Split Testing Sucks And Other Heresies

It’s no secret that sports logos play a huge role in the marketing of our favorite teams. It may seem like an afterthought, but teams invest a huge amount of money in these emblems. A lot of these logos are iconic, yet they weren’t created with the same goals in mind as most other marketing logos.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how some teams have managed to squeeze every last drop out of their iconic logos- and why they didn't need to.

What really sets sports logos apart from other marketing logos is the fact that they have become something that many people collect or even idolize. But more importantly, they’re a way for people to proudly express their love for their favorite teams.

The fact that sports logos are so easily recognizable is big key in the creation of that connection and passion with fans, because you can use them to create all sorts of merchandise. Merchandise and apparel are the most obvious examples of ways to monetize a logo. But what really turns these logos into an effective marketing tool is when they start being used as a representation of specific teams or events.

We’ll start off this tour by looking at some examples of team-specific marketing efforts and then move on to some examples that don’t really fit into that category.

Once we’ve covered those examples, we’ll move on to the teams that have managed to combine both a team-specific marketing effort and use their logo as an effective measure of success or an iconic representation of the team in question.

The first example that comes to mind is the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers once owned by Walter O’Malley had a partnership with a local towing company called Amalgamated Tow Truck Company, which was later bought out by Conoco (the parent company of Amalgamated) and changed its name to Conoco.

Conoco and the Dodgers would use their change of logo as a marketing tool by asking fans to send in their ideas for what the new logo should look like. They later chose a design featuring a horse and rider, claiming that it was selected because it was the most popular submitted design.

This gamble paid off when Conoco, who once used its logo on all of its trucks, began to sell merchandise featuring the new Dodgers-inspired logo. A few years later, they started creating different logos for every team they sponsored, and even went as far as offering an "alternate" uniform that featured this new branding.

I'd say this is one of biggest successes in marketing you can get on the cheap.

The only downside to this is how much it affected the team's identity, which is something that can be a real problem if you're the Dodgers. The Dodgers have been under a lot of pressure over the years to change their logo, with critics pointing out that they've switched logos so many times that they've lost track of what they used to look like.

Another team that has made use of their logo as a marketing tool is the New York Mets. In the late 1970's, Converse bought the rights to promote their products by using logos on various sports teams and teams for various different sports leagues. One of these logos was for New York baseball, which became an official logo for Converse baseball in 1979.

In 2004, the Mets and Converse replaced their old logo with a redesign that included a blend of their old NY logo and their new Converse baseball logo. They also started using the logo on their merchandise.

These two examples show how two iconic logos were turned into a marketing tool that really contributed to the success and popularity of both Converse and the Mets. I think you could easily argue that it was just as much of a success as both teams’ marketing efforts, even though it had to deal with teams in completely different leagues.

The next example comes from one of Atlanta's most famous sports teams; the Falcons. When the Falcons were created in 1965, they were located in what was then the NFL Coastal Division. They originally sported a simple “F” logo that was a lot more simplistic than their current one.

When the NFC West became the NFC South, it was decided that each team would have to come up with a new logo for their new divisionsal logos. The Falcons picked out an updated version of their original logo, which featured a bird and is seen as one of the most iconic logos in all of sports.

Since its creation, this particular logo has also been used as a marketing tool for pretty much anything you could think of, from television commercials to local businesses advertising themselves on signs around Atlanta.

Even though the Falcons were only in the NFC South for three years before being moved to the NFC South, this logo had a huge impact on the city of Atlanta. It’s a lot easier to create a brand identity with something like this than with, say, just using the team name.

Which brings us to that one aspect of sports logos and their marketing staff; their names. Even when teams have iconic logos that are instantly recognizable, those logos sometimes get lost in the shuffle because of their names. When most people hear “Atlanta Falcons” they don’t automatically think about that Falcon logo, even though it would be hard to imagine it without seeing it first.

Conclusion

As you can see, logos are a great way to get your favorite team’s name out in the public. If a logo can become as iconic and recognizable as the Falcons or Hawks logo, then it really gives fans something to rally behind and can even get non-fans interested in buying merchandise.

After covering how teams use their logos for marketing purposes, we're going to start looking at where all of that marketing money comes from and how sports franchises work to make money through different means. We'll also talk about things like branding and making sure that your logo is descriptive enough that it represents more than just your team name.

As always, if you have any questions or comments you can leave them in the section below just as many of our other authors have. Also be sure to share this article so we can get it out to even more fans.

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