Team Names, Marketing, and Funny Name Stuff

[Mr_I]

Team 811 is the Cardinals, named after the school's mascot. This past year we had a whole team discussion on whether we should change the name to something more "robotic" (RoboCards, TechnoCards, etc.). After going round and round, it was decided to leave it Cardinals, since A) that's what we are known by, B) it brands us with our school, and C) there are already names similar to all of the other suggestions.
(A nearby team changed their name a few years back, and it took them ages before they got the automatic recognition that they had.)

[Chris Fultz]

There is huge value in finding a name and sticking with it. Some teams become known by their name, others by their number - you never know what will stick with others. This applies to other teams, the community, maybe even the judges..

Remember, you should always be marketing your team.

There is also a cost benefit to staying constant. Shirts, banners and other items can be carried over year to year.

You want to be recognizeable, and sometimes in the pressure of a draft a team might get picked mainly because the drafting person remembers a team name and some particular thing about them. If you cange that every year, it might be tough to be remembered.


With all that, there might be times where it could be good to re-invent. If there is a lot of bad baggage or a reason to "forget" the old - maybe a fresh name and fresh start is a good thing.

[Badflea]

1758 were the Flo-Bots like.. three years ago. -.- Since we're from Florence. Flo.. Florence.. . At that time, the students really didn't know what they were doing so our original team mom decided to name us after our town. The logo was a robotics arm with the team name inside of it.

The following year, after I became the co-captain, I said "Hey...We need a new team name, color, and logo."

Ever since then, it has been the Technomancers and people around school are actually starting to notice our team color and name.

hmm..there is a team out there named the "Techromancers". We ran into them during the '08 Championship. haha.

[JudyVandy]

Chuck has been around for 13 years, and has consistently been 'Chuck" ...

But, in our early years, we added a numeric descriptor to our name. (Chuck R-2, Chuck Pi, C-4, etc.) We eventually found that even this little change was counterproductive as far as recognition was concerned. We renamed ourselves Chuck 84 and have stuck with it.

For recognition, consistency is good.

[Joe J.]

In our ten hear history our team has held three slightly different team names and two numbers. Our first two years, 2000 & 2001, we were Team 465 P-CEP Lighting. In 2002 we became Team 862 from then till 2004 Lightning Robotics & Team Lightning were used interchangeably, we spent 2003 with a pirate theme, and changed our team colors to Safety Green & Blue in 2004, instead of our traditional Orange. In 2005 we standardized our name to Lightning Robotics, adopted orange & blue as our team colors, and got a mascot, Gigawatt (pronounced like in Back to the Future). Our L Logo has been in use since 2002.

We don't use themes anymore, nor do we allow multiple uses of a robot name. Both of these rules came about after our 2003 season.

Since then we have adopted a Style Guide which covers everything from shirt designs, to robot names, to cheering.


My advice standardize at least your name, & team colors.

[Collin Fultz]

Branding a team name is critical as numbers are far too easy to confuse...

Look at Fergie...she basically made a career out of singing songs with her name in them. Is there any doubt who sang the song "Fergilicious"? Nope. But ask the kids who sang "Stairway to Heaven" or "Johnny B. Good" and they have no idea. Modern rap and hip-hop artists have figured this out and worked it into their branding. I'm pretty sure every Rick Ross song has his name in it somewhere...

With SO many teams in FIRST now, most teams will be known by their name first and their number second.

[machetemonkey]

Well, 2009 season is our team's second year. The first year we were Deep Thought (hitchhiker's guide reference ftw!), and this year we're No Mythic. We figured it would be reasonable enough to change the name, seeing as how we have all of 4 returning members from our original 15 or so, and the rest are new. Also, as a sophomore team that wasn't particularly memorable in our rookie year, we didn't necessarily feel compelled to stick with the name. We do feel that after this year, we should be keeping our name (as whether or not we like it, most of us agree that it's decently catchy and memorable, as well as leading itself to decent branding. UNICORNS!!!!)

Also, name choosing is an ardous process for our team, as our school doesn't really represent itself much in sports, and always seems to have a random name (charter stars one year, fighting cranes the next, Great River Rapids the year after?). Therefore, we can't just choose our "school name" as most high schools can.

There's also the "professionalism" aspect of choosing our name. Our school has what is known as "idea lab" which is a conglomerate program of FLL, FRC, and the Lemelson-MIT Inventeams Program. Because we are such a small school, we work hard for minimal corporate sponsorship (thank you all sponsors!), and the leader for the Idea Lab program (our math teacher), believed we needed a name and branding that would make us look professional for sponsors. Therefore, "No Mythical Creatures in My Classroom!" was shortened to "No Mythic" which remains catchy and reasonably relevant to the inside joke that formed the original name, but would give us a more professional aura when presenting to potential sponsors.

My feelings on this "professional name" requirement were mixed. Part of me agrees, saying "if I were Medtronic or something, would I really want to be represented by *slightly childish team name X*?"

On the other hand, part of me disagrees, saying that most people have enough of an inner child and sense of humor to go along with a silly name, provided it isn't blatantly offensive (that and they seem to know they're dealing with high schoolers, and probably don't expect the most mature and professional names). If I had to sum up that particular opinion in one sentence, I'd say "Something like "Cheesy Poofs" shows that in a corporate sponsor's eyes, a great team is a great team, regardless of the name."

What do you guys think about professional names?


Anyways, RAMBLING RANT OVER!

I just sort of typed out everything I was thinking when I heard "team name."

[Stephen of REX]

My team is based in Dulaney High School, so when we registered we simply used 'Dulaney Robotics'.
Rookie year we mulled over the names, and eventually found REX, because it is latin for king, like our school mascot, the lion. A close second was
'Team ROFLCOPTER' (This is still available- I highly recommend it!). We have been REX ever since.

The benefit of having one short name is that your name and number go together. We usually 'REX 1727'. Sometimes an announcer will say
"...in the red on the far side of the field, its team 1727 REEEEX!"
Also in our school, non robotics students sometimes just say "hey Rex!" to get a REX member's attention.

Bottom line: find a memorable name and stick with it!