SL Club Rebranding

[Damien]

Obviously the focus is Leigh but I found this a really interesting discussion regarding rebranding in the sport. It is humorous on the Leigh rebranding but is also very balanced.

It does reinforce the view I have long held that success plays an important part in whether a rebrand is successful. Other observations though regarding why some rebrands work and some didn't also hold true for me, particularly why rebranding at clubs that did little more than change a badge failed:

 

[Desert Skipper]

They spotted the threat and also the opportunity and acted on it. In a way that a resilient and responsible business should, rather than a typical championship RL club that has its mindset stuck in the 80s. They’re going all in, and good luck to them.

RIP Parky the Pig though.  Always wondered what a pig had to do with Leigh. Seems not much at all! 

[Futtocks]

7 hours ago, Damien said:

It does reinforce the view I have long held that success plays an important part in whether a rebrand is successful.

Success on the field helps, but a club also has to go full-on with pushing the rebrand. In the early days of SL, I'm sure we all had strong views on the new corporate nicknames and I bet few of us thought that "Rhinos" would have any staying power, for instance. And if they'd been half-hearted about it, the new brand would have died off sooner rather than later, regardless of their win/loss ratio.

But Leeds got behind it in a way that the Sharks and the Blue Sox didn't. And they made it work, with Ronnie and the whole club identity. They'd clearly been watching what had gone on with Keighley and then Bradford, who rebranded from a traditional identity before it became commonplace.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Futtocks

[The Hallucinating Goose]

When I clicked on this thread I thought it was gonna be someone breaking the news of Leigh's rebrand who somehow hadn't seen about it yet!

[gnidir]

I mean, the branding of most clubs is a bit off, as opposed to the Americans.

Yeah, there are no Raiders  in Vegas for example, but the names of the franchises over there generally have some connection to the area in which they originated. 

49ers were goldfish people, Vikings tie to the Scandinavian settlement in the Minnesota area, Packers as part of the working population of Green Bay.

Even though they are pretty dated now, they chose names to build a tie to local populations (Generally), even the Jaguars, big cats are actually in North America.

They have authenticity in the markets that they operate.

Rhinos, yes, weird, and actually, the Blue Sox, although ridiculed, wasn't that bad in comparison. 

I think we often dilute the pride in a club by choosing a name that suits either the spelling of the town name, or seems like its a tough, or cool name.

Iconic names in football exist without even being official. The Hammers, or the Irons for example, reflect the clubs origins.

 

As I understand it, Leigh were 'the comics' in the 60s and 70s, unfortunately, they seem to be that still with this latest approach.

I feel for them, as they are essentially stuck as a district of Wigan, the 'big brother' when it comes to outside perception. Yet they have abandoned their colours, which I understand Wigan adopted after Leigh. Surely if they are aiming to be a top club, then they would use that to stoke the rivalry with Wigan, which im not even sure is there anymore?

 

The NZ Kiwis originally rejected the moniker, which was put on them by the press. They felt it wasn't tough enough (possibly), but now "the kiwis" is recognised as the national Rugby League Team of New Zealand, and carries pride within it. Possibly the Leopards could grow this way...

 

But In my memory, Leigh have been the Bears, Centurions and now Leopards in their existence. Are we in the game of renaming a business every few years because its evolved? Im not Sure McDonalds, Subway, General Motors would agree (KFC might ).

 

In the general area of branding, I feel that British clubs actually need to stop trying to be NFL type entities. The unique names that many had are actually more authentic to a wider audience. I have no issue with a 'pick a name from a hat' approach, sure, if people embrace it, go hard. But something about this Leigh thing is just, well, off.

 

Wakefields return to the Trinity name I think is a good example of holding your identity in the minds of your fans, but again, has a clipart logo. 

 

I just wonder If maybe IMG , being from outside the rugby league community can have a positive impact when it comes to seeing our clubs to the general public of the UK.

 

 

 

[Damien]

8 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Success on the field helps, but a club also has to go full-on with pushing the rebrand. In the early days of SL, I'm sure we all had strong views on the new corporate nicknames and I bet few of us thought that "Rhinos" would have any staying power, for instance. And if they'd been half-hearted about it, the new brand would have died off sooner rather than later, regardless of their win/loss ratio.

But Leeds got behind it in a way that the Sharks and the Blue Sox didn't. And they made it work, with Ronnie and the whole club identity. They'd clearly been watching what had gone on with Keighley and then Bradford, who rebranded from a traditional identity before it became commonplace.

