August 9, 2025 • 31 mins
We take a road trip through the wild world of minor league baseball branding—uncovering team names and logos that knock it out of the park.
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #SmallBiz #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #art #Brands #logos #minorleague #baseball #family
Get show notes for this episode and check out past episodes of the Speaking Human podcast by visiting speakinghuman.com.
#Podcast #SpeakingHuman #VO #Branding #Marketing #Advertising #Business #SmallBiz #Brands #Ads #simplify #popculture #art #Brands #logos #minorleague #baseball #family
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speeding Human.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today, on Speaking Human, we take a road trip through
the wild world of minor league baseball branding, uncovering team
names and logos that knock it out of the park.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Speaking Human.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
marketing for humans. I'm Shad Calmly and with me is
my co host Patrick Jebber.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome, Patrick, Welcome to you, Shad Welcome. What we should
be saying tonight is take me out to the bull game.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, buy me some peanuts, crack of jacks and crack
a don't care I ever go back.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I gotta say, when I was a kid at the
ball game, idea of cracker jacks, that box and that
little tattoo thing that they would give you inside or
you know, prize, but it was it seemed like it
was always a tattoo when I was a kid. I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I think it still might be. Do they I don't know.
Do they still even have anything in there?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I don't know. But here's the thing, like the box
and everything had a very distinctive smell. Do you know
what I mean by that?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I do Cracker Jacks though kind of a scam. It's
just caramel popcorn. Yeact like it's something otherworldly or like, eoh,
try our fancy you know, candy in this box and
then you open it up and you're like, oh, you
mean caramel popcorn? No, No, this is actually cracker Jacks,
(01:49):
completely different. Do we mention there's a prize inside?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, it's always something small, but it's to be clear,
it's caramel popcorn. Did you see the prize though? Did
you smell the inside of the box. It's very nostalgic
Crackerjacks themselves, this whole idea of a promo item when
you go into the ballpark, you know, like I think
Crackerjacks are kind of like that. It's this thing that
(02:15):
you associate with, you know, with a ball game.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, not a promo though.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
They're not giving it away the true true. But you know,
I was forcing the tie in with my trivia question,
so come on.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, I'm glad I can help you out there anyway.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So here's the trivia question for you that I think
you'll really like. Which unusual promotion did a minor league
team run that offered free admission to fans who showed
up wearing what? And here I'll give you multiple choice
a backwards baseball caps B wedding dresses, see nothing but
(03:02):
underwear or d a mustache, real or fake.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So a's out. That's just too normal. Maybe maybe probably underwear.
I know that seems like it could get crazy, butts,
that's this is minor league. This is the thing about
minor league baseball. All of these things could be true.
I'm gonna go with mustaches, though. Is the kind of
thing going on with mustaches in the past, like ten
(03:31):
to fifteen years, You know, there's kind of a wave
of popularity with mustache. It's kind of become cool in
a way. So I'm gonna go with the mustache.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
All right, No, it was underwear. You should have went
with underwear.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Ah okay.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, So the Salt Lake Bees once had an underwear
night where fans who showed up wearing nothing but their
skivvies got in for free. For one, I think that's appropriate.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
If you are.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Only coming in your underwear, you get in for free,
if you've got that kind of confidence. But for family
friendly entertainment, it could have gotten a little risque.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, do we want to see that? In some cases?
And no, I hope shoes were allowed. There's some kind
of footwear.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
In most cases, No, but I would imagine most people
were pretty conservative. You know. I'm sure there was some
people who were on the on borderline inappropriate. I'm sure
there were you know what I mean, because there's gonna
I mean, if you get enough people together, of course,
but most of the I would say attendees were probably
(04:37):
keeping it clean. So now I got to go back
one more. Since we were talking about cracker jacks, I
had a trivia question. I was going to ask you
which is which of these is a real stadium food item? Okay, okay,
and I'll give you multiple choice. A the Porcoppoli. Its sorry,
I'm gonna have the porcallipse, pork porkopolyps, porkalypse, porkalypse. I
(05:07):
would say, it's the porkalypse, like apocalypse, but a porcalypse.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah, porcopolypse.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's called the the called the pork Porkalypse. Now, oh,
b the churo dog, see the Soggy Slammer or d
the triple bypass biscuit.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Which one of these is real or which one of
these is not real?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Is real? Yeap?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Oh man, they all sound real. I'm gonna say the
cheuro dog is real.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That's a good guess. That's a good guess. That is
the correct answer. The truro dog. Oh okay, what's better
is when you hear what the truro dog is, it's
chio on a bun. So. This is served by the
Arizona Diamondbacks Minor League affiliate. The churo dog is a
churo stuffed inside a chocolate glazed donut, topped with frozen yogurt,
(06:03):
whipped cream, caramel, and chocolate sauce. I mean it's like
a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I was into the chiro inside the donut and then
the frozen yogurt part lost me.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
No frozen yogurt for you, huh, Well, it's just too
much at that point.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I think if you coated it and whipped cream and
caramel and chocolate sauce, that's fine. The frozen yogurt, it
seems although for you know, a hot baseball game, that
might actually be pretty good because it'd be refreshing. Maybe
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So the poor Coppo lips, Now, poor coppol is not real. No,
not real, doesn't exist anywhere.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I'm sure the triple bypass biscuit does exist, But it's
not should should, but you know they're not as famous
as the Cracker Jacks. I will say that they haven't
caught on.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
The smartest thing Cracker Jacks ever did was let's tie
ourselves to baseball. Let's get in this song. Yeah, because
if it didn't happen, I don't know if Cracker Jacks
are still going strong. No offense. Crackerjacks, you got that sailor,
but I don't know if it's gonna be lasting if
you didn't have this forever tie to this historical game.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, the song helped them, and then also the giveaway
the prize inside.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
So we should clarify at this point this episode is
not about Cracker Jacks. It is about minor league baseball.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Minor league, big bold letters, minor minor league.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know, the majors get all the glory, but the
minor league it's where it's really happening. So let me
take you back a little bit. Minor league baseball dates
all the way back to nineteen oh one, whoa over
one hundred years ago, when it began as a way
to organize professional teams that couldn't financially compete with the
(07:57):
powerhouse clubs in the National and American leagues. Over the years,
minor league baseball evolved a little bit into a fully
affiliated system, so they were connected to the big leagues.
