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« Thursday « May 14, 2009
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Seeing Pink, Branding Pink
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So it turns out that my Scarlet Letter rebranding dream for Major League Baseball (MLB) isn't so far-fetched after all. Just this past Sunday, in honor of Mother's Day, MLB teamed up with one of their sponsors, Susan G. Komen for the Cure to help in the fight against Breast Cancer.
And pink was the color of the day.
In the manly sport of hardball, where there ain't no crying' no less.
Some players sported pink arm bands, and uniforms were patched with pink ribbons. One player, Houston Astros third baseman Lance Berkman, used a pink limited-edition bat from the Louisville Slugger Company. For fans, there were mascots wearing pink, contests and giveaways to win pink hats, pink T-shirts, and even more pink limited-edition bats.
But most-telling from a branding perspective for MLB, the brand that I've already argued is in need of a rebranding, is that they took their logo...and turned it pink! As longtime San Francisco sports talk radio host Gary Radnich often says, "Who does that? Who has time?" I'd love to see the brand guidelines which drove that decision. (Aside, if you visit the page captured in the screenshot above, you'll see three different MLB logos on the page, it's branding run amuck.) Is there a pink exception for the logo? What if someone wants to use it in fuchsia? Lime green? Burnt umber? Sure, some uses of the logo may call for adjustments, for example in the black-and-white enviroment of a traditional newspaper, the MLB logo can't appear in full color, but pink?
The breast cancer awareness promotion is a highly-worthwhile community-building activity for MLB. It's great that baseball is involved in raising lots of money that will ultimately save lives. But if you take the very symbol that represents your organization and alter it just to fit one promotion, what does that say about how you're managing brand? There's this key concept at the heart of branding called consistency.
And if you can go pink, then why not scarlet?
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