Some more marketing stuff

When I woke up this morning, I already had two emails about my column so I decided I had better put this up now.

In addition to what I wrote, I wanted to share a couple more examples of what I was talking about. On ESPN from Sunday to Wednesday, there was this little scroller with facts about all the teams in the Tournament. Penn head coach Glen Miller was displayed as bandleader Glenn Miller. No fact-checking there, for four days.

On the other hand, CBS color man Dan Bonner called Penn's opponent, Texas A&M "Oklahoma" (same colors) and Texas Tech (same state) once each. The Aggies are not known for their basketball, and have barely been in the Tournament before Billy Gillespie took over three years ago. However, with a deep run this year and some more successes in the future, Texas A&M will be on the map and no one will confuse it with anything else.

I don't think Penn needs to make that kind of run, though. Again, this is one of the top 10 schools in the country. In academia, everyone knows what Penn is. But in sports, people seem to have no clue (and I'm not talking about some non-revenue sports where there are few schools competing and those people know what Penn is).

A few years ago, it appears that the school made a concerted effort to get people to stop calling it "Pennsylvania" and go to the more modern (I guess) "Penn." But the media cannot quite catch on to this, which I think adds to the confusion. In the beginning of all Penn athletics media guides, there is this little paragraph:

"It's Penn, Please:" The first time you mention us on-air or in columns, please use our full name -- the University Pennsylvania. After that, we ask that you refer simply as Penn. We would ask that you refrain from calling Pennsylvania at any time. Thanks for your cooperation!

If you've watched Penn coverage recently, you know that this is not the case in the national media. Half the time it's "Penn," sometimes it's "Pennsylvania," and there is not much consistency (although in games, it's usually "Penn" for most of the game).

I personally think that "Penn" sounds better than "Pennsylvania," but it does lead to the confusion with Penn State, which "Pennsylvania" probably does not. I'm not really sure what the answer is there, except to somehow make people know that "Penn" is not Penn State by making everyone know what "Penn" is.

Part of that, I think, can be accomplished by selling more merchandise. Except for Penn's Web site and a very limited number of items on some obscure sites, you really can't get Penn merchandise outside of Penn's campus. Especially in Philadelphia, I think that the school can do a better job of creating a fan base. No one knows who Penn is because there are essentially no Penn fans who have no connection to the school.

I am planning to try to talk to the Penn marketing department to see what they think about this and how they think their rebranding has gone, as a whole. And if that fails, maybe this can be a project for some Wharton marketing students.