Redhawks mascot creates marketing opportunities

Nobody was probably happier than Southeast Missouri State University director of marketing Charles Wiles when Redhawks was officially adopted as the nickname for all the school's sports teams.

During that Jan. 22 ceremony prior to Southeast's basketball games against Austin Peay at the Show Me Center, Rowdy -- the university's new mascot -- was introduced to a thunderous ovation from the more than 6,000 fans in attendance.

Finally, after nearly 20 years, Southeast once again has a mascot and logo to help market its athletic teams.

While the Indians and Otahkians nicknames were used until the recent change to Redhawks, Southeast since 1985 had utilized no official mascot, and in recent years there had been no Indian or Otahkian reference on its logos.

"It's really been great," Wiles said. "Now we can just do so much more in terms of marketing our teams, not only from how we advertise and promote our teams but on the shirts, caps, things that people wear."

According to Wiles, there simply wasn't much of a demand for university-related merchandise when only the word Southeast could be used, and it also didn't lead to much creative marketing.

"Before, we had to use the word Southeast, or SE, on posters, schedule cards, newspapers ads, television ads," he said. "All our community messages are now more fun and more interesting.

"There is a term called Integrated Marketing Communications, IMC. We teach a course in that here at the university. The cornerstone of that is the visual element. We've had Southeast, or SE, but we really haven't had anything else. We've had a name, but no nickname, and certainly no mascot. Now all of that will change."

Added Wiles, regarding merchandise: "People were just not buying a T-shirt that said Southeast, or SE, they wanted an image. Now they're buying stuff that has Redhawks, Rowdy on it."

Wiles said the new mascot and logo also will help Southeast bring in additional revenue through licensed marketing, where the university receives a percentage from the manufacturer whenever merchandise bearing its licensed logos are sold.

"We think that our licensing revenue in the next few years will quadruple," Wiles said. "We don't get that much money from it in our level of program. We've never gotten more then $15,000 or $20,000 a year. I can see it getting up to between $50,000 and $100,000 a year.

"Nobody had been buying our stuff, but now we have a great deal of retailers interested."

Wiles also said that when new merchandise bearing the Redhawks logo became available in the university bookstore in December, sales were brisk.

"The first day stuff went on sale in the bookstore, there was a huge increase," he said. "But more important than the revenue, we just want people wearing our image. Before, they weren't."

And, added Wiles, the impact of Rowdy the Redhawk on young Southeast fans cannot be overstated.

"The kids just love the mascot itself," Wiles said. "They're just dying to hug the mascot, to have their picture taken with the mascot. We didn't have that before, and it's just neat to see."