IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Charlotte

  • Name Changer

    Tailgating, body paint, jerseys, good luck rituals, and an unparalleled fraternity all exist as part of sports fandom. People love their teams – and love anyone else who also loves their team. Such loyalty has become an integrated part of sports culture sociology.

    Social Identity Theory states that by wearing team colors, attending games, knowing the players’ names, positions and stats, a fan begins to feel as if they are an integral part of the team – they connect with the team as if they were playing the game themselves. This connection explains why even poor performing teams have avid supporters. However, it is ultimately marketing that fosters fan identity. After all teams are brands; encompassing colors, logos, and mascots.

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    Fan loyalty has elevated sports to become part of our commodity culture; a product to be bought and sold, meaning big bucks for team owners. High-level sport has been transformed into a commercialized, commodified, and massified phenomenon. Therefore, fan identification and brand commitment become two key factors in managing and marketing a team. Building a brand is hard, but building and maintaining a culture of fans is much harder.

    As we transition into fall, we know that means one thing in sports,  football is king. With the NFL season in bloom, one team in particular, the Washington Redskins, are off to a rough start. The return of RG III has been very anti-climactic and on top of the team’s poor performance, a greater worry looms in the background: the franchise is under pressure to change the team name.

    Many believe the team’s name, “redskins”, is derogatory and racist due to its historical connotation and use to alienate and belittle Native Americans. The acclaimed Peter King from sports illustrated has even decided to stop using the name, saying, “I don’t want to add to the offensiveness.” Pressure to change the team’s name has been mounting for years and this past spring 10 congress members sent letters to the team owner and NFL requesting them to change the name. One Native American group, the Oneida Indian Nation, has started to take action and run ads in D.C. about the offensive name in hopes of rallying up support.

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    Whether you are an avid supporter for the name change, an avid supporter of the Redskins, or just don’t care, you can’t deny that team names mean a lot in the sports industry. Which leads us to the question: does a new name mean a new team? Does the team culture change when a team redesigns?

    These are exactly the questions the NBA juggled this past summer when they chose to revert the Charlotte Bobcats back to their former team name, the Charlotte Hornets. Coming onto the basketball scene in the ’90s, the Charlotte Hornets created a unique culture. With Hugo the Hornet as the mascot and teal uniforms, the Charlotte Hornets were a recognizable brand. So when the NBA decided to change the team name it was a hard transition for many loyal and devoted fans. Unable to identify with the new team and culture the fans gave up support and the fall of the Bobcat brand ensued.

    Reverting back to the original team name rejuvenated Charlotte fans. There was an immediate increase in the amount of ticket sales; quantitative proof that the Hornet name had been sorely missed. By keeping the team name consistent with what the fans wanted, the Charlotte basketball team re-strengthened their brand significantly.

    However, Washington, unlike the Bobcats, doesn’t have a sorely missed brand. In fact, the Redskins name is so beloved the proposition of changing the team’s name is being met with great opposition. Owner Daniel Snyder commented he would never change the name saying, “the Redskins’ fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means.” Even NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, described the team name as a “unifying force that stands for strength, courage, pride, and respect.”

    Even if Snyder wanted to change the name it would be hard to change the minds of brand followers who have spent years identifying with the team, purchasing the merchandise, rooting for the players, and most importantly making memories. Ditching the derogatory name may ultimately come to a forced decision but the implications involved are massive. It boils down to a relatively simple equation: fan identification and brand commitment work together to produce the main goal in sport commodity, revenue. So the most important factor to ponder: the fans. How is the team going to remarket and rebrand to get fans to commit to a team they may no longer identify with?

    –Savannah Valade, Caroline Robinson, Meghan Carey, Morgan Jones

  • “Tweeting” the Way (Back) Into the White House?

    This Labor Day weekend, as thousands of North Carolinians made a trek to the beach, others headed inland to Charlotte in anticipation of the Democratic National Convention and the preliminary festivities. On Monday, the excitement was palpable in Uptown as “CarolinaFest” served to get audiences pumped up for the opening day of the DNC. The streets were overflowing with vendors, street performers, temporary exhibits and thousands of chanting supporters, who all came together in celebration of North Carolina’s first-ever national convention.

    After experiencing the fervor first-hand, it was hard to imagine that (as right-leaning media suggested) the Democrats would have problems filling seats at either venue where the speeches were originally scheduled to be given. Convention officials were unfazed by this possibility and rightly so; enthusiasm at the event and via social media was at an all-time high for the first night of speeches. Signs were hung from various booths in the heart of the DNC activities to “keep calm and Tweet #DNC2012” and on the first night of speeches, viewers all over the country did just that.

    In the opening night of DNC speeches alone; the continuously trending  topics #DNC2012 and comparable terms received almost 3 million tweets…roughly 3/4ths of the final tweet count (taken over the entire three-day period) of the Republican National Convention. While all of the openers were well received (the numbers don’t lie!), the most prominent twitter conversations took place during the speeches of the Mayor Julian Castro (of San Antonio, TX.) and our First Lady, Michelle Obama.

    Mayor Castro’s speech peaked at 11,503 tweets per minute (TPM) which was higher than all of the GOP speakers excluding Mitt Romney himself. However, the “magic” really happened when Michelle Obama took the stage to officially open the convention. Peaking at 28,003 TPM, Mrs. Obama’s speech received twice the amount of “Twitter action” than Mitt Romney’s GOP acceptance speech, which saw 14,289 TPM at its peak. It is truly remarkable that one 25 minute speech could garner so much attention and foster a virtual discussion of mammoth proportions. While the content of the tweets in question undoubtedly varies, the important thing is that it got people talking.

    The use of twitter as a forum for political discussion and debate among average Americans and major media entities alike continues to grow and evolve as we near the 2012 election season. Will this explosion of Democratic enthusiasm continue all the way to the polls? Only time will tell. One thing is for certain: Democrats are using all of their available media to ensure that their voices are heard.

    (The twitter stats listed above were taken from the Twitter Blog (http://blog.twitter.com/) additional information regarding the DNC can be found at http://www.demconvention.com/ )

    –Lauren Habig , Gene Lee, Hannah Eure, Erin Kiffmeyer, Ally Walton