Frequently Asked Questions - Queen's Athletics and Recreation Brand Identity
Why re-brand?
During the recent Athletics Review process, we recognized that our brand was diluted by the various deviations from the original mark and not suited to use in marketing and merchandising applications (for an example of this, view the “branding process” pdf within this section).
It was important to create a unified brand for a number of reasons, including but not limited to :
- To bring together all of our programs and services under one highly identified and recognizable brand
- To foster a team mentality and a sense of community amongst all Queen’s athletes, teams and programs
- To develop strong and unified marketing/ promotion strategies
- To aid in communicating the vision of Queen’s Athletics & Recreation
- To capitalize on merchandising opportunities
It was vital to develop a brand that is recognized by all community members and that maintains a connection to our past while evolving to meet the needs of our athletes today.
We are also provided with a unique opportunity in time where our brand could be featured as an integral part of our facility development projects (i.e. logo embedded into the artificial turf on Tindall Field)
Why not use the Queen’s University logo?
Based on our heritage, Athletics & Recreation at Queen’s has always been one of only two accepted sub-brands (the Queen’s University Alumni Association being the other). More broadly Athletics programs across North America have precedent for their own identities, which work within a brand architecture for the larger institution, Queen’s is no different.
The Queen’s University Institutional logo does not lend itself well to a sports application – it carries neither the weight nor the simplicity required for an integrated and diverse athletics program and its various applications (award, uniforms, etc.) The new Athletics & Recreation logo was created and developed with the greater University visual standards in mind and has specific application with the Queen’s logo standards and brand architecture.
In the “best practices” section of the powerpoint in this section, you’ll see examples of how other schools (University of Michigan, University of Western Ontario, Princeton University, University of Toronto) have dealt with this issue.
Who was involved in the process?
Phase One of the re-brand process was comprised of four components – Archival Review, Qualitative and Quantitative research and a review of Best Practices (US and Canadian institutions).
We engaged over 500 stakeholders – including alumni, students, athletes, coaches, community members and staff – in a number of processes, including focus groups, interviews and online surveys. These opportunities were advertised in the Queen’s Gazette, the Queen’s Journal, Alumni e-news and on Queen’s websites (main site and Athletics & Recreation). Information and perceptions were gathered through both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
We also contracted Karacters Design Group (Toronto) to lead the development of the new brand identity. Their client list includes Vancouver 2010 Paralympics, BC Hydro, Getty Images and Canadian Tourism.
What did you learn?
We learned that stakeholders were looking for a brand that was easily identifiable, simple and based on tradition. Feedback also indicated that ‘owning a colour’ was an important aspect of the brand development. MOST importantly we learned that the brand needed to reflect the attributes of our student-athletes Bold, Strong, Proud, Inspiring, Perseverant, Successful.
The research also showed that there was great confusion regarding how all of our elements fit together – logo, colours, nicknames, mascot, uniforms, etc. Given the research and resources required to pull together all of these elements and the immediate opportunities and needs in our business operations (new uniforms, logo application opportunities on Tindall Field, signage in Queen’s Centre, etc) we accepted the recommendation that we phase our re-branding strategy, focusing in the first instance on the development of a new logo, colour scheme and typography and the consistent application of these elements across our current programs and services.
A second phase is planned to deal with nicknames, our mascot and secondary logos – this phase will also have a full consultation process.
Have you officially changed the nickname of the teams?
No, not at this time. We will engage this discussion in Phase 2 of our re-branding process and will take a definitive position on the nickname at the conclusion of the research and consultation process that will occur in that phase.
What we have done is develop and implement a marketing and communication strategy that is designed to clearly and visibly promote two key attributes of our brand - Queen’s and Gaels. This decision is a direct result of the research and stakeholder feedback and is consistent with the way in which our athletes and teams currently promote themselves. In choosing these two attributes we can provide a consistent and focused message across the breadth of our programs.
To that end, we have asked all of our partners, sponsors, media, other institutions and the OUA and CIS office to support us with this marketing and communication strategy.
You aren’t using the nickname “Golden Gaels anymore. Is the “Golden” really gone?
Some stakeholders have questioned why “Golden” was not included in the marketing and communication re-brand strategy. Our research showed that athletes, past and current have great pride in playing for Queen’s, but that they self-identified and promoted their respective programs through an affiliation to Queen’s rather than a moniker (i.e. “Queen’s Football /Basketball/Hockey/Rowing, etc. vs Queen’s Golden Gaels.)
The research also showed that a majority of respondents did not like how the “Golden Gaels” name was incorporated into the brand – and a good number did not understand how it fit with the essence of a “Gael”.
Interestingly, many respondents questioned the meaning/relevance of a “golden gael” – with many believing that it was a bird. It became clear that “owning” the colour gold – not the name – was more important than the adjective.
The Golden Gaels will never fade. The name and the many athletes, coaches and teams that played as Golden Gaels are an important part of our history – and the nickname may well be an important part of our future, this discussion will be engaged in Phase 2 of our re-brand process..
Phase 2 will include a consideration of the monikers, nicknames, mascots and secondary logo’s that are complimentary to the primary logo – and at that time, the use of the term “golden” will certainly be presented for discussion, with comments solicited from all of stakeholder groups.
In the meantime, the Gaels will display their golden vision through their new home uniforms, which are all in gold. And, of course, we will continue to honour the history of our alumni, while moving forward to support the new traditions created by today’s students – our future leaders.
What has the response been to the new brand?
Overall we've had a tremendously postive response. We recognize it takes some time for everyone to get used to a new brand, and we are fine-tuning here and there. As one example, clothing bearing the new logo is popular both on and off campus — September merchandise sales are ten times greater than our previous year total sales.
Feedback from our teams would indicate that they also like the look of their new uniforms and especially like that the logo, colours and uniform styles are unique to the culture of their sport while having a consistent look across the family of sports. A primary goal of the re-brand was to ensure that Queen’s teams were highly identifiable – we believe this is an area where we really hit the mark. Our new relationship with adidas has also added a very positive element.
We have also received positive comments on the logo and uniforms from many of our competitors, sponsors and supporters both on campus and off.
It’s been 6 weeks from the Brand Launch - would you have done anything different?
In retrospect there are always ways to improve on what you have done. One area that could have been strengthen is to communicate better and more concisely the process, recommendations and the decisions we have made with respect to our marketing and communication strategy – not having had this information available has led to some confusion.
To allow our stakeholder groups to have a more full understanding of the process and to provide updates as we move along we have built a special section on our new website (gogaelsgo.com) that contains additional information on our re-branding efforts. We look forward to the ongoing interest and feedback from our community.
What’s the next step?
We need to get comfortable with our new brand, and be sure that our strategy is clear and successful – and we anticipate that this process will ideally take between 18 and 24 months. Once we are assured that the brand is solidly integrated and accepted, we will move forward with Phase II.
Want to know more? View the powerpoint summary of our branding process and other related information
