UTB, TSC begin process of rebranding

The University of Texas at Brownsville is poised to drop the scorpion mascot as its partnership with Texas Southmost College ends, the university’s president said on Monday.

A mascot, and how it was trademarked, is one facet of the greater issue at hand. Never has what’s in a name been so important to UTB-TSC. Partnership President Juliet V. Garcia acknowledged Monday that thus far the branding of the two schools have undergone a slow and informal separation process. For instance, since as early as August press releases have left out TSC’s name and have referred to Garcia only as UTB’s president, despite the fact that partnership is not yet over.

Garcia said last week, officials from both schools aimed to mutually decide on a plan for marketing during the transition period, but its creation was delayed as they discussed other pressing issues.

"If we continue to market as UTB-TSC with a scorpion, then nothing’s changed," Garcia said. "The scorpion belongs to TSC, historically, before the partnership. ... For UT Brownsville to keep the scorpion didn’t seem fair."

A singular identity is a key step for each school as they separate, Don Breeden, of the Brownsville advertising and marketing agency Breeden/McCumber, said.

"It’s all the difference in the world," Breeden said of branding. "A university is like any other business. People have got to buy into a product. A brand image is not something you can touch or taste."

Garcia said that over the years the scorpion became a prominent mascot during the partnership. So, some wanted to keep it as UTB’s mascot, but the university eventually decided it would need to create a new one, she said.

"The fact is, we had trademarked it as UTB," she said. "We had trademarked it as UTB-TSC with the scorpion right in the middle of it. That doesn’t do us any good going forward. We didn’t want to get into a litigation about ‘We trademarked part of it (or) the whole thing.’"

The issue of a having only singular identity for two schools has always been a problem for UTB-TSC, Breeden said. The length of the partnership’s name in is entirety and the perception of prestige tied to a four-year university may have been factors that played a role in the partnership often being referred to only by UTB’s name, he said.

"People never fully understood the partnership or its value," Breeden said.

He said members of the public may feel confused about how the end of the partnership will proceed, and it’s his view that it seems like a mixed signal to continue to promote the two schools together. Pre-partnership breakup advertising seemed to be directed mostly regionally, so the issue of identity may not have held as much importance, he said.

UTB-TSC has worked with San Antonio-based Anderson Market Group for some of its advertisements and logo development.

Breeden said it was difficult to comment on the circumstances without knowing all the details, but noted that branding and marketing in the Rio Grande Valley is the same as anywhere else.

Next month will mark a year since TSC trustees took a final vote that was one of the steps in dissolving the two-decade educational partnership.

TSC President Lily Tercero said it is the goal of officials to have a combined marketing effort for both institutions in the "spirit of the provisions in the partnership agreement." In the future, the community will be invited to the TSC campus as outreach effort and as the date for termination approaches TSC will be promoted through various media outlets, she said.

"We will also involve students, faculty and staff to serve as ambassadors to the community," she wrote in an email. "All of us will be involved in explaining the unique opportunities, programs, and services offered by TSC."

Now, the differences in the UTB and TSC branding are subtle, but they are there; from billboards on U.S. Expressway 77/83 that read "TSC and UTB," to promotional material that includes only UTB’s name or only TSC’s name.

As of last year, UTB by law, is its own university, Garcia said and it will no longer be associated with the scorpion over a gradual period of time.

Even Garcia’s title presents an example of the complexities surrounding the end of the UTB-TSC partnership. She said she remains president of the still operating UTB-TSC partnership though press releases from the university refer to her as only UTB president. Tercero is TSC’s president and it was important to make that distinction, she said.

However, Garcia explained that TSC is not yet operating because it lacks its own accreditation, so at this moment Tercero is technically president of the TSC taxing district.

"I think it’s clear what we need is a protocol that has not yet been agreed upon," Garcia said of what she coined ‘transitional marketing.’ "I think it is an issue that Dr. Tercero and I have to talk about very soon and then come to an understanding. ... On a scale of 1-10, we’re always at nine right now in terms of confusion. We were just trying to lower it to a five for folks."