Oregon State needs a POWERFUL brand to compete as a serious national level program. I have mixed feelings about the Angry Beaver. He has done some good especially compared to when we used to have no logo at all on the field. I tend to think he could be retired because we can do better. Teams like the Panthers and Jaguars and others show though that you can have an animal logo whether primary or secondary.
However, I do agree that the brown in the beaver is not made for the bright lights of a national power or brand. If it was kept in any fashion it should probably be orange like it currently is on the football helmets. The Beavers script below the logo is redundant and a bad idea and would be better is it said OSU there more like the LSU Tigers.
In all, I think the OS logo is our best current brand. It properly promotes Oregon State and that is a name we want to be out there. It is balanced pretty good but I don’t know about all its elements. It does try to use curves some to be more modern and it could look decent on the middle of a field or court. Think of that logo with checkered endzones and it would be decent and more towards what we are looking for as far as the vibe for our program and brand.
I can only hope that people who understand sports marketing (not BDC) and creating POWERFUL brands will come up with our best option. The Angry Beaver may have slight charm for a certain audience but it isn’t anywhere even close to a POWER brand that top recruits are drawn to (brown is one of the worst colors). Tinker said some type of Beaver redesign might be possible but that would almost certainly be as a secondary logo. The primary logo obviously has to refer to Oregon State. It should be some type of a design that has OS or OSU. It needs to be strong and really speak that we can be a top performing national brand. With the 21 million we will be averaging and going up against teams that seem more with the times like UO, UW and even Cal, and knowing they are getting brand spanking new football stadiums, we need a POWERFUL brand that is just as sexy, desirable, 21st century, relevant and nationally important. If Tinker can pull all that off we will have the POWERFUL brand we need for Oregon State.
We need a POWERFUL brand to be the result of our 2013 rebranding. I would like to see the endzones idea get used and we don’t want something too conservative where we have to wait and hope for another 4 or 5 years for the changes we want and need.
A POWERFUL brand has to lean towards arrogance because when you think of all the best teams they are brimming with high confidence and bring attitude to the field. If we don’t bury this Mayberry garbage into the bowels of the earth it will continue to hinder, limit and haunt us and keep us anywhere near our full potential. Erickson caught some lightning in a bottle back in 2000 but we are not even close to being aggressive enough as a culture to have a good enough shot at it again. Things must change. We have to win more big games and realize that the spotlight games make or break our national reputation.
Larry Scott has shown the way on being aggressive and going for your best effort. I expect BDC to do the same. In the Pac-12 we have the platform to be on the national map and make a statement that we have become a POWERFUL brand/program. A number of things have to happen in conjunction but I know they can be done if we get AGGRESSIVE and boldly keep putting our best foot forward. I want to see desire that the football team should rarely finish below the Sun Bowl instead of the Sun Bowl being our best bowl under Riley in more than 11 years. I want recruiting to improve and sell the athletes on the fact we place alot of NFL talent and and are a part of a premier conference with the nation’s best platform for exposure, innovation and success.
Riley has to demand more from himself as well. Short of 7 wins this year we should go in a new direction and target the likes of UW’s Justin Wilcox or Lance Leipold from Wisconsin-Whitewater.
We have alot of fans. DeCarolis has to want as many of them as possible. Not just the larger donors. Keep investing in facilities and have a plan stated for what it takes to get the new West Side built and where we are. Show the fans we are continuing to actively push the programs and brand forward and that you want the fans help to make OSU Athletics a nationally successful, prominent and POWERFUL brand.
With a POWERFUL brand and our influx of TV money we have a great opportunity here to strike boldly and be more innovative and get people across the nation interested in Oregon State. You do that by making it clear you are stepping up to the national stage and then when you have that spotlight you get Cold-Blooded and make the most of it. A new, more aggressive coach to go along with the branding makes the most sense but this year Riley gets one last chance to see what his Mayberry ways can produce. A new direction with the branding is best because then people will actually respect that we are serious about becoming a strong program and not content with mediocrity or sometimes worse.
If Tinker can help us forge a more powerful identity that is bold and aggressive and puts us on the map then lets go for it and make the most of our Pac-12 platform and aggressive commissioner. Lets not be too conservative as has been a key reason we have stayed mediocre and not sparked the national imagination. You have to dream big to go big. You also have to passionately drive the program/brand towards that goal so the fans will get caught up in that excitement and the synergy allows something special to occur. That could mean aggressively targeting an upcomer like Justin Wilcox who would fit the new image that OSU can be vibrant, full of energy and compete with the best of the Pac-12. Then the brand can and will be clearly elevated to nationally important and POWERFUL.