of the top tier public radio programs – a close friend for 25 years. Told him the story of this blog-post that was about to launch. He started to run through the effort he has to make, with attorney supervision, to protect his program’s world-famous brand. His anecdotes reflected the same reality and the same rational as the post.
Thanks for your comment. As you say, branding is a “long haul” endeavor.