IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Branding

  • Think Pink…Football?

    When someone says football, more likely than not the first images that come to mind are big, sweaty, muddy and masculine MEN. However, as a yearly tradition this month the NFL will be getting in touch with its more feminine side. To be more precise, all of the players will be accessorizing with pink. Pink sweat bands, socks, cleats and even pink mouth guards, all in honor of Breast Cancer awareness month. The NFL has designated all games from October 5-27th as NFL Breast Cancer Awareness games, started its own campaign called “A Crucial Catch” which encourages mammograms and also donated 14,000 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure at the beginning of the month. Not only is the NFL taking action, throughout the year Major League Baseball is incorporating 250 pink bats into its games, and the National Hockey League players will be using pink hockey sticks as well as many other professional athletic teams. It seems that breast cancer awareness has turned “Think Pink” into a masculine concept as well.

    From the view of a Corporate Communication student, there is more to this concept than meets the eye. Professional sports such as football, hockey and baseball has had (for the most part) a predominantly masculine appeal. Not to say that thousands of women don’t love a full Sunday of watching their favorite team score touchdown after touchdown, or even participate in the sport itself. However, this “Think Pink” concept has become an athletic BRAND of its own. Fans of all genders love to see there favorite male players donning there pink accessories in order to create awareness of a disease that is statistically expected to effect 207,090 women by the end of 2010. Considering the biggest risk factor for being diagnosed with breast cancer is just simply being a woman, sports teams all over the nation that consist of mostly men are creating a whole new concept of branding for themselves. Star players within all areas of the athletic industry are taking action to show their concern for the cause; from Alex Rodriguez using a pink Louisville Slugger bat, to Cowboy’s LB Bradie James forming his own personal foundation that supports breast cancer, “Foundation 56”.

    It’s pretty obvious that breast cancer is a disease that effects all parties involved, not only the women (and men) who are diagnosed. This month, the NFL and other sports teams are making a statement about their normally masculine “brand” and letting everyone know that real men really do wear pink.

    – Lora Hampton

  • Feel the Teal

    Whether you attend UNCW, are a native of Wilmington, or you just know of the university, it is no secret that our school is near the beach.  Judging by some of the nicknames for UNCW: UNC Beach, UN Sea W, UNC by the Sea, it is clear that our geographical location plays a role in our school’s brand narrative.  This is exemplified through our mascot, Sammy the Seahawk, as well as our school colors.

    Believe it or not, the color teal was not picked just because we think it’s pretty (although it’s a plus), neither were the gold and navy blue that help to round out the vibrant color palate.  UNCW’s school colors were chosen to represent the surrounding area that helps define our institution’s brand.  The color teal was chosen to represent the Atlantic Ocean, the dark blue represents the deep ocean, and the gold symbolizes the sand.

    This association with the beach has created a community of teal throughout the university.  Everywhere you turn on campus you are inundated with the color teal.  Teal has become synonymous with UNCW and its brand.  We even turned the color into an adjective with a 2009 campaign for the athletic department that asked, “Are you tealin’ it?”  One popular t-shirt worn by students says, “Feel my Teal”.  We have Teal Tuesdays where students wear the color to show school spirit.  This creates a feeling of unity on campus and gives students a way to express their love for UNCW.


    While the university’s close proximity to the beach has some influence on creating its brand narrative, there is more to the school than just that.  For those of us who attend UNCW, we know that going to class does not mean sunbathing, surfing, and collecting seashells.  UNCW has a strong focus on academics and that is it’s main priority.  We are well known for our excellent marine biology program as well as our professional school of business.  We also aim to be environmentally friendly and do our part to support the community.  There are many things that make UNCW the school that it is.  Our proximity to the ocean and our love of the color teal are just a few of those things that bring us together as a university.

    Eliza Wadson, Jocelyn Walson, Sarah McIntosh, Sean O’Connell

  • Beyonce: More than Just Bootylicious

    Corporate Communication is present in almost every industry, whether we recognize it or not.  One industry that many people would not typically associate corporate communication with is the music industry.  Musicians and artists create their own identity and brand themselves in a way that is different from others in the industry.  Beyonce is one artist who has been extremely successful at creating her own identity, which has helped her create a large fan base and expand her success into other industries.  Beyonce’s musical talent has earned her several Grammys and many of her albums have gone on to be multi-platinum selling albums. Beyonce states that her newest album “is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I’m working and when I’m on the stage. The double album allows me to take more risks and really step out of myself, or shall I say, step more into myself, and reveal a side of me that people only know me see.”

