UM
earns licensing award
The University of Montana's prowling grizzly bear logo can be found on
everything from coffee bags to lug-gage tags these days -- a fact that led the National
Collegiate Licensing Association to present UM with its 2001 Synergy Award.
NCLA presents the award to the nation's best collegiate licensing program.UM Executive
Vice President Bob Frazier and licensing director Denise Person -- the driving forces
behind the logo products -- were on hand to receive the Synergy Award during NCLA's annual
workshop June 8-10 in Salt Lake City.
"I think this award demonstrates how unique and innovative our program is,"
Frazier said. "We were clearly one of the smallest schools represented at the
conference, and for us to win out over schools the size of the University of Missouri or
(the University of California, Los Angeles) is pretty significant."
In 1999 UM became the first university in the nation to market its own labeled line of
clothing, Griz Gear. All Griz Gear products are recruitment tools for UM, since hangtags
on the clothing display a UM Web address and a toll-free number for Admissions and New
Student Services. Person said Griz Gear was designed to appeal to the nine million
tourists who visit Big Sky Country each year.
Since Griz Gear came out, other universities have followed suit with their own labeled
clothing lines. Person said she has fielded calls in the last six months from Gonzaga,
Stanford and Cornell universities about how to run an effective licensing program.
"Winning this award was a fantastic accomplishment for us," she said.
"We've been able to think outside the box and get ahead of the competition."
The University also markets Griz Grub -- food products such as bottled water and coffee
-- and Griz Gifts, a variety of knickknacks and gift ideas. And Frazier said UM may begin
marketing prints of University artwork as "Griz Gallery" items.
He said retail sales of licensed UM products totaled more than $200,000 last year, with
royalties of 7.5 percent coming to the University. |
