Team Names, Marketing, and Funny Name Stuff

[Rick TYler]

When our club was founded three years ago, the students at that time named it "The Combine" after some video game (Half-Life?). Last year, the students renamed the team "Exothermic Robotics" with the slogan "It was on fire when we got there." We had three robots last year, and all did well. This year, we have seven robots (in FTC and VRC), and have gotten known in our area as the Exothermic Robotics program. I like the name well enough, and there is marketing value in keeping the name. If you change your brand every year, I think, you lose the value of the brand name.

I've been pretty adamant about NOT letting this years' students change the name of the club, but they keep grumbling. Does anyone want to share stories about changing team names? Mentors, is it a good idea to let students change the team name whenever they feel like it? Students, would you trust or respect adult leaders who won't let you change the name when you want to? Any one want to share their experiences?

Based on how our team actually behaves, I think the name of our team should be "stopSTOPSTOP!!!."

[Urban Hawk]

i'm with 1886 and the name for us for 3 years was the "Super Team Under Dog Squad" and whenever we got announced he would the acronym for it which came out to be the "S.T.U.D.S." The third year we tried to change it to K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid) but we didn't get it changed in time.

[Taylor]

A TechnoKat by any other name....

FIRST is singular among societies in that it does have a permanent method of identification - the team number. While changing the team name may prove a bit confusing, you'll always be FTC 417. I'd imagine more FIRST people would recognize 1114 before they recognize the name Simbotics.

That being said, branding is a critical tool. Can you imagine 71 not being BEAST? 217 as anything other than ThunderChickens? There's certainly something to be said about having an instantly recognizable name, logo, or slogan to create Top Of Mind Awareness.

On the other side of the coin, if the team wishes to reinvent itself, perhaps a new team name may be the way to go. Since you carry 417 with you, it wouldn't be quite as confusing as, say, Pittsburgh suddenly becoming the 49ers.

My advice to you would be keep the name - it's catchy, clever, and memorable, and it appears there are positive associations with that name. If the students want to personalize the team, they can rename the robot.

[smurfgirl]

Now that you've got the name and the image in people's minds, it makes sense to keep it, as Taylor pointed out. It is catchy, and if it already has proven it has staying power, why undo that?

I discussed the issue of marketing and re-branding our team with our management team last year, when they weren't sure how they felt about us. Our team was once the Cheetahs (sponsored by Cheetah Learning), but when they dropped the sponsorship, we renamed to the UberBots. We liked the name, but it took another year to decide on the superman theme (uber = super). The question was if we should update that... but our theme is nice, we have lots of matching shirts, capes, hats, sweatshirts, banners, flags, other equipment in team colors, people know who we are... why change now? It works for us and we like it. Hence, we are still superman themed. Same applies to you... if it's working for you, why change the name? You already have team history built up and recognition going.

[Nate Edwards]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

When our club was founded three years ago, the students at that time named it "The Combine" after some video game (Half-Life?). Last year, the students renamed the team "Exothermic Robotics" with the slogan "It was on fire when we got there." We had three robots last year, and all did well. This year, we have seven robots (in FTC and VRC), and have gotten known in our area as the Exothermic Robotics program. I like the name well enough, and there is marketing value in keeping the name. If you change your brand every year, I think, you lose the value of the brand name.

I've been pretty adamant about NOT letting this years' students change the name of the club, but they keep grumbling. Does anyone want to share stories about changing team names? Mentors, is it a good idea to let students change the team name whenever they feel like it? Students, would you trust or respect adult leaders who won't let you change the name when you want to? Any one want to share their experiences?

Based on how our team actually behaves, I think the name of our team should be "stopSTOPSTOP!!!."

We have this debate each year and we usually come to the conclusion that it important to have something that people know you by in addition to your team number. We have however tried changes over the years. In 2001-2003 we were just West Albany Robotics with a mascot of a bulldog and logo of a running man named WATSON. In 2003 we decided to adopt WATSON as our team name with a new logo. The name stuck well through 2004-2006 and we changed the robot to create a partnership for example WATSON and Sherlock and WATSON and Crick. We changed the theme each of those years to reflect the partnership that someone had with someone named WATSON. In 2006 our team name was WATSON Volts (Watts and Volts) but it didn't catch on. In 2007 we were just WATSON with no real theme and then last year we rebranded ourselves at the Pokebots (with a Pokemon theme)...

However we decided not to continue with the pokebots even though we could have been well known by it because people wondered why we changed from WATSON. So this year we are WATSON with a robot and logo Spike (no real theme.) So we might run into the same issues you are looking at.

I think it is important (from a business student standpoint) to stick with the brand because you are constantly trying to make a name for yourself. You will see often in start up businesses that they will go through a few names and sometimes that makes it hard to identify but they change the name due to legal or other reasons. There are ways to change themes, robot names and the like without having to reinvent who you are. The well known teams would have the same struggles if they completely identified themselves differently. Like if Team MOE changed to Orange instead of Green or The Thunder Chickens became the flying Squirrels or there are numerous other examples that we can all think of.

The main point is that once teams get a good identifier for you then you have to stick with it to be associated with the success you have had in the past.

