Lack of Support??

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CitySting

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Why do you suppose we are lacking in the support of our program? 37th in Merchandising is poor!

THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS
Dogs in Top 5 in merchandising
Tech ranks 37th among college athletic programs in sales of licensed goods

By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/19/07
No. 1: The University of Texas. No. 5: The University of Georgia. No. 37: Georgia Tech.
That's where the schools rank in . . . merchandising.
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• More UGA coverage
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Atlanta-based Collegiate Licensing Company, which represents nearly 200 college athletics programs, annually ranks its top 75 in order of royalties received from sales of licensed merchandise — shirts, caps and such.
The company released its rankings for the 2006-07 school year last week.
Texas was on top for the second consecutive year, followed by Notre Dame. Last year's No. 2, Michigan, dropped to No 4.
With national titles in football and men's basketball, Florida moved up to No. 3 from No. 6. Florida was one of nine SEC schools in the top 25.
Both Georgia and Georgia Tech slipped slightly in the merchandise rankings. Last year, the Bulldogs were No. 4 and the Yellow Jackets No. 35.
Before last year, North Carolina had been No. 1 on the Collegiate Licensing list for five consecutive years. The Tar Heels were No. 5 last year and are No. 6 on the latest list.
Founded in 1981 by former Tennessee football coach Bill Battle, Collegiate Licensing is a trademark licensing company retained by colleges to manage, market and protect their brands. The company was acquired earlier this year by global sports management powerhouse IMG.
 
It's not surprising. For whatever reason, GT is very tight with licensing - they make it damned near impossible to produce and sell merchandise unless you're an established business. That's why you can only find a limited number of GT items outside of GT's own bookstore and online store.
 
No question that Tech has suffered in popularity since the middle of the last century when the Jackets were widely recognized. With four NCs, a highly visable presence in the empire city of the south, a famous "fight song" and a top-tier education, Tech should have a greater following than it has and should certainly sell much more merchandise.

Since the 1950s Disney has parlayed a mouse into billions, and not all in the movies. Mickey's face graces merchandise, is featured in Disney parks and even has his own following of "Mouseketeers." There are Mickey statues, dolls and hats. Every kid in American knows about Mickey.

We've got something better than a mouse. We've got Buzz. We've got the Reck and the reck parade. We've got the Tech Tower. We've got tradition. We're watched on TV and seen nationally throughout each year.

A real good marketing firm should be able to exploit all that. Just my opinion.
 
While it is very disappointing, in some ways I like it. One of the things I hate most about UGA/Texas football and Duke/UNC basketball is the number of fans that have absolutely no connection to the school...many times they don't even live in the same state as the school. They drive a large part of the merchandising success. I kind of like that if I meet a Tech fan, I pretty much know he or she is a real Tech person, not just someone who started rooting for us because we win a lot or our logo/colors are cool.
 
The success of a good athletic program is how many red-necks have 35 stickers all over there car. As well as fuzzy dice, stuffed animals and floormats. The newest merchandising craze---C@(krings! I can keep it up and cheer for my favorite team.
 
Not surprising given the size of the school and alumni base, but I agree that a decent marketing campaign can change all that. Of course, given our size, 37th probably isn't a bad showing as a starting place. I mean, that's 37th out of 117 or so that play D-1 football and something like 300 that play D-1 basketball.
 
We don't have as many fans as a lot of schools? Groundbreaking stuff there CitySting.
 
Isn't there a butt somewhere you should be sniffing?
 
We are #37 or whatever in merchandising.

Who cares? I mean who freakin cares? What if we were Number 1? What difference would it make?
 
00Burdell said:
Who cares? I mean who freakin cares? What if we were Number 1? What difference would it make?
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Not much of one; Geetee/CitySting has/have gone to a new low in GT bashing: they now use merchandising to trash us.

Don't they have some inanimate objects to hump?
 