It's where the big league clubs would send their top
prospects to develop across five distinct levels rookie league, Single A,
(08:18):
High A, Double A, and Triple A. So players move
up the ranks as they hone their skills, with the
ultimate goal of making it to the show, the Show,
the Show. You got to get to the show, I mean,
that's what we're trying to do, get called up to
the show. In twenty twenty one, minor league baseball underwent
(08:40):
a major transformation, streamlining to one hundred and twenty teams,
with each major league organization now affiliated with four minor
league clubs. But what really sets the miners apart is
the color and charm, quirky team names, offbeat promotions, family
friendly atmosphere. It's baseball with a local twist, with some
(09:05):
teams throwing out some truly wild marketing and branding pitches.
And on today's episode, Patrick, we're gonna talk about some
of those branding curveballs that we get from some of
these minor league teams. We're gonna share our favorite minor
league baseball team names and logos. Are you ready to
(09:28):
slide into this?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, I'm gonna take it home.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
You can't take it all the way home.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I'm gonna take it all the way home. I'm gonna
knock it out of the park. I'm gonna slide to first, second,
and third base.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
You know what they say though, when you're sliding into
first you feel something burst.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Oh yeah, what's that your spleen? Yes. In our case,
this is a fun exercise to think of our favorites
because there are a lot of minor league team names. Yeah,
got one hundred and twenty in the running. Yeah, they're
not all super catchy. I mean, there are some in
(10:07):
there that are just kind of like uh ho hum. Yeah,
but there are some insanely good ones in there as well,
especially because I think a lot of the teams have
rebranded themselves in the most recent years. I would say, like,
for instance, you know, the Akron Arrows, which are close
to us, rebranded into the Akron Rubber Ducks, changing it
(10:29):
up a little bit, trying to be more family friendly,
being a little crazy with the name and having fun
with it. So stuff like that's happened, I think in
the later years.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, I think teams have gone for it a little
more in the past like decade or so to try
to kind of drum up some more interest. And that's
what makes this, you know, a little more fun. We've
done some I think we talked about like favorite NBA branding,
and I don't know if we did it for the
NFL or professional Baseball, I forget would be even done
in the past. This is a lot more interesting and
(11:00):
fun and varied in what we get in the major leagues.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And one of the things I've really loved about the
minor league, you know, like as you if you look
into the minor league teams, the names and everything are
all very closely related to the immediate geography or location
of the team. Like the name has a ties to
the community. There's history there typically.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, or at least a lot of the best ones, right,
and they're a little riskier than what you typically see
with you know, major corporate marketing, right.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, So let's get to it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
First thing we're going to do is we're going to
do our two favorite minor league team names. Do you
want to share your first one?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
This is hard because we're doing our favorite names and
doing our favorite logos, and a couple the two that
I have for my logos, I really wish I could
just actually use them for my names too, because they're
they're really good. But I had to choose, so I
would go like my first one for the names would
probably be the Hartford yard Goats. Okay, so this is
(12:05):
a double a affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, so Hartford, Connecticut.
The Hartford yard Goats. Yard goat is a railroad slang
for a small engine that moves train cars around in railyard,
a nod to Hartford's railroad history, and they leaned into
the literal meaning of the goat the animal for the
(12:27):
mascot and the branding. The logo features this fierce goat
chewing on a baseball bat. Naturally, I think that you'll
find a lot of the logos have something where like
if the mascot has it, it's either chewing on it
or smashing it or I don't know, doing something weird
with a baseball bat. Of course, with the names and
(12:49):
the logos, you know they draw from the community. A
lot of these names. What's really fun is that they
have public contests, so like for the naming or for
the a lot of times. So for the yard Goats,
they did the same thing. At first, I guess it
was pretty divisive. Then merch was flying off the shelves
(13:09):
because you know, it's fun and it's this goat chewing
on a bat.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And one of the I guess one of the reasons
for the name was the team stadium was built on
the site of an old railroad yard. To kind of
jump in, this is one of mine too, is it
the name? I yeah, I really like the heart. I
mean this to me might be the most minor league
team there is in terms of branding. You know, they
(13:34):
just completely have the right vibe. I think the name,
the logo, everything kind of down the line for all
the reasons you stated, you know, as you kind of
explained it. You know that the Double a affiliate of
the Colorado Rockies in Hartford, Connecticut, and you just, you know,
yard Goats is just such a name that just feels
very minor league baseball to me, I like the use
(13:57):
of slang term. Yeah names my close second. It's not
necessarily my second pick, but the in this same category.