    When people hear Beyonce’s name, several things come to mind.  Jay-Z, Single Ladies, her dancing abilities, Destiny’s Child, her clothing line, and much more. Jody Rosen of Entertainment Weekly writes, “Beyonce Knowles is a storm system disguised as a singer.” She even has her own YouTube station. Beyonce is not only a musical sensation, she is a corporate powerhouse.

    Her clever strategies to success have gotten her where she is at today. Beyonce’s musical career has evolved into a huge corporation. She uses music to form her identity, image, and brand her corporation, which has opened up many other doors for her in the entertainment industry.  She has acted in films, created her own fashion line, and been on countless magazine covers.

    She was recently featured in a 60 minutes news brief talking about her success as an entertainer. Take a look.

    House of Dereon is Beyonce and her mother Tina Knowles’ clothing line that they began in 2004. Expanding the brand, Beyoncé and her sister Solange Knowles  launched the junior line Deréon that is geared towards younger consumers and is more reasonably priced. Deréon was introduced in 2006. The tag line for Deréon is “Where the sidewalk and catwalk meet”. Beyoncé also mentions the clothing line in the song Get Me Bodied, from the album B’Day, and in her hit single Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).

    Beyonce\’s House of Dereon

    -Megan, Fran, Lacey, and Ari

  • A Framework for Our Future

    I never could imagine all facets of my Communication Studies career at UNCW would come to a close at the exact same time. I am in the cusp of finishing my departmental honors project, currently transitioning positions for the COM honors fraternity Lambda Pi Eta, and now the last day of classes is dawning. I am moderately overwhelmed; however, it is a familiar feeling. As a student entering the department three years ago, I was quite oblivious to what career I truly wanted to pursue come May, 2010. Unfortunately now a week shy of May, I am still just as oblivious. BUT before everyone reading recedes in shock, I DO possess one feeling in regards to my future I did not before, which is passion. Passion for my major, passion for my department, and passion for IMC (not a promo for the class, I promise). Having taken classes in integrated marketing communications truly has opened my eyes to a whole new way of pursuing communication studies.

     Hybridizing marketing and communications while outlying features such as social media, public relations, and advertising, creates a captivating discipline. It is truly unique in that IMC provides a surplus of prospective job opportunities, graduate school programs, and opportunities abroad for students interested in the field of study. IMC students have the advantage of being multifaceted within their major, gaining both client and corporate experience while utilizing new forms of social media to boost their own personal brand. It is such a rich subject that allows students the flexibility for growth and expertise.

    So as my time at UNCW and my participation with the IMC Hawk team comes to a close, more than overwhelmed, I now feel confident. I feel confident in the success of my peers, confident for myself, and confident for our future. No matter what career, school, or volunteer path we decide to take, IMC Hawks rest assured, our knowledge of IMC will be there offering support, and laying the groundwork for all the implausible feats we are surely to face.

    –Stephanie Saulsbury

  • Marketing Over Seas

    Mindshare Media is an innovative media network corporation that functions not only in North America, but across the world. The many locations of  MindShareMedia offices include North America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asian Pacific. The company strives to enhance the way businesses interact and communicate with consumers and convey new, pioneering ideas in a unique way. The company claims “gaining a greater share of customers’ minds for our clients calls for smart ideas, but they are worth little without rapid decision-making, committed action and faultless execution,” which is always the goal of their employees.

    Upon visiting London in May of 2009, I had the opportunity to tour a Mindshare office and speak with a young professional who had been employed with the company for a few years. He described that the way the company conducted business was very laid back, yet professional, and focused on helping their clients cover new ground and break away from traditional audiences. He even discussed a current campaign Mindshare was working on with their client, Hanes underwear. The young man explained that employees of Mindshare developed a marketing strategy of displaying and simply stringing Hanes men’s underwear throughout the streets of London to gain attention from people passing by. This was just an example of how Mindshare takes their strategies to a new level.

    Current clients include Nike, LG and Virgin Mobile, and the Mindshare website provides many case studies to support their past and current clients. MindShare Media prides themselves on creating groundbreaking advertisement campaigns as well as overall promotional marketing strategies and tools. They have a very impressive website that is interactive and details their mission as a company, their services, as well as their new ideas of marketing for a particular product.

