The New U-M AD CMO and His Priorities

As long as we don't see the likes of:

"The Rivalry, brought to you by Taco Bell"

or

"Michigan Stadium, built by the Home Depot"

I'll support his plans.

I like the idea to sell out Crisler Arena.  In the post-1980 era of college athletics, and especially in the information age, recruiting is a 365-days-a-year process.  It's important to keep the "brand" visible and successful as long as possible.  Basketball helps continue the momentum from football season and it keeps the name of the school in the news from November all the way to March for the most successful programs.  The renovations and addition of new scoreboards to the main three arenas won't hurt either.

I agree with everyone else that I would hate to see other corporate brands making a bigger presence than the Block M.  And what I an understanding from the interview is the goal of making the Michigan brand more prevalent would actually be the opposite of "whoring it out to corporate sponsors so their brands gain larger presence at the expense of the Michigan brand in exchange for filthy lucre"

To sum up more directly, Lochmann's stated goal is the opposite of what everyone fears.

Now, does the Athletic Department need to generate revenue?  You bet it does!  Olympic Class swimming pools don't just build themselves.  To attract world class athletes to Michigan you need world class facilities, which means you need a world class business plan.

I'm sure that many fans complained about how Don Canham changed things by merchandizing the Michigan Logo.  Now we not only enjoy wearing T-shirts with Mighigan logos on them, but the University makes a lot of money from us fans just from purchasing the Michigan product we know and love.

I agree with everyone else that I would hate to see other corporate brands making a bigger presence than the Block M. And what I an understanding from the interview is the goal of making the Michigan brand more prevalent would actually be the opposite of "whoring it out to corporate sponsors so their brands gain larger presence at the expense of the Michigan brand in exchange for filthy lucre"

To sum up more directly, Lochmann's stated goal is the opposite of what everyone fears.

Now, does the Athletic Department need to generate revenue? You bet it does! Olympic Class swimming pools don't just build themselves. To attract world class athletes to Michigan you need world class facilities, which means you need a world class business plan.

I'm sure that many fans complained about how Don Canham changed things by merchandizing the Michigan Logo. Now we not only enjoy wearing T-shirts with Mighigan logos on them, but the University makes a lot of money from us fans just from purchasing the Michigan product we know and love.

I love that his focus is on Brand Management. I hate that he has no experience in Brand Management.

Brand Management does not equal marketing, and definitely does not equal sports marketing, and definitely, definitely does not equal sports marketing for the Knicks.

I've spend 15 years in marketing, 5 of those have been in Brand Management. My first 10 years did very little to prepare me for the last 5, and would have been pointless without an MBA...

Marketing is a subset of Brand Management, and if you don't understand that nuance, you end up making poor tradeoffs that result in a guy in an Arby's fries costume hanging out at the Big House...

Brand Management is about building sustainable brand health that will in turn lead to long term brand profitability. Marketers without that training tend to make short term decisions versus looking at the big picture, in my experience anyway (that's the way I viewed the world for 10 years)...

Confidence level low that this ends well...

Brand Management is near the heart of every major university's alumni association, endowment fund, and admissions office.  To expect big-time athletics to be any different would be . . . different.  Like other posters, I hope it doesn't get tacky, stupid, and embarrassing.  But it's inevitable, and I think needed.  Basketball was down for a long time after the Fab Five era went south, and football has taken some bad hits in both Carr's last few years and in Rich Rod's brief stint.  

I don't know anything about Hunter Lochmann but assume that Brandon has some confidence in Mr. Lochmann's brand.  It would have been very cool if, by chance his name were Hunter Thompson.  Imagine Gonzo Brand Management or Fear and Loathing in Columbus or The Hell's Sparties. 

Sometimes I really miss the Sixties.

This would be way less of a big deal if there was a football playoff of 3 or more rounds. Even Commissioners like Delaney and Slive who are scared of a playoff, admit it would result in revenues far exceeding the current system for their member teams. 

Athletic departments are forced to obsess over egghead accounting and brand issues because college football currently ignores tens of millions of dollars extra per school that a playoff would create.  Football is the generator that makes the other sports possible. The only dispute on the numbers is how much of a massive profit for everyone.  The greed of the big conferences keeps the pie small.

Currently, these teams go off and lose money on these pointless bowl games. Walking over the dollars to get to the dimes.   

Their increased marketing efforts are already having a positive effect. Michigan has made a clear effort to get more people to attend basketball games this year with some very effective promotions. I noticed they've done some little marketing related things to spruce up the big house -- like spent a little bit of money on concession signage so that you might actually be enticed to eat some food at the concession stand next year. 

There's still the threat of these marketing guys making dumb moves, but Michigan's made only a token effort to market their athletic programs for the last 15+ years, so there's been some real low hanging fruit.

I think the department has done a decent job this year marketing some games with email blasts and special offers.  I haven't looked at the numbers but I'm confident the average attendance this year is greater than last year, in spite of the fact that last year's team was ranked at the beginning of the year and the current team was expected to miss any and all postseason tournaments.  Wasn't the weekend game against the Hoosiers sold out?  How often would you expect a sellout against one of the Big Ten's worst teams?

My inclination would be to agree with those who have said that some of the things already in progress will help - like the anticipated improvement of next year's team (potentially ranked in the preseason top 25?), renovations that are ongoing, including the apparent new video boards inside Crisler in place for next year, people wanting to check out the new facility next door, etc.

Beyond that I anticipate more email marketing, t-shirt giveaway promotions, smaller ticket packages, and so on to help fill the place.  It may not fully happen until Crisler itself is finished with renovations, depending on how good the team is then.  Of course, by the the Fab Five will be able to come back and that certainly won't hurt.

"I want to sell out Crisler," he said. "That's a personal agenda. I've got to get to the bottom of why that doesn't happen. I want to get into the data on why people don't come to the games."

OMG, maybe he should look at the W/L record. The B'Ball team has only made the NCAA tournament once in about a zillion years. Could that possibly be a reason Crisler is not sold out?!

If this is an example of this guys expertise, we are doomed (I tell ya, doomed).

If he can push an Android-friendly app that streams the live game audio of mgoblue.com and pushes to get more hockey games on national tv stations/streaming then I will gladly go to a Tim Horton's tailgate or Arby's Spring Game.