How a new brand story can change the game.
For 100 years, the Ducks did almost nothing but lose.
The University of Oregon football team has existed since 1894, but generations of fielding losing teams left the Ducks with no sense of heritage, and no pedigree for talent.
A century of failure is hard for today’s fans to reconcile with the program’s success in recent years. It’s a turnaround largely credited to Oregon’s most famous and powerful alumni, billionaire co-founder and chairman of Nike, Phil Knight.
After consecutive losses in the 1995 Rose Bowl and the 1996 Cotton Bowl, a frustrated Knight met with the football program’s leadership to ask one question: “What do you need from me to win?”
Coaches and the school’s athletic director told him what they needed to be successful, and Knight generously responded, pouring over $300 million into the university. Autzen Stadium, the home of Ducks football, was renovated. A tutoring center was built, and a state-of-the-art sports performance compound was constructed. Top recruits had long-shunned the idea of moving to Eugene to labor away for a losing program – now Oregon had facilities that surpassed any of the SEC powerhouses.
And, yet, the Ducks continued to lose.
The leadership at Oregon failed to accurately diagnose their challenge. When a brand needs to be reinvigorated, it’s easy to invest in product improvements, or marketing that touts features and amenities. But today we live in an era of post-marketing — and for a brand to succeed it must recognize that features and benefits are secondary to the experience it delivers.
Phil Knight’s money bought what Oregon wanted, but it didn’t make the program any better. Sure, recruits and alumni were impressed by the new facilities. But marginally better features couldn’t compete against Alabama’s storied past, national championships, and the Hall of Fame coaches who roamed the sidelines of Bear Bryant Stadium. And it couldn’t match Penn State’s roster of former linebackers who’d been first round NFL draft picks. Oregon was doing everything “right” to build a great brand, but no one cared.
Frustrated by his lack of ROI, Knight turned to his team at Nike. Their outside perspective recognized what had been overlooked internally: Oregon was missing a story, the reason why a student athlete would want to suit up for the Ducks.
Nike helped identify a unique point of differentiation for Oregon. Where the powerhouse schools could rely on tradition as a differentiator, Oregon had to go in the opposite direction. Instead, they overtly embraced their lack of tradition. To cut through the clutter of college football, Oregon had to be undeniably known for something. Change.
Enter the uniforms. Nike’s designers began churning out countless variations of Oregon gear, in paints and color combinations not available to any other team. Suddenly, playing for Oregon meant looking like no other football player on the planet.
These new shiny, flashy, jaw dropping uniforms captured the attention of recruits who would have never previously considered Oregon and gave them a reason to commit. They also gave Oregon’s fans what they had been missing for over 100 years; an experience that not only made them feel amazing but connected them to the brand in a way that was unique to the Ducks.
Oregon finally had a story. A loud, green, yellow, and white—but sometimes black and grey, or a mix of white, metallic silver and pink, or any of another 140 something variations—story. Oregon could not create history, but they could define the experience of playing for the Ducks.
Marketing today is driven forward by the experience, and the story that defines it, not the product itself. At Pipeline, we’ve found this to be the case with nearly every club we’ve worked with too, especially the ones contemplating a capital investment to help drive membership growth.
As the Ducks learned, brand communications that rely solely on “new” facilities and “enhanced” amenities barely move the needle anymore. By defining a compelling brand story for your club and designing signature experiences around it, you’ll give existing fans something to connect with, and new recruits a reason to commit.
Do you know your club’s story?