{"id":81,"date":"2018-10-04T09:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T16:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999921367"},"modified":"2018-10-04T09:49:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T16:49:02","slug":"long-beach-state-csulb-branding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/long-beach-state-csulb-branding","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach State or CSULB? A proposal for the university&#8217;s branding problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Cal State Long Beach student-journalist Alex Manfredi tweeted a picture from the university\u2019s bookstore earlier this week. There\u2019s a new display there, featuring shirts and hats with a squirrel logo and the text \u201cLong Beach State.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">So I guess we\u2019re the LBSU Squirrels now? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/c0bbwoxFSg\">pic.twitter.com\/c0bbwoxFSg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Manfredi (@alexmanfr3di) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alexmanfr3di\/status\/1047273623969357824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 2, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The confusion is understandable. The local university has always been plagued with what marketing professionals would call \u201cbranding issues,\u201d which is a fancy way of saying \u201cnobody knows what to call you.\u201d The school was founded as Salinas-Orange County State College then changed its name to Long Beach State College then changed its name to California State College at Long Beach then changed its name to California State College, Long Beach then changed its name to California State University, Long Beach. Throughout those many changes its sports teams have primarily been known as \u201cLong Beach State.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The school has had two color schemes: its original brown and gold, and the black and gold worn by teams today.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The school and its sports teams have had several mascots, from Nugget the Donkey to the 49ers to Prospector Pete to the Dirtbags to, simply, \u201cThe Beach,\u201d the current athletic department-preferred moniker for its teams, although the vast majority of fans we talk to still use \u201c49ers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the 69 years the school has been around, it\u2019s averaged a name change every 11 and a half years or so and a mascot change every 14 years. So Manfredi can be forgiven for thinking he might soon be watching the Squirrels play in the Pyramid.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the history of the school, there\u2019s arguably never been more confusion around branding than there is at this specific moment. The college currently refers to itself as both CSULB and Long Beach State. The school\u2019s official instagram handle is CSUlongbeach, but the display name for that page is Long Beach State University.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_999921369\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-999921369\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-999921369 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/LBSU-Instagram-McDonald-970x582.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-999921369\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A recent post featuring soccer player Imani McDonald read \u201cI\u2019m a student at CSULB. I\u2019m a LBSU soccer player.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Respectfully, that doesn\u2019t make any sense. Marketing and branding are about simplicity and recognizability. Nike: one logo, one name. Apple: one logo, one name. That\u2019s not Marketing 101, that\u2019s the information that the professor assumes you already know when you walk into the Marketing 101 class. The university already has tons going for it: a great history, a great city, and an \u201cLB\u201d logo that\u2019s known worldwide. It just needs to figure out how to put the confusion to bed and forge ahead behind one identity.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So with that said, we took a crack at answering the biggest questions facing our shared alma mater\u2014whatever its name may be.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">What\u2019s the school called?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Great question. The kind of thing you\u2019d ideally like to be sure of before writing a tuition check or buying season tickets.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">We are strong believers that the school should be Long Beach State, in any and all branding\u2014for sports and academics, on the diplomas and the signs leading into school. The reasons are simple: there is an enormous amount of pride in the city of Long Beach, and virtually no pride in the CSU system from anyone that isn\u2019t employed by it.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Former president F. King Alexander often told us that the school\u2019s professors were the stumbling block in switching from CSULB to Long Beach State, as they felt that California was a better brand to be associated with than Long Beach.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">We obviously disagree.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A few notes: a Google Trends analysis shows that CSULB is the most popular search result out of CSULB, Long Beach State, Cal State Long Beach, and LBSU. That makes sense given that it\u2019s currently the official name of the school. But if you look at a geographic analysis, almost literally no one outside of California has searched CSULB. The school\u2019s national brand is already Long Beach State\u2014it\u2019s by far the leading search result in every area besides Southern California.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_999921370\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-999921370\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-999921370\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/CSULB-LBSU-Trends-970x473.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"293\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-999921370\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google Trends analysis of branding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_999921373\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-999921373\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-999921373\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/TRENDSBYSTATE-970x388.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"240\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-999921373\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google search trends by state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Putting the school\u2019s best foot forward with \u201cLong Beach\u201d instead of \u201cCSU\u201d (the second-best public university system in California!) would also take a big step towards unifying the school with the city, something programs like the<a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/college-promise-2-direct-path-csulb-lbcc\/\"> Long Beach College Promise<\/a> have sought to do. Alexander and current president Jane Close Conoley have both talked about the need to bridge the \u201cAtherton divide\u201d between the school and the rest of the city. Becoming Long Beach State would help.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Similar moves have already paid big dividends for schools like San Diego State and Fresno State, who have much more recognizable brands nationwide and locally than they did when they were CSUSD and CSUF.