Mike the Tiger may not be as famous as Ronald McDonald, but he serves the same purpose for the University as Ronald does for the fast-food giant-they both are marketable symbols for the organizations they represent. Sports marketing has become big business on the collegiate level. For every piece of officially licensed merchandise sold, LSU collects 8 percent from the wholesale price. In the year following LSU’s 2003 football national championship, the University earned just under $3 million in total gross revenues. After the University of Texas won its football national championship this year, the school earned more than $8 million in total gross revenues, setting the single-year collegiate record for the most trademark licensing royalties generated. “You want to market your program,” Associate Athletics Director Herb Vincent said. “You want [the fans] to appreciate your program and not live and die on a win this week and a loss next week. I think any successful organization is always marketing itself.” Part of any marketing plan is the development of an image to project to the consumer. But until 2002 LSU did not have a single logo that was both recognizable and widely used. This new set of trademarks has not gone without criticism. Bill Sanders, former employee of The Daily Reveille, wrote, “All of my loyal readers (a.k.a my mom and my sister) know how much I loathe LSU’s new logo, better known as Toonces the Driving Cat.” Sanders and current Reveille cartoonist Pike Barkerding have even spearheaded a petition-based effort designed to get the logo changed. They prefer one of the older logos, the rendition of Mike the Tiger that appears on the LSU football helmet. And as much as I’d like to wholeheartedly champion their cause, I think the University may have the right idea about their trademark licensing program. Yes, I believe the current rendition of the tiger looks cheesy and cartoonish. Its new-age appearance doesn’t appeal to me nearly as much as many of the other logos the University has used. But in a world of money, where words like “image” and “marketability” trump the wishes of those who hearken back to the days of old, this University must adapt to and follow current trends to keep up with its competitors and the marketplace. “Disney has a typeface,” Associate Vice Chancellor of Finance Eric Monday said. “When you think about IBM, you know what it looks like. LSU is not known by a symbol, unless you call the letters LSU a symbol. And we thrive on that. We’re one of about a half-dozen universities that are known by their letters. So that has to be a significant part of the branding.” The fact is that when the University decided it needed to develop a new set of logos, it did so because it needed to streamline the logos of all its departments-including LSU athletics-and it needed that streamlined image to include multiple elements, such as the name of the University and the mascot. “We wanted a primary mark that had the letters LSU and the tiger head in it,” Monday said. “And we wanted a unique typeface to represent the University. We call it the Geaux font.” Since 2002 the University has achieved its objectives in the new set of logos. When you see any advertisement for the University or even receive any official correspondence from the University, notice how consistent all the images look. The words in the images all use the “Geaux” font, and all the images of Mike the Tiger look similar. Consistency is a basic principle of marketing. The University has achieved that and is making money as a result. In the 1981-1982 fiscal year, the first year of the University’s trademark licensing program, LSU collected $680 in royalties. In the 2002-2003 fiscal year before the new marks had caught on, the University collected $962,767. In total the University collected $8,218,076 in royalties up to that point. During the 2003-2004 fiscal year, the figure jumped 208 percent to $2,965,983. In the 2004-2005 year, LSU collected $2,266,136. Last year it collected $2,211,918. Much of this royalty money can be attributed to athletic success-Monday said roughly $1 million of the royalties collected in 2003-2004 could be attributed to the football national championship-but not even I can deny that some of the increased revenues are because of the University’s improved ability to market itself. At least some of that marketability must be attributed to the new logos and the consistency they have provided. So next time you’re on campus or at a game and you see the letters L-S-U with that cheesy-looking tiger logo, take solace in knowing that image is just one aspect of the University’s marketing plan, a plan I believe must achieve success if this University is to ever receive the national recognition it so badly wants.
—–Contact Mathew Sanders at msanders@lsureveille.com