New Brands in Sports

No matter if you're promoting butter, bourbon or basketball tickets, marketers know how brands play a key role in driving sales. Branding in sports is a funny thing - uniforms are instant brand identifiers but teams take varied approaches. Professional franchises like the New York Yankees have seemingly left their uniforms unchanged for decades. College football teams like the University of Oregon Ducks embrace an ever-changing cycle of uniforms as a main component of their brand. But a recent rebranding effort by one NBA franchise is something truly unique.

The Charlotte Hornets will be taking the court in the 2014-15 season for the first time since 2002. But the city of Charlotte has not been without an NBA during that span. You see, the Charlotte Bobcats, which have played in Charlotte since 2004, are becoming the Charlotte Hornets next season.

Perhaps a little background will help.

In 1988, the NBA welcomed the Charlotte Hornets as a new franchise. As most new franchises do, the Hornets struggled early and didn't see much success until the mid 1990s, clad in their totally '90s teal and purple uniforms. But, the owners in Charlotte grew unhappy and the franchise relocated to New Orleans after the 2001-02 season. The team took the the colors and the mascot. A few years later, another group of owners brought a completely new franchise to Charlotte and that franchise, the Bobcats, proceeded to play very uninspired basketball and has seen little success on the court. In what could be an attempt to inject new life into this struggling team, the group responsible for the Bobcats obtained the rights to the colors and name of the original Hornets franchise. The team in New Orleans adopted new colors and are now the "Pelicans".

So to recap, a basketball team in Charlotte took the name and colors of a team that still exists but plays in another city.


Teams frequently alter their uniforms these days and now "unveilings" help to make a routine exercise a little more memorable, as seen in this video on the (new) Hornet’s website. As confusing as this transition has been, I think the new unis in Charlotte will help the team develop a new identity and produce more wins. It will be interesting to see what, if any, tweaks are made to Charlotte’s new brand if winning doesn't commence soon.

{Top photo: Courtesy}

Insert Better Voice Here

Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutomb, better known as Dikembe Mutombo, rose to fame as a star center for the Georgetown Hoyas and several teams in the National Basketball Association. His professional career spanned nearly two decades before ending in 2009. During this time, Mutombo became known as a stellar defender and shot-blocker.

Originally from Africa, a great deal was always made about Mutombo’s intelligence and his ability to speak English, French and several other languages. I don’t know about his fluency in French but his deep voice and thick accent made his English difficult to take in long doses. And, judging by this recent interview, it still is:


I remember a discussion in a communications class back in college that pertained to athletes endorsing products and services. The following Charles Schwab ad that features Mutombo came up in the discussion:


If you can’t view the video, be sure to click here. It’s priceless.

During the class discussion, I pointed out that Mutombo's voice had been dubbed over. The silence and blank stares from my professor and classmates indicated that they did not believe me - probably because I had never contributed anything useful to any of our previous discussions. Unfortunately, YouTube wasn't around yet and I had no way of proving my claim.

Even though the Schwab ad is still not available on YouTube, I finally found the grainy copy that I posted above. During my search (is it weird that I've searched for several years?), I also came across this article that gives a little background to the voice swap.

Apparently, Mutombo wasn't informed that his voice didn't make the final version of the ad. He first became aware of the decision when he saw the Schwab ad air during the World Series.

Mutombo was quoted in the article as saying, “I was mad. I heard some Nigerian guy talking.”

It’s clear why the change was made and how it was successfully pulled off in 1999. However, it’s interesting to consider if such a move could be made in 2014. Avenues like social media give us inside access to celebrities and athletes all the time - we know a lot about them, especially the sound of their voices. I don’t think advertisers could pull such a fast one on today’s public.

Top photo credit: ESPN