"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Flipping the Bird?

UPDATED

A few weeks back, Marquette announced their new Golden Eagle logo, and we at Cracked Sidewalks have been remiss in mentioning it.

You may have received an email from Marquette's Connections alumni newsletter that displayed the new bird, suggesting a visit to the online Warrior Shoppe to purchase new logo items.

One MUScoop poster has a high quality rant about this subject, in that, this new logo roll-out has missed an opportunity.

The online store does have seven items for sale with the new bird, but all of them are children's wear. He said it well, so I'll quote him here:

In the last four years, Marquette has had three "events" that they could have used to connect with alums and market merchandise (which gets their name out there). First, the Final Four; second the introduction of the new MU logo and now this new Eagle. In the first two, I never received anything from Marquette in the mail offering merchandise. Now they seem completely unprepared to roll out the new Eagle stuff.

I still receive 2-3 full color catalogs (50-60 pages) from Notre Dame every year just because I bought my dad something from their store about 10 years ago. Marquette sends nothing, even when they have significant events that would warrant a mailing.

They're missing great opportunities to sell merchandise on a regular basis. I understand that a lot of people would never consider purchasing something with the new logo, but why not send a 12 page catalog with six pages of new stuff and six pages of non-Eagle merchandise?

I think people in other parts of the country who have a hard time finding MU gear would love it. I know I would.

I think that's well said. I realize mailings cost lots of cash, but at a minimum, a postcard announcement pointing alums to a well stocked website could do tremendous things.

Beyond the marketing issue, I'll say I like the new, meaner, logo better than the old one. -- If eBay ever runs out of Warrior shirts, I'd totally consider thinking about buying one of these!

UPDATE:
It has been suggested that Southern Miss has a nice gift shop with plenty of items with our new logo!

4 comments:

Adam said...

Too bad the new Eagle is a virtual carbon copy knockoff of the Southern Miss logo.

Gene Frenkle said...

Considering that the school has an email database numbering the thousands, me thinks someone over there is smart enough to at least put together a PDF, on-line catalog of merchandise and email it to alums. At least, my marketing degree from MU would have me think that.

jce said...

I know that the MU Shop used to do mailings. I used to get one at least every year. They probably have determined that mailing is cost prohibitive and that email and a mention in the Marquette magazine is best.

However, I must say that the logo is cartoonish. Honestly, it looks ridiculous.

Unknown said...

This is an awful logo, which is appropriate for an awful nickname. As bad as the old one was, at least it didn't look identical to other eagle ones. Unbelievable.