I actually feel bad for Mr. Cook. I think he does a good job considering what he has to work with.

Aggies are pretty hard to market. Heck our "you can't understand it from the outside...." motto might as well be "frick Marketing Ourselves."

I could see the job being very demoralizing. As an outside marketing guy the first week you would push to make a few tweaks (FEMALE CHEERLEADERS) to make the brand more palatable and universal and those in charge would shoot down all your ideas. One would quickly grow frustrated and give up when faced with such obstacles to marketing success, as those before him have done. We want to be weird and different, but that is a marketer's nightmare.

Given those restrictions Mr. Cook has done well. He knew our brand was ruined in the Big 12, so he pushed for the SEC to get a new marketing angle. When the SEC thing happened he has worked as hard as possible to assimilate the more palatable SEC brand into the greater Aggie brand. Maybe in a few years instead of being the "gay cultists" to outsiders we will be "just another big SEC school" which will sell three times as many T-shirts.

Is he perfect? Hell no. Obviously the recent video while he was away was a mistake (though it got pulled off Youtube as soon as he was back in CS), and I think he relies too much on inside talent to make things like billboards and advertisements. Time to just admit Aggies as a whole are not that creative and bid the jobs out to Mizzou grads or someone who has shown to be more competent in such matters.

But given the huge number of restrictions he has to work with I think he does a good job, and might actually improve our brand in his tenure despite ourselves.

This post was edited on 7/5/12 at 3:10 pm

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Posted by ShaneTheLegLechler

Member since Dec 2011

60221 posts

Posted on 7/5/12 at 3:16 pm to cardboardboxer

Marketing ourselves is a hell of a lot easier when you're winning as well, which is another luxury he hasn't been afforded. I know, Olympic championships and shite, but when people think of A&M athletic programs they think of football first and foremost, whether it be in a positive or negative light, and lately it hasn't been very positive as far as results go.

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Posted by genuineLSUtiger

Nashville

Member since Sep 2005

73010 posts

Posted on 7/5/12 at 10:43 pm to cardboardboxer

quote:
We want to be weird and different, but that is a marketer's nightmare.

You can't compare marketing a college football team's brand with marketing laundry detergent. What makes college football great is the fact that every school with any tradition has things which are unique to that school and look weird and different to opposing fans. But that unique "weirdness" is what makes the schools athletic program attractive on a national level to opposing fans and their programs. It is what defines college football and what makes it great. The Aggie's so-called "weirdness of traditions" are what make them a potentially great national brand and is also what made it an attractive program for the SEC to pursue. I think the Arkansas tradition of "calling the hogs" is ridiculous, but it is sacred to them and ironically the uniqueness of it is what makes Arkansas a potentially great national brand amongst other things despite the grief I and other opposing fans give them on this board.