re: South Carolina has a new helmet with a new logo

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South Carolina Changes Its "Official" Color
By Doug Jolley
GamecockAnthem.com
Posted Apr 7, 2008

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The decision is part of the marketing strategy by USC to more strongly brand the South Carolina Gamecocks as a distinct entity in the sports marketplace. Research by South Carolina found that on the heels of North Carolina’s basketball success of the last half century, surveys have found most sports fans nationally identify “Carolina” as North Carolina.” It also found that Southern Cal, one of the nation’s preeminent sports programs, is both nationally and even regionally here in the South more closely identified with USC than South Carolina is.

After finding out those results from their research, Crane and his marketing team gathered feedback from students, alumni, coaches and others about how South Carolina identifies itself.

USC Athletic Director Eric Hyman made a presentation last August to a coaches focus group and asked for their opinions. He told the Charleston Post and Courier that, “We wanted to include as many people as we could in this....We all want to be in concert, in harmony.”

What is unique to South Carolina is their mascot, “Gamecocks,” and so a decision was made to emphasize “Gamecocks” in all university and athletic department branding. Changes already made include changing the name of the athletic department’s official website from “uscsports.com” to “gamecocksonline.com.” The familiar Block C logo now must include the words “South Carolina” and “Gamecocks” below it. Another change is that every time the university is referred to as “South Carolina,” “Carolina” or “USC,” licensees must also include “Gamecocks” on that product.

“It’s not like we’re doing away with USC or Carolina,” Jeff Crane told the Post and Courier. “They’ll still be a part of what we say and the cheers at the games and those things. But we’re looking at it in terms of the message we’re conveying.”

The athletic department’s goal is to eliminate confusion in the marketplace about the brands, and set the Gamecock programs up as easily and uniquely identifiable as possible.

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