Which Brand has the best team?
We’ll soon find out. Meanwhile, which school has the best logo? Well, the University of Texas has a much older logo, designed in 1950. That’s 60 years ago! Few logos have survived that long. The University of Alabama’s was designed in 2002.
Evaluating brand appropriateness.
What do these animals represent? Are they suitable to each school?
The Texas Longhorn has become a symbol of survival. It evolved, prospered, was brought to the brink of extinction, recovered, and is now on the way of again becoming one of the world’s most useful breeds of cattle (Dr. Bob Kropp). Elephants symbolize wisdom, nobility, and strength. And the trunk up symbolizes “good luck.” So both teams score points for symbolism.
They both represent good attributes, but because longhorns are indigenous to Texas and elephants are not indigenous to Alabama, therefore Texas scores points here. There must be something native to Alabama that could represent “the Tide.” That brings us to our next point:
A coördinated slogan supports the message.
Texas’ “Hook ‘Em Horns” does relate to the longhorn animal. The symbol and tagline support each other. The elephant however does not relate to the “Crimson Tide.” In fact, the elephant is not even crimson, it’s gray. Texas scores again.
Easily recognized logo provides efficient communication.
They are both distinctive at a large size, but the longhorn is more easily recognizable. And the longhorn remains recognizable even at a tiny size compared with Alabama’s elephant, which becomes unclear because it’s more of an illustration than a symbolic design.
The value of a distinctive color scheme.
Color is a very good device to distinguish a brand. But color distinction is very difficult to achieve, because while there are millions of shades, there are only five basic colors: blue, green, yellow, orange and red (black and white are neutrals.) Alabama’s is very common in sports, and for good physiological reason. On the other hand, the burnt orange of Texas is unique in sports. Is there another team that uses the color? Tennessee uses a bright orange, but that’s as close as it gets. Red (crimson) and blue are the most commonly used colors. Finally, burnt orange is also one of the colors found in Longhorn cattle. Texas scores again.
Which brand identity is the most effective as a communications tool?
Texas has a more unique design (what other college is the Longhorns?)
Texas has a mascot that makes sense, it’s native to the State.
Texas has a more recognizable design (even at tiny sizes.)
Texas has a unique color scheme (does any other school use burnt orange?)
Texas has a slogan that relates to and supports the symbol.
When the elements of a brand identity align like this it provides a powerful coördinated statement. And each element supporting the others strengthens the impact of the core message. These are subtleties of course, but every inch counts in football – and in the marketplace.
Let’s see if the Longhorns can live up to the brand represented by these elements on the field tonight.
If you’re interested you might want to peek at some of our which have won some pretty impressive industry awards. And now, I’ll let you respond this blog post in the comments section.
Tags: Branding, color, communications strategy, company symbol, competitive marketplace, evaluating brand value, University of Texas
Wonderful insight
Thank you for the great post – I had fun reading it! I always enjoy this blog.
very interesting post, I never thought much about sports logos. opened my eyes.
The effective design and use of a logo employs the understanding of human behavior. Whether cultural, or internal, people recognize and react to color, shapes, lines, fonts and other symbolic forms with emotions tied to their experiences. Greta post!
marketing, in many ways, is the point of a logo.