Forbes article: Notre Dame's Enduring Brand

[Buster Bluth]

What Notre Dame Athletics Teaches Us About Creating Enduring Brands - Forbes

I thought it was a solid read.

in order for a brand to standout in a crowded marketplace, it must be truly remarkable. Not only must it first differentiate itself to the point in which in many ways it is considered an outlier when compared to its competitors, but the brand itself must convey a story that consumers want to embrace and spread as their own. When it comes to the world of sports, there is no more successful example of a “Purple Cow” than the University of Notre Dame. Over the last hundred years, no brand has managed to grow and maintain a larger and more loyal following than the Fighting Irish,

Time and again, the Fighting Irish have been trendsetters in both protecting and expanding their brand into the global market. While other college programs struggle to keep up with the University from a business standpoint, Notre Dame continues to reinvent itself anew, all the while staying true to its core values.

 

[GATTACA!]

Love it

 

[irishpat183]

Irrelevent....

 

[GATTACA!]

Irrelevent....

Right lol. I also love when people point to a team like Texas, and show some statistic of their merchandise sales and try to say they are the biggest brand in college sports. ND is the biggest, far and away.

 

[dshans]

we must first understand the full implications of that faithful fall day almost a century ago.

and even though it may of hurt our competitive perception a bit

An interesting article with a reasonable conclusion based on reasonable analysis. However, since it's hot as hell in Minneapolis today, I put on my proofreader's visor. While I won't know just how hot Hell is until I get there, I thought I'd point out that I don't just pick on IE posters.

"Notre Dame signed multi-year agreement with NBC ..." This may just be a "typo," but there should be an "a" before "multi-year."

"Notre Dame continues to reinvent itself anew ..." strikes me as awkwardly redundant. It's a style "thing" to me.

"... to dare greatly and to fail is a better faith than to never have tried at all." Another style point, perhaps, but I feel that "better fate" would be better.

I get grumpy when it gets to 100 degrees and kids cut across my lawn ...

 

[beryirish]

. NM --- SMH at myself.

 

[Golden_Domer]

we must first understand the full implications of that faithful fall day almost a century ago.

and even though it may of hurt our competitive perception a bit

An interesting article with a reasonable conclusion based on reasonable analysis. However, since it's hot as hell in Minneapolis today, I put on my proofreader's visor. While I won't know just how hot Hell is until I get there, I thought I'd point out that I don't just pick on IE posters.

"Notre Dame signed multi-year agreement with NBC ..." This may just be a "typo," but there should be an "a" before "multi-year."

"Notre Dame continues to reinvent itself anew ..." strikes me as awkwardly redundant. It's a style "thing" to me.

"... to dare greatly and to fail is a better faith than to never have tried at all." Another style point, perhaps, but I feel that "better fate" would be better.

I get grumpy when it gets to 100 degrees and kids cut across my lawn ...

I guess that's why he's a professor at Rutgers and not ND.

 

[vmgsf]

dshans - quote from atricle: "The pillars on which Notre Dame’s brand has been built on center around the core principal that it must be remarkable in everything it does. That principal is endemic to every part of the university, not just its athletics program."

Principal not principle? dshans? I don't need a pal I need a principle.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at couple points in this article:

1) Markets Have No Borders - The University has forced itself to schedule games all over the country, including games on both the West and East Coasts each year. The majority of college football teams often do everything in their power to avoid long travel, yet the Irish have embraced it as an opportunity to continue and extend their brand far past the Mid-West. While most teams could be found playing only a few hundred miles from campus, Notre Dame spent the better half of a century touring the country and becoming “America’s team”.

“It’s not that we’re better than everyone else, it’s just that we choose to be different. We choose to be outlier and that brings us attention, good or bad,” says Swarbrick. “It’s easy to play it safe, but when you’re trying to distinguish yourself, if you play it safe you’ve failed.

2) Differentiation Through Independence - The Fighting Irish football program has never belonged to a conference. For the last century, it has competed against the best competition it could play and committed itself to face an all or nothing mentality when it came to pursuing a national championship. While this has created numerous difficulties when it comes to scheduling and travel, it is also what makes the university uniquely identifiable. Notre Dame has drawn tremendous criticism for maintaining their independence during the ever shifting landscape of college sports, but such criticism also serves as proof that they are doing something right.

According to Swarbrick, “The more clearly defined and unique the brand, the greater the passions that attach to it. No sports fan is neutral when it comes to the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys or Notre Dame Football. You can choose to fit in and go unnoticed, or you can choose to standout and be criticized. Of course, if you build your entire strategy on avoiding criticism, you’re setting yourself up for failure from day one.”

Both of those are historical accidents. Had Michigan not decided to blackball ND from the Western conference, we likely would have joined it and become a regional program. Fortunately for us, those accidents propelled ND into the national spotlight and made its brand far stronger than it would have been otherwise.

But let's not pretend that such was the result of a bold plan by ND from its inception. And I don't believe there's anything inherent to independence that makes it morally superior to conference membership.

 

[dshans]

dshans - quote from atricle: "The pillars on which Notre Dame’s brand has been built on center around the core principal that it must be remarkable in everything it does. That principal is endemic to every part of the university, not just its athletics program."

Principal not principle? dshans? I don't need a pal I need a principle.

I prefer to not spend too much time tearing articles and posts limb from limb. It does get tedious and tiresome. There's also a sort of personal, mental "auto correct" that I've developed over the years. That's my excuse for missing the principle/principal screw up.

There are more errors in the article. "... in order for a brand to standout in a crowded marketplace ..." should be "stand out." "Standout" is a noun standing where a verb form should.

"The creation of an outlier in any particular system, is at least partially, due to luck." Personally I would have skipped the commas altogether. Had I felt them necessary for some reason I'd place the lead separating comma after "is" rather than before.

"The pillars on which Notre Dame’s brand has been built on ..." another redundancy. One "on," in either position, would suffice.

Thank you for your concern and patience – or is that "patients?"

Hey, I may be a yutz, possibly a putz, but I like to think that I'm lovable.


He did get "its" rather than "it's" correct.