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| Susan
Murphy,
UM trademark and licensing administrator |
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Griz
merchandise among
nation's top 50 sellers
It’s
worn by maroon-and-silver clad throngs at Griz sporting events and
found on untold thousands of hats, T-shirts, sweaters, license plates,
blankets and bottle openers across the nation and around the world.
There’s even a proposal to place it on coffins and urns.
The University of Montana logo. UM and the bear. The bear is everywhere.
In recent years the popularity of Griz Gear and UM merchandise has
landed Montana on the Collegiate Licensing Company’s list of
50 top-selling universities in the nation. The most recent figures
show UM at No. 46, ahead of Colorado State, Army, Air Force and Boise
State.
UM was the only I-AA football institution to make the list.
“I think there are combinations of factors for our success,”
said University Executive Vice President Bob Frazier, who oversees
UM licensing and marketing efforts. “Obviously the success of
our athletic teams has helped. And sales improved after we returned
to our original school colors. We also have done a better job of communicating
and marketing our brand.”
UM licenses businesses to use its logos and image, and in return gets
a royalty percentage with each licensee based on the wholesale price
of individual items.
Montana’s royalty income has jumped nearly 800 percent between
1994-95 and 2003-04. The first big jump — 214 percent —
took place after UM won its first national football championship in
1995-96. That also was the year the University changed its colors
and updated the look of its logos.
Another big spike in revenue — 112 percent — took place
in 2001-02, which coincidently was another year UM won a national
football championship. Frazier said 2003-04 was Montana’s best
royalty revenue year ever, and the current year is shaping up to top
that one after three quarters.
“This year we exceeded in one quarter what we earned in all
of the 1995 national championship year,” Frazier said.
So where does this revenue go? Susan Murphy, UM’s trademarks
and licensing administrator, said it funds everything from marketing
the University and scholarships to community service projects, travel,
special events and shoring up the athletic department budget. It also
funds “Brain Busters,” a statewide quiz show for high
school students who can win scholarships to UM campuses.
Murphy said UM also sometimes takes trades for use of its image. In
a recent development, a phone book company that produces directories
for 180 cities in the United States and Canada was allowed to use
UM logos in return for free full-page ads in each phone book, providing
an advertising presence that wasn’t possible in the past.
“Some of the cities include Calgary, Alberta; Victoria, British
Columbia; Anchorage, Alaska; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Olympia, Wash.,”
she said. “This can really boost our marketing and recruiting
efforts.”
Murphy is the University’s “logo cop,” and it’s
her job to track down unlicensed vendors. She’s been known to
take pictures of unlicensed merchandise and send the offending supplier
a cease-and-desist warning letter with the photo attached. If that
doesn’t work, it might be time to contact the Collegiate Licensing
Co. to pursue enforcement efforts.
Frazier said it takes more than sports to account for the success
of the licensing program. For instance, UM officials made a conscious
decision to develop a private label line of clothing and to market
products to western tourist destinations such as national parks. And
if visitors from Connecticut, England or Japan buy a sweatshirt with
a handsome grizzly on it, they also get a Griz Gear hangtag that sports
the UM Web address and the toll-free number for the admissions office.
Frazier said the University was the first campus in the country to
develop its own clothing brand with a unique (in this case, “Griz
Gear”) label sewn into each item. In 2001 UM won the Synergy
Award from the National Collegiate Licensing Association, which is
given to the top licensing program in the country. Part of the reason
UM won was its Griz Gear innovation.
“UM’s national prominence also has grown with recent appearances
in publications such as USA Today and in-flight magazines,”
he said. “We also had an article in Art of the West about UM’s
Charlie Fritz art exhibit. I think all this exposure contributes to
our success.”
Frazier said UM chose to go with the Collegiate Licensing Company
for its legal, point-of-sale, enforcement and audit services and ability
to assist with national promotions. The company offers two levels
of licensees: local, which can produce merchandise for colleges in
one state or region; and national, which can produce merchandise for
most U.S. colleges.
In Montana, the apparel companies primarily responsible for turning
people into walking billboards for UM are Sutton’s of Billings,
Wild West Shirt Co. of Bozeman and Total Screen Design of Polson.
Sutton’s is a national CLC licensee, so it makes garments for
colleges across the country. Wild West has been so successful that
it’s on the list of 25 top local licensees in the nation. The
items these businesses make appear in stores across Montana and beyond,
and all three are among the top 100 apparel manufacturers in the United
States.
A big chunk of UM licensing revenue comes from Coca-Cola. The company
pays UM for the right to be the exclusive soft drink vendor on campus
and to use UM imagery for marketing and promotions. So Monte the mascot
appears on a Coke truck, and UM logos decorate pop machines. It’s
a process called “co-branding” or “cross-promoting.”
“There’s no real way to measure our exposure or increased
sales,” said Dennis Anderson, Coke’s area manager for
Montana and Wyoming. “But it’s good exposure and a great
affiliation, so I’m sure it helps.”
Anderson said PowerAde has been the official sports drink of the Grizzlies
since 1995, and he has noticed an increase in PowerAde sales since
Coke started its “Feed the Griz” promotion, in which some
proceeds benefit Grizzly Athletics.
Frazier expects UM licensing royalties to continue growing, especially
since CLC has started a new program to promote its top 50 performers
around the nation.
“This could take us to another level,” Frazier said. “We
do well in the West, but in the East we are still just a small school
in a small state. If we could make inroads there, that could enhance
our brand and improve our prospects for out-of-state recruiting.”
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