Super Bowl or Branding/Name Change?

[skinsmarydu]

Never bash Chevy. My other rule.

To me, we're Washington. Period.

 

[HTTR]

I hate Snyder and his C-name with every fiber of my being, but root for a playoff loss to get rid of it??? Hell no!

I hope they resolve the issue one way or another this off season. The controversy has to end. I REALLY hope for a new permanent name, but if we are stuck with the current one I’ll do my best to cope and hopefully one day I can tolerate it.

 

[DogofWar1]

The only thing that makes me iffy on a win is it's like peaking too early and we'd chase that high the rest of his career unless we won further SBs.

But like that's future me's therapist's problem, for right now and forever you always go for that ring.

Besides, it's not like losing would change the name. This team is already the most successful one in at least 19 years, arguably 33 years. Merch is gonna sell like crazy. They won't change anything while it's making wads of cash and it's gonna make insane money as long as JD5 is here. So there's no window to change anything.

ALSO Commanders can be a perfectly good brand. They just have to work on it a bit.

Like this wildcard matchup could have been the perfect setup. Commander is a Naval title, originally Master-and-Commander. And we were up against the Buccaneers. Perfect mascot battle. But we haven't evolved the brand enough. So I think there's a lot of potential with Commanders we haven't tapped, but I do not expect it to be going anywhere.

 

[mistertim]

You're rooting against a Superbowl victory because you can't get over your butthurtness about the name. Can't make this stuff up.

 

[Spearfeather]

Like I've said before, I think and certainly hope, we'll get more clarity on this when Clouse is formally announced as new team President sometime soon after the Super Bowl.

 

[burgold]

ALSO Commanders can be a perfectly good brand. They just have to work on it a bit.

On that note, how hard would it have been to take the image below and turn it into a W.

 

[HTTR]

I really don’t think the fact that they are selling jerseys right now is an argument for keeping the name. No matter how many they are selling, I can almost guarantee they can and will be selling more with a better brand. Personally speaking, I know I will go from buying nothing to a spending spree if we get a new name. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone on that.

 

[Spearfeather]

I know, it's Snider, and I have no idea how much new revenue a good re-brand would generate, but give him two minutes.

 

[hail2skins]

I'll use this thread to go into the BGO confessional.

I'm a bad fan. Been following this team for 50 years and went to almost every home game at Landover from 1997-2018.....but, I'm a bad fan. Started in the 2008 ill-fated Zorn season when, on the one-year anniversary of Sean Taylor's death (and I'm not a ST-stan that thinks he rates a statue), the team looked uninspired in a 23-7 loss to the Giants at home. Something snapped that day, and since, I haven't really been able to get emotional about this team at all. Got a little bit pumped in 2012 with the RG3 excitement, but didn't exactly lose sleep when they lost to Seattle.

Over the next 15+ seasons its pretty much been the same. Working a shift job for the past six years was a good reason to cut ties with going to the games. But still have gone out to bars to watch, but its become so detached. And its just not the mediocrity of the Skins, but the mediocrity of the league in general. The lack of tackling. The terrible clock manangement. The nature of the league changing to where it is so geared toward the offense (Belichick had a short rant on the Manningcast last night when Stafford's shovel pass as he was getting sacked should've at least been IG).

And then this team rebrands first to the WFT, then to the awful Commanders. What especially grated me was how they still try to insert Commanders into the Redskins traditions. Keeping the HTTR song and making it HTTC. The "Hail Storm" written on the end zone walls at the stadium. It just does not work for me.

But this season, after the past several years of watching games at bars where its felt like morgues, with no excitement whatsoever from patrons (and you'd have more fans watching the games where their team has been a participant), this year has been......something. Watching the excitement of people. Seeing more gear being worn around town,

And Sunday, I had to work and then went to church, but then stopped at a Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game. And the patron excitement was taken to another level altogether. Cheers exploding after every big play. A group of young fans at a table, arms interlocked, waiting in anticipation as Gonzalez kick went through. And exploding in jubilation.

And I literally cried for the joy that is being experienced by these young fans. And for myself for being a curnudgeon.

So Commanders is a winning brand right now. I doubt it is changed anytime soon.

 

[Spearfeather]

So Commanders is a winning brand right now. I doubt it is changed anytime soon.

A new better brand would be a winning brand, also.
It's not like a new name is going to make us start losing.
Those people that are excited about the team, aren't going anywhere.

 

[HTTR]

A new better brand would be a winning brand, also.
It's not like a new name is going to make us start losing.
Those people that are excited about the team, aren't going anywhere.

Exactly! Why settle for winning with a crappy name when we can win with a much better one? As a bonus, we exorcise Snyder, put the name controversy to bed for good, and Harris and company get to sell even more jerseys than they already are. Win win win.

 

[Knightingale]

ALSO Commanders can be a perfectly good brand. They just have to work on it a bit.

Like this wildcard matchup could have been the perfect setup. Commander is a Naval title, originally Master-and-Commander. And we were up against the Buccaneers. Perfect mascot battle. But we haven't evolved the brand enough. So I think there's a lot of potential with Commanders we haven't tapped, but I do not expect it to be going anywhere.

While they could do more with the brand, the fact is that the name is a terrible starting point.

When I was a kid, my family were all football fans for different teams. My brother was a Buccs fan (still is), Mum was a Dolphins fan and Dad a Bengals fan. I had a ton of Redskins stuff when I was a kid and it all featured the same mascot.

Do you remember the HUDDLES mascot toys. We all had them for Christmas one year...

I'd wager maybe some of you had it too.

(Side note, I found all my old Redskins stuff in a box in my parents attic a year to so ago...Alas the mascot didn't survive. I was understandably GUTTED!)