[ICntIHaveRbtics]

Well I was still in middle school at the time of our team's creation, but my brother was on what was formerly called the 1058 Londonderry Dragoons. It was alright, but not an amazing name. However, the following year, after having built a robot with PVC our rookie year, we did it again, this time to make a giant pirate ship (I don't remember the challenge name it was for...) out of PVC piping. We were still called the Dragoons, but halfway through the competition, someone said "you guys are like PVC Pirates". So the next match, one of the team members went up to the announcer and had him announce the team as the "PVC Pirates" and the name has stuck ever since...and of course every year we use PVC on our robot =D

We've also had the same outdated t-shirt for the past several years as well, but that'll change this year. We updated the logo, and there was a dispute about how prominent our "skull and cross pipes" logo should be, because within in the team we had the debate going of "what makes the team recognition...the logo or the number." Nonetheless, the skull-crosspipes will still be right on the front of the shirt, but now we've got a pirate ship on it too!

[Taylor]

829 used to be the Mechanical Warriors (or something like that), in reference to their school mascot, the Warriors. They had a cool logo of an indian chief, half metal ala Terminator, and his hair on fire. Between 2006 and 2007, they decided to change to the Digital Goats, and bought into the new name whole-hog. They flooded their events with buttons and tshirts, made a new mascot (a silly goat-hat), and their design was goofy and memorable. They had a pretty successful 2007 season, winning at St. Louis, performing admirably at BMR and receiving the J&J GP award (and possibly Safety as well-?). The new name stuck, and they reinvented themselves as a fun team that is competitive on the field, too.

[Beth Sweet]

Team 1504 was known as BIG Spartan Robotics our first year. Our second year, we were known as GEOmotion. Our third year, we picked the Desperate Penguins. Now, the number and the name are pretty much synonyms.

Every time we changed our name, I cringed because, as you said, you have to establish your brand. When we picked the Desperate Penguins, it was really something that the whole team liked, and we pushed hard to stay. We bought a $300 mascot costume, and invested a bit of money into the theme. When the kids wanted to change the name again the next year, we explained to them that since we already had so much invested, we should keep the name.

So yeah, basically same position, but we finally sat on one name and just picked it. So, find one that is going to stick, that will be universal for years to come, and that can continue.

[DCA Fan]

What my teams have done in the past is allow students more creativity with the robot name in exchange for keeping the team name the same. I think for FIRST it is really important to keep a name once its memorable; I don't call 254 "254," I call them "Cheesy Poofs," likewise for Cybersonics, Buzz Robotics, etc.

[Koko Ed]

Our team has always had the same name from day one but our trademark tie die did not come onto the scene til the new millennium. Every year before then the shirt was different. It's hard finding a signature look. Especially in the sea of thousands of other teams.
Changing the name and look every year is a guaranteed way to make yourself as unmemorable as possible no matter how catchy the name, logo or slogan is. Pick something, take ownership of it and sell it like crazy to the masses.

[chinckley]

Team 1254 - Entropy keeps the same team name and changes the robot name each year. We have our flag, banner, etc all listing Entropy so we keep this. The robot name changes each year allowing students creativity depending on the robot they build and how it behaves.

Carolyn

[BrendanB]

Team 1519 Mechanical Mayhem is a part of an organization http://www.mayheminc.org/ which started in 2002 with the FLL team Mindstorms Mayhem, later in 2005 another FLL team was founded called More Mayhem which has since disbanded. Mayhem is actually an acronym for Milford Area Youth Homeschoolers Enriching Minds. The word Mayhem as been used to help keep a sense of unity among the teams because we all meet in the same house and share the same coaches. The team names have not changed along with the shared slogan, Let the Mayhem Begin... but the robot name changes every year which is decide on by coaches and students

[carla_rose]

14 years ago, when our team started, the school was Avondale high school, who were the Yellow Jackets. Naming the FIRST team the Killer Bees just made sense. Soon enough they joined with my high school, Notre Dame Prep, and eventually we took them over. We are the Fighting Irish, which has nothing to do with a bee. We get a lot of questions about it and a lot of pressure from our school to change it, but we refuse.
We are the Killer Bees, now and forever. Everything we have is evident of that. As a lot of other people have told you, establishing a brand is extremely important, especially with numbers now in the 3000's. A good brand will leave a mark on everyone, especially the people you play with. In alliance selection it's extremely important to stick out. You have a whole program based of the name, I really think you should stick with it.

[Madison]

Franklin High School's sports teams are the Quakers. Nobody, even if they don't like it, is under the impression that the team should be renamed to suit their liking. The team name shows reverence to those that came before them and helped to build the program.

[mrnoble]

We've been through this with our team. The school mascot (an angel) was initially chosen by default. Our second bot was wryly named the GhettoBot as a sort of protest. Last year, the students chose names and slogans by committee that didn't really say much about the team, the school, or the bot, and were esoteric to boot ("the BeatBot, powered by FTW"? I still am not sure what that meant). We have now returned to our roots, and are once again AngelBotics. Like others' experiences, we are trying to establish something that is in line with our school's traditions and culture. Here's hoping it sticks this time!