Yes that's pretty much word for word what the narrator says in the link. As I said these observations hold true and those that fully embraced a rebrand, rather than just change a badge, were more more successful with it.

They did all have success on the field too though, without that those rebrands may not have been a success. Leeds is an interesting one because in some ways they did no more than some others. It was far from what Bradford or Keighley did and bar a new mascot there wasnt anything new about the match day experience. However they had some star players like Iestyn Harris and pretty soon won their first silverware for over two decades. Obviously they then went on to compete and win much more. Without out this I'm not certain it would have been half as successful.

Looking at my own club the Warriors was a failure and it certainly was little more than a badge change. Rather differently it was associated with a period when the club declined and success was far less abundant. After the success of the early 90s it pretty much had no chance of working anyway I feel. I know the Warriors rebrand mark 2 was an attempt to change all this, and fully embrace the Warriors name, which was never done originally. There is no denying that has been done properly now. I'm still not a fan but appreciate that is subjective rather than anything being fundamentally wrong or poor.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Damien

[phiggins]

2 hours ago, gnidir said:

as they are essentially stuck as a district of Wigan, the 'big brother' when it comes to outside perception. Yet they have abandoned their colours, which I understand Wigan adopted after Leigh. Surely if they are aiming to be a top club, then they would use that to stoke the rivalry with Wigan, which im not even sure is there anymore?

You make a lot of good points, but not sure I agree with this bit. If the rivalry isn't there any more, having worn the same colours for god knows how many years now, not sure how they will be able to use clashing kit colours to stoke that rivalry now?

Given the outside perception you describe, I can understand a desire to rebrand in a way that removes similarities. And a rebrand was required, the Centurions brand was a 27 year old mistake.

[Eddie]

I’m still not sure if the Leigh rebranding is a joke or not, though it’s been going on a fair while now if it is! 

[gingerjon]

4 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I’m still not sure if the Leigh rebranding is a joke or not, though it’s been going on a fair while now if it is! 

They're definitely now called the Leopards.

The rest of it appears to be up in the air, at best.

[Dunbar]

5 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

They're definitely now called the Leopards.

They'd better be, otherwise I wasted £14 on my new domain name.

[sweaty craiq]

13 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

They're definitely now called the Leopards.

The rest of it appears to be up in the air, at best.

Why is it?

Womens team - done

Membership packs - done

15/16s development - done

Academy - requested

PDLDRL expanded - done

website - 2/3 weeks off 

mascot - done

matchday experience - done

junior Leopards - done

Squad - almost complete

Coaches - retained

Sponsors  ~ record £

name change - done

kit - to be tweaked

badge - to be tweaked 

 

Hell of a lot achieved since promotion less than 4 weeks ago imo Will it be a success- we will find out as the season unravels but the vast majority of fans are now behind it but hoping the original Cherry n Whites can be retained in the home shirt

Edited October 24, 2022 by sweaty craiq

[Damien]

To play devil's advocate a little,  and with regard to what was said in the YouTube video, Leigh are obviously going all in with embracing their rebrand, which does tick one of the core boxes in terms of making it work. They have spent money to improve in various areas and made plenty of signings which ticks another. I think the quality of things like the logo is poor though, and could have been far better, and they could have brought more fans along. Interestingly they seem to have acknowledged this with the blank canvas talk, that only started in the days after the relaunch.

I do think Leigh could have escaped much of the criticism simply by retaining the traditional home shirt colours then maybe having a leopard jersey as the away jersey and a training range encompassing leopard brand. Then obviously just having a better logo too. Again though I think Leigh staying up and competing will be a key determinant in this working. If they manage to get to a Challenge Cup final or win it then this may cement this rebrand, as odd as it may seem at the moment. 

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Why is it?

Womens team - done

Membership packs - done

15/16s development - done

Academy - requested

PDLDRL expanded - done

website - 2/3 weeks off 

mascot - done

matchday experience - done

junior Leopards - done

Squad - almost complete

Coaches - retained

Sponsors  ~ record £

name change - done

kit - to be tweaked

badge - to be tweaked 

 

Hell of a lot achieved since promotion less than 4 weeks ago imo Will it be a success- we will find out as the season unravels but the vast majority of fans are now behind it but hoping the original Cherry n Whites can be retained in the home shirt

Calm down. You'll do yourself an injury.

Yes, all aspects of the club rebrand are up in the air, it appears.

Your little screed just confirms it.]

