The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(02-03-2023 12:25 PM)BroncoMD Wrote:  

(01-31-2023 04:56 PM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(01-30-2023 03:54 PM)BroncoFan2 Wrote:  

(01-30-2023 03:35 PM)Brownandgoldlaker Wrote:  

(01-30-2023 01:40 AM)BroncoMinor Wrote:  Someone believing a logo can't face left is just as irrational as someone boycotting a a logo because it faces right.

A big part of establishing recognizable brand is familiarity. A excellent observation of this was in this article:

Western Michigan is renovating its logo and color scheme, The strongest brand in the MAC https://www.hustlebelt.com/2021/6/7/2251...mi-maction

Now the article focuses on sports, but the same can be said about the academic side. Institutions/organizations/company's spend years developing a brand. Once established, unless there is something super negative about a brand, the successful do not make a lot of changes, if any at all.

Proudfoot and company never established any sound marketing rational or reasoning for making any changes to our brand. Specifically, what was wrong with our brand and how WMU was perceived? There was no proper research done to tell us this.

It's never been about whether or not the Bronco spirit mark should be running East or West, rather, it was about the logic as to why they changed the direction, "to be in the same direction as other schools spirit marks?", which is what we are told, along with the fact the Bronco is now running "forward", which is suppose to tell everyone WMU is heading in a new direction (as is your subconscious actually recognizes this?). Find me any qualified marketing or graphic design specialist that will tell you this, you wont.

From a marketing and a graphic design stand point, you strive to create unique images in which your brand imagery is set apart from competitors. Since most schools spirit mark runs East, having ours going West helped differentiate our brand from our competitors. Make sense, right?

Same with logic of changing the color of the gold from a Vegas/Nugget Gold to a Yellow/Athletic "gold because of a song and flower"? And the logic/reasoning to reduce the number of colors from 7 to 3 and now 2?

None of these changes should have been made, because they do nothing to enhance or improved how our brand is viewed. And from an executional standpoint, it's a big step backwards.

Yep, all true.

Proudfoot enacted change for the sake of change (and to bolster his resume). It has backfired spectacularly, and exposed his fragile ego. Nobody likes working with that guy - they tolerate him. He was hoping to use WMU as a stepping stone. Now we are stuck with him because of the terrible job he's done with the rebrand.

As far as I'm concerned, that's enough. He can go away now.

And the only reason this guy still has a job is Montgomery signed off on all this....

Great points, BrownandgoldLaker. Plus, the rebrand gets implemented while cutting costs across the board including faculty and staff. In addition, they burden their alumni and fans in order to purchase the new gear to replace logos most people loved. And they still want their annual donation?

That last part is kinda ridiculous. I want to purchase new Broncos gear and I have regularly purchased new Bronco gear whenever I make it back to Kalamazoo. Since, they rebranded to the circle W, I've purchased $0 worth of new Broncos gear.