    The marketing strategies and overall communication tactics Mindshare employ are without a doubt worth exploring. Mindshare Media will only continue to grow as the global communication market shrinks and people are brought closer together with innovative ideas and resources such as the ones this company offers.

    Stephanie Saulsbury

    Lacey Inman

  • IMC Identity Project

    Over the first few months of the semester, our IMC class was given the opportunity to name and develop an identity for the UNCW Professional Education. We were asked by the organization’s leaders to help them re-name the name so that it would be better understood and accessed by possible clients.  As a class we were able to walk through the actual process IMC teams in the professional world use to develop a corporate identity. Our process was broken down into four phases, and our resources included the organization’s IMC plan, personal contact with the client, primary and secondary research, as well as the ability to work together as a team to achieve our goal.

    In the first phase, our main objective was to do as much research as possible in the allocated time in order to learn and understand more about UNCW Professional Education. Specific parts we explored the most included the industry’s definition, management, competitors, competencies, and the culture or character or the organization. This primary research was helpful to us to comprehend more about what exactly the client’s organization did on a day-to-day basis as well as the personality the organization chose to represent. We next compiled secondary research which provided more insight than the primary research did based on outside factors which molded UNCW Professional Education.  We discovered information on the audience and what they responded to, how other similar organizations characterized themselves, if the clients were brand loyal and whether or not the audience wanted services or products. Based on this primary and secondary research we compiled questions to ask the client in our interview through positioning statements. 

    During the second phase, the initial step was in interview the client, which in our case was Allison Rankin. She was in charge of the UNCW Professional Education and their efforts to reinvent themselves. In our interview we used our research to ask questions and to understand more about the organization in order to be able to create an image of their responsibly and roles. Next we made a master list of possible names to use and split them up into several genres or categories. Some of the categories include Latin, Greek, Cultural and Concierge. Once our lists were made and filled with possible words to use, we split up into 5 teams and moved onto the third phase.

    The third phase was where each of the 5 teams created a name based on the master list developed. Once the name was chosen in each group, we made position statements for each name using the same steps as we used in phase one. In the positioning statement, we had to explain our name, what it meant and how it accurately represented the UNCW Professional Education. The names that the five teams came up with included: AptusAlliance, UNCW COD, UNCWOPT, Accompass and NavInsight.

    The final phase was our presentation to the client, Allison. Allison came into our class and listened to each group present their name and positioning statement. Each team did a great job in first creating and name, and second showing why that name should be the new brand name for UNCW Professional Education. Allison was very pleased at all of our hard work and expressed how hard it was going to be to choose the new name for her organization.

    -Shannon Meadows

  • IMC – The Next Generation

    Don and Heidi Schultz’s book, IMC—The Next Generation, is one that many of the students in this advanced IMC class have read at some point in our undergraduate careers. To those new to the discipline of integrated marketing communication, this book offers insight into developing relationships with customers and shows marketers how integrating their organization can help them focus on the customer. There are numerous cases and real-world examples provided that reveal how to use the IMC model presented in the book.

    They start the book by describing IMC as “a process through which companies accelerate returns by aligning communication objectives with corporate goals.” The importance of branding is emphasized throughout the book as they explain how much of an organization’s marketing efforts switched from focusing on the company’s products to focusing on the establishment of brands. Just as the primary focus of almost any successful business is also the customer, the primary focus of the book is the customer, stating that in a value-oriented IMC program, “Customers and prospects are treated as individuals, not as markets.”

    Readers of this book range from students studying IMC, to professionals trying to establish themselves in the business world. Other reviews are almost all positive and full of praise. One review stated, “If you care anything about Integrated Marketing Communications, you’ll read this book. This book has been a bible of sorts for me over the past few years. Anyone trying to figure out what’s going on in social media and the changing nature of the buyer should take a read through this first. Some of the areas may be a bit hard to grasp, but the methodology makes sense, and the Schultz team breaks it down into a step-by-step process that will make your marketing programs measurable (if you follow their advice).”

    Overall, IMC—The Next Generation comes highly recommended from critics, students and readers in general. It offers insight from a husband and wife team of professionals who understand IMC and how it can be used in the business and professional world.

    Nicole Doherty
    Stephanie Saulsbury
    Lacey Inman