Now the Dolphin one and the Bengals one are, let's face it... adorable. The Redskin one, while not as cute, is clearly what it is and to a kid who ran around the playground playing (the now no doubt politically incorrect) Cowboys and Indians back in the day, it was absolutely recognisable for what it was.

The worst of the bunch... The Buccaneers... I mean... It's very flamboyant, but hardly screams out 'buy me for your child!'

The damning things about the Commanders, is that it's hard to shorten unless you go with Commies or Manders and both are awful.
Any Mascot/character you come up with will be terrible. Case in point Major Tuddy. I honestly think that was the best they could do and it's utterly terrible.

While it's true, those Daniels jerseys are flying off the shelves, what do you buy for the little kids? A Major Tuddy stuffed doll?
Where's our identity? What is a 'Commander'? Is it a naval thing? Is it an Army thing? Is it modern military or old style Master and Commander?

It's just a noun. No more than that.

If we went, for sake of argument, with Red Wolves, or Werewolves, then the very word immediatly conjures an image. We all know what a wolf looks like. We can all howl like one. There's a million different pop culture references to piggy back off.

And the merch for the kids would be a whole lot cuter/cooler than a pig in a helmet which only really means something if you understand the 'Hogs' reference.

Commanders has always felt like a lazy exercise in rebranding to me. No thought went into it. It's like someone there decided to lock into a military theme and then they just rolled with it from there with no real thought to what the fans wanted or needed. (On some level I wonder how much of this was pushed by Rivera, being an ex-military man). I have nothing against a military themed name, but couldn't it have been snappier somehow than Commanders?
And couldn't our logo have been more tied into the identity somehow? Make it look like a rank badge or something!

Anyway, rant over.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

While they could do more with the brand, the fact is that the name is a terrible starting point.

When I was a kid, my family were all football fans for different teams. My brother was a Buccs fan (still is), Mum was a Dolphins fan and Dad a Bengals fan. I had a ton of Redskins stuff when I was a kid and it all featured the same mascot.

Do you remember the HUDDLES mascot toys. We all had them for Christmas one year...
...

Great post. I also wonder if Rivera had something to do with the pick. I have worked at companies with weak leadership before, and I could definitely see this kind of thing happening in that time period of the team.

 

[SkinsOrlando]

Put the old logo on the helmet, leave it as Commanders - compromise

 

[Knightingale]

To whit, some interesting analyses of the branding.. Alot of them echo my sentiments on it. Interesting reading if you want to pass a few minutes of time.

I literally just googled it and picked the first bunch.

Case Study 1

This one is interesting: Case Study 2

Can't get the images to load on this one, but the text is interesting (and damning!) Case Study 3

Another one: Case Study 4

The deeper I dive, the more difficult it is to find one that likes the branding at all...

This one is positive, though to me it sounds a lot like marketing Bulls**t: Case Study 5

Here's another one that's more neutral: Case Study 6

Here's a Graphic Design forum talking about it. Some of teh comments are amusing LOL: Forum Chat

And now I'm going to stop going down this particular rabbit hole. LOL

 

[MassSkinsFan]

To whit, some interesting analyses of the branding.. Alot of them echo my sentiments on it. Interesting reading if you want to pass a few minutes of time.

And now I'm going to stop going down this particular rabbit hole. LOL

I'm going in! If no one hears from me in a week or so, send Sam Hartman to get me.

 

[MassSkinsFan]

I'm back. It was an interesting read. I laughed out loud when reading the positive article that says they nailed the rebrand, especially the part about how the fans' voices were heard during the name brainstorming process. From where I was sitting, it appeared more like the team asked for input, thanked the fans, then did what they planned to do from the get-go.

Anyway, I'm no fan of the name, as it is very meh. However, I could live with it if they would re-do the unis: use one of the older styles and incorporate the black scheme to match. A new logo that ties into the military theme (the Pentagon? George Patton? DC?) would probably help. That would make me much happier. It hurts watching this great team wearing those amateurish white jerseys with pink-looking numbers and no gold (and don't get me going about the Washington Steelers). Blech.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I know, it's Snider, and I have no idea how much new revenue a good re-brand would generate, but give him two minutes.

I think I'm going to make a thread with all the media members I despise and why. But Mr. 2 Minutes was, by all accounts, one of the prime culprits of stealing stories from other reporters while he was with the Post and not crediting them. The Post got fairly famous for this back in the day.

I don't have no 2 minutes for Snider. He can take his Snide Remarks and shove them.

Currently, he generally just copies Keim or some other reporter

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I'm (maybe?) in the minority.

Give me a ring.

I don't care about the name.

There was a good name, it's gone and not coming back.

There is no other good name.

Most names in the NFL are bland and stupid. I've been through this before:

Birds: Falcons, Eagles, Seahawks, Cardinals, Ravens.
Big other animals: Lions, Tigers (Bengals) and Bears (oh my!) + Dolphins, Jaguars, Panthers, Rams, Colts, Broncos
City/state/regionally specific specific: Patriots, 49ers, Commanders (kindof?), Texans, Packers, Steelers, Saints
Named after dudes: Browns, Bills
Pirates and other rapists and murderers: Raiders, Bucs, Vikings
Stupid: Titans
Other: Giants, Jets, Chiefs (grump), Chargers,

14 of 32 teams are named after animals. 5 are named after birds.

All the names are boring until they have history.

If anything, I'd like them to go back to a more traditional look. But other than that, I don't give a hoot if they're called Commanders, Washington Football Team, or scumbags.

 

[Spearfeather]

There is no other good name

But, is there at least one better than Commanders ?

... I don't give a hoot if they're called Commanders, Washington Football Team, or scumbags.

Just picturing someone asking you who your team is, and you proudly proclaiming
" Scumbags ! "