The website being 2-3 weeks off is hilarious by the way. Proper amateur hour.

[Harry Stottle]

20 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

They're definitely now called the Leopards.

The rest of it appears to be up in the air, at best.

By what basis to you does it appear to be up in the air, at best?

[Dunbar]

8 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

website - 2/3 weeks off 

 

Blimey, I didn't realise you needed it that quick.  I will get cracking.

[gingerjon]

7 minutes ago, Damien said:

To play devil's advocate a little,  and with regard to what was said in the YouTube video, Leigh are obviously going all in with embracing their rebrand, which does tick one of the core boxes in terms of making it work. They have spent money to improve in various areas and made plenty of signings which ticks another. I think the quality of things like the logo is poor though, and could have been far better, and they could have brought more fans along. Interestingly they seem to have acknowledged this with the blank canvas talk, that only started in the days after the relaunch.

I do think Leigh could have escaped much of the criticism simply by retaining the traditional home shirt colours then maybe having a leopard jersey as the away jersey and a training range encompassing leopard brand. Then obviously just having a better logo too. Again though I think Leigh staying up and competing will be a key determinant in this working. If they manage to get to a Challenge Cup final or win it then this may cement this rebrand, as odd as it may seem at the moment. 

Leigh could have avoided a lot of criticism by getting everything together and sorted, and looking professional and high quality, instead of giving us 20 odd slides about the owner's open love for leopards.

[gingerjon]

Just now, Harry Stottle said:

By what basis to you does it appear to be up in the air, at best?

The bit where the badge isn't settled, the website isn't up (and social media is behind on what branding there is), and the kit or club colours aren't sorted.

That basis.

[Harry Stottle]

2 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

The bit where the badge isn't settled, the website isn't up (and social media is behind on what branding there is), and the kit or club colours aren't sorted.

That basis.

Apart from the website, if there had not been the reaction to the shirt and logo by the Leigh fans that there has been they would have just been accepted, I trust you have been privvy to the e-mails from the club? 

[sweaty craiq]

9 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

The bit where the badge isn't settled, the website isn't up (and social media is behind on what branding there is), and the kit or club colours aren't sorted.

That basis.

That ain’t the rest of it Brainstrust.

 

[gingerjon]

12 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

That ain’t the rest of it Brainstrust.

 

Adding a women's team and a membership programme isn't a rebrand.

[gingerjon]

16 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

if there had not been the reaction to the shirt and logo by the Leigh fans that there has been they would have just been accepted, I trust you have been privvy to the e-mails from the club? 

So it's up in the air.

[Tubby]

32 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Leigh could have avoided a lot of criticism by getting everything together and sorted, and looking professional and high quality, instead of giving us 20 odd slides about the owner's open love for leopards.

I'm not sure that's true, regardless of what Leigh had done.  Certainly, parts of the announcement left a lot to be desired, not least of which the rebrand to Leopards being due to Degsy liking leopards, that's just bizarre.  But, that aside,  if the announcement had been made by one of the established 'big' clubs, a great deal of this criticism may not have been quite so vociferous.  There are plenty of posters here who seem to take a perverse pleasure in winding up Leigh fans.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

17 hours ago, Damien said:

Obviously the focus is Leigh but I found this a really interesting discussion regarding rebranding in the sport. It is humorous on the Leigh rebranding but is also very balanced.

It does reinforce the view I have long held that success plays an important part in whether a rebrand is successful. Other observations though regarding why some rebrands work and some didn't also hold true for me, particularly why rebranding at clubs that did little more than change a badge failed:

 

Good on Leigh I say 

Loads of opportunities with the leapord branding and kids will love it 

Even with a little bit of 'normal' success ....i.e. mid table they will have as decent crowd in a great stadium....6-7000 I guess 

Much rather them than Salford who despite tonnes of success on field clearly are never going to kick on with crowds or keep a good stadium 

 

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, Tubby said:

I'm not sure that's true, regardless of what Leigh had done.  Certainly, parts of the announcement left a lot to be desired, not least of which the rebrand to Leopards being due to Degsy liking leopards, that's just bizarre.  But, that aside,  if the announcement had been made by one of the established 'big' clubs, a great deal of this criticism may not have been quite so vociferous.  There are plenty of posters here who seem to take a perverse pleasure in winding up Leigh fans.

Every single club's fans on here believe they are uniquely persecuted.

[Dave W]

Leigh won't be able to do another rebrand now. Leopards famously never change their spots.