TechGator1066 said:
Not much of one; Geetee/CitySting has/have gone to a new low in GT bashing: they now use merchandising to trash us.

Don't they have some inanimate objects to hump?
Click to expand...

That's not being fair...dogs can be very animated.
 
we are 35th nationally as a university, so why is 37th in merchandizing so bad???
 
It isn't bad. We'll never beat out the bandwagon state schools and as someone noted, we have a much smaller student population/alumni base than the teams above us. In the past, this was by choice in order to maintain high academic standards.

The only way to improve this is by attracting bandwagon fans by winning titles. I was in Dominica and our charter boat pilot had on a Duke jersey. It would take a lot of success for us to get to that point.

I have to admit that I help out UGA on this list. I always grab several of their shirts once basketball season gets into full swing to use as rags. It's hard to pass up the deals on the clearance rack at WalMart.
 
Essobee said:
No question that Tech has suffered in popularity since the middle of the last century when the Jackets were widely recognized. With four NCs, a highly visable presence in the empire city of the south, a famous "fight song" and a top-tier education, Tech should have a greater following than it has and should certainly sell much more merchandise.

Since the 1950s Disney has parlayed a mouse into billions, and not all in the movies. Mickey's face graces merchandise, is featured in Disney parks and even has his own following of "Mouseketeers." There are Mickey statues, dolls and hats. Every kid in American knows about Mickey.

We've got something better than a mouse. We've got Buzz. We've got the Reck and the reck parade. We've got the Tech Tower. We've got tradition. We're watched on TV and seen nationally throughout each year.

A real good marketing firm should be able to exploit all that. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Excellent post Essobee,

I've stated in the past that GT needs a salesman. We still do but it would be much easier to market our Buzz and Wreck if we whipped, stomped that bunch from over yonder on the other side of the tracks.

When I walk into the Sam's Club here at Rome, there's no question as to who is marketing a program. UGA is in your face there.

Gotta win more games w/them since many truly true fans are only true to the last game's winner. I give UGA an A+ on marketing since they can take a stupid redneck phrase like "how bout dem dogs", and "go you silver britches" and make it as common for some people to repeat as it is for most people to shake hands.

Not only have they been kicking our butts in ball games, they're doing it in marketing too and sad as it is, we're letting them.

Could it be if GT started marketing this program more that the figures we see in the red could turn into more "Cha-ching, Cha-chings" at the cash register.
 
So why is this a topic still? Everyone here agrees that the 37th ranking isn't as bad as it sounds. Now, if we were to remain 37th in football, basketball, and/or baseball, we'd have something to moan about.
 
A relatively small alumni base and a slightly underperforming football team (with a coach that one scratches their head about) doesn't translate well into dollars spent on ball caps and tee shirts.

Our household does our share though.
 
Actually when you consider the size of GT, as in enrollment, and the size of the alumni base, I think #37 is about right.

The reason UGA ranks high is because of the size of the alumni base, which is far bigger than that of GT. Least we also not forget all of the uneducated yahoo's around the state that never made it out of the 6th grade, but are literate enough to yell 'how 'bout dem dawgs' and shop for their favorite dawgie-wear at the local WalMart.

I have UGA merchandise that relatives from my wife's side of the family bought me because --well, they think that because I'm a UGA grad I would actually wear the crap. I do wear it, only when I'm out working in the yard, digging, mowing, sweating, getting dirty --in the backyard only, I wouldn't be seen wearing it in my front yard mind you. :biggthumpup:
 
gth816f said:
While it is very disappointing, in some ways I like it. One of the things I hate most about UGA/Texas football and Duke/UNC basketball is the number of fans that have absolutely no connection to the school...many times they don't even live in the same state as the school. They drive a large part of the merchandising success. I kind of like that if I meet a Tech fan, I pretty much know he or she is a real Tech person, not just someone who started rooting for us because we win a lot or our logo/colors are cool.
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I just wanted to say that I agree 100% with this post. Not the disappointing part, but everthing else.
 
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