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">What\u2019s the school\u2019s mascot?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hoo boy. Here we go.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The university recently posted a mock-obituary for Prospector Pete and Conoley<a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/csulb-prospector-pete-new-mascot-referendum\/\"> has confirmed<\/a> that the iconic lower-campus statue of Pete is being removed and relocated. Where is it going? To a building that hasn\u2019t been built yet. We\u2019re taking that as a pretty strong sign that Pete is gone for good, and we\u2019re starting from that assumption. We\u2019d love to see a tree where the statue was\u2014alums who are pissed about its removal can stop there to pay their respects.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"D00Gt0XxAM\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/csulb-prospector-pete-new-mascot-referendum\">Prospector Pete is officially out, CSULB president says\u2014but it&#8217;ll be messy<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Prospector Pete is officially out, CSULB president says\u2014but it&#8217;ll be messy&#8221; &#8212; Long Beach Post News\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/csulb-prospector-pete-new-mascot-referendum\/embed\/#?secret=mJjgL4v0DZ#?secret=D00Gt0XxAM\" data-secret=\"D00Gt0XxAM\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The CSU system has requested that schools move away from using people as mascots. Fortunately, numbers aren\u2019t people. We\u2019ve been referring to the school\u2019s teams as the 49ers even over the last few years when university releases started referring to them as \u201cthe Beach,\u201d and we\u2019ll continue to do so until we stop seeing \u201cLong Beach State 49ers\u201d on ESPN when the school plays televised games.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">With campus sentiment aligned against the gold rush and prospectors generally, there\u2019s no reason that \u201c49ers\u201d can\u2019t simply represent 1949, the year the school was founded. That is, after all, why that name was originally chosen anyway. We aren\u2019t in favor of actually referring to teams as the 1949\u2019rs, which has been suggested, for the aforementioned marketing reasons\u2014shorter and simpler is better.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">We also aren\u2019t in favor of the path the school has forged, referring to its sports teams as \u201cthe Beach.\u201d The reason for that is simple: We are writers, and \u201cthe Long Beach State 49ers beach volleyball team\u201d is a lot easier on the brain than \u201cthe Long Beach State Beach beach volleyball team.\u201d Reversing course from the Beach to the 49ers would require a shift in direction from the athletic department, but as we\u2019ve already discussed, naming shifts happen pretty regularly anyway.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Even though \u201cDirtbags\u201d are technically human mascots, we\u2019re not in favor of changing the name of the school\u2019s best-known sports team.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">If \u201c49ers\u201d is to be erased from campus as it\u2019s been erased from the school\u2019s jerseys, we\u2019d prefer choosing a completely new mascot, as opposed to using the \u201cBeach\u201d moniker. Nugget the Donkey is likely still available, or the school could pick an entirely new animal. We\u2019d suggest the Japanese Garden\u2019s Koi fish as an original and somewhat unique option\u2014better than squirrels anyway, which inhabit every college campus and park in the country.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Keeping the 49ers would also save the school some effort. A change to that name campus-wide would require renaming the Daily 49er newspaper, the 49er Shops, the Nugget, the Outpost, the Gold Mine Gym, the school\u2019s famous and beloved 49er Camps, and the school\u2019s 49er Foundation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">How do we get the word out?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For one thing, the university needs to get on the same page. That\u2019s easier said than done given that the campus is really a series of interlocking fiefdoms with occasionally overlapping interests. Conoley\u2019s executive committee regularly gets the main players together and should make it easier to get everyone saying the same thing.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It appears that the school is three years or so into a four- or five-year process of renaming itself Long Beach State. Let\u2019s not wait, and just do it today. Spend the money to change the signs, the website names, and the email addresses\u2014we\u2019ve been a part of corporate restructuring that included all of those things, and it\u2019s easier than it sounds. It will be worth it to not log onto<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csulb.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.csulb.edu\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1538755924110000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG2dbMbgWratk4t99hgt9113M9-Xw\"> www.csulb.edu<\/a> and see references to both names all over the place, or to see high school athletes announce that they\u2019re going to attend CSULB to play basketball at Long Beach State.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Almost more important than what the school does is how it does it. The message should be articulated clearly and strongly. At the start of the spring semester this year, every student on campus should know what school they go to and what its mascot is. No shadow transitions, no subtlety.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s worth remembering that whether the school is the Long Beach State Beach or the Cal State Long Beach 49ers, somebody\u2019s going to be mad. Hell, some people still long for the return of the brown and gold color scheme, which has always been reminiscent to us of midnight diaper changes.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The biggest constant in the school\u2019s history is change. Beloved traditions have frequently come about on a whim. \u201cGo Beach!\u201d is echoed all over campus, but it\u2019s literally just a phrase former president Bob Maxson started saying one day. Students wear shirts saying they Bleed Black &amp; Gold, but that color scheme exists because football coach George Allen walked on campus and said, \u201cBrown and gold\u2019s ugly, make it black and gold instead\u201d and wiped away 40 years of history.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Change is inevitable, it\u2019s always happening. We say speed it up, and make the next change at least feel like a final decision. Then communicate it clearly to students, professors, and fans. That way even if they don\u2019t like whatever the decision is, they\u2019ll know they\u2019ve been dealt with fairly.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As for us? When people ask, we say we went to Long Beach State, and that we cover the 49ers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The local university has always been plagued with what marketing professionals would call \u201cbranding issues,\u201d which is a fancy way of saying \u201cnobody knows what to call you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":16435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-long-beach-state","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}