Along that, I also liked the Amarillo sod poodles. Oh yeah,
a sod poodle being a slang term for prairie dogs, yep,
which is pretty hilarious.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I battled with that as my second and here did
you and I? And what I really liked about it
was that they both are slang and if you look
at them, they're both very similar in terms of the logo. Now,
I know we're not picking for note logos, we're picking
for the names. But the prairie dog has I think
the bat is in his mouth. But he's got you know,
(14:40):
like the Texan hat on which I love.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
And he's got like alfalfa or something.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Oh yeah, okay, that's alfalfa. It looks like a bat.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I could see why he say that.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, yeah, And I really liked I liked the idea
because it's odd and you know, catchy, just like the
yard goats, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
M hm.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Regional, very regional, right.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, it's very regional. I mean, how do you like
even say sad poodles without kind of smiling a little
bit like what is this sod? This is why I
I you know, I was thinking about it as sort
of a duo in my lists because This is the
one thing about the minor league teams that I think
they do so well. It's this like family friendly environment,
you know, where they do weird things, but they're all
(15:23):
kind of fun and they're trying to make baseball lively
and get people really excited, which you know in Major
league baseball. I mean it happens, right, but there's more
seriousness to those games, yeah, whereas like minor league teams
seem to have like a little bit more kitschy fun,
you know.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So that's not your second pick.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, I don't know. I think I kind of want to.
You know, it's been sitting there on my list, kind
of like going up and down in the second and
third spot because I you know, I had backups.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah, of course, I mean there's so many you got it.
So it is your second pick.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I think that's my second pick. It was either that
or the Modesto Nuts.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Another good one. So my second one. This is, you know,
kind of doing a different thing. I also like names with,
as we know from everything we do on the show. Alliteration. Yeah, yeah,
you know, it's a little off the beaten path. It's
got some alliteration. The name's probably gonna win for me,
so I liked the Cannapolis Cannonballers.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Mmm, okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
This is a single a affiliate of the Chicago White
Sox based in Cannapolis, North Carolina, which I was like,
where is that? Twenty five miles northeast of Charlotte. So
this is like a lot of the teams we mentioned
kind of has had a lot of names. They were
the Piedmont Phillies and then they kind of moved, and
then they were the Cannapolis Intimidators, a name inspired by
(16:53):
NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, who was a part owner, and
then in twenty twenty they became the Kannapolis Cannonballers. The
name comes from James William Cannon and the textile company
he founded, the Cannon Mills Company, which the town is
actually basically named from. So the original suggestion I think
(17:18):
came from fans was the Cannons. Some copyright issues there
as well as the weapons connotation. They went with the Cannonballers.
Interesting thing about their mascot I mentioned the Dale Earnhard connection.
Their mascot has kind of a baseball head and a
Dale Earnhardt mustache. It's kind of like a stuntman with
(17:38):
a baseball head a Dale Earnard mustache. Pretty cool. I
like this name, the Cannapolis Cannonballers. They sound a little.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Nuts, like the Modesto nuts. One of the things I
think is really cool about you know, the names. They're
so hyper local, you know what I mean to being
like you were saying this company created the town, right,
and that people probably worked at that company from the town,
(18:05):
and then that led to somewhere down the line a
minor league team, you know, to play baseball because it's
an all American sport. And you get to this point
where that is the root of how something is named
is So it's a beautiful thing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It's wild, but it's also logical. It follows a clear
line of history, Yeah, and logic to get to this
like kind of goofy name.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, all right, So we've got our list OF's favorite logos.
This is gonna be I have a feeling we have
the same exact ones.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
For this, do you think so? I doubt it.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
There's so many, Yeah, that's true. There there's a million
of them. What's your first? Your favorite?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So my first you mentioned it? I doubt you have
this one. You mentioned this name this team before you
mentioned their name. You threw it out there just offhandedly.
It's a single, a affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. It's
the Modesto Nuts.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Now, I generally like when the logo is alive and
weird and angry. Another kind of honorable mention in this
category is the Hartford Hops, which is the neatest looking
hops you'll ever see. But the nuts. In this logo
of the Modesto Nuts, you got a peanut who just
has a great scale in which looks like a very
(19:32):
hard chin and sort of a very uh, not too
bright looking walnut. I think as idiot is, you know,
holding a baseball. There's actually three of them, three mascots.
I think there's only a couple of them that appear
in their logo. But there's al the almond, Wally the walnut,
and Shelley the pistachio. But it's just the logo itself,
(19:53):
very old timey with the font. You know, the name
sounds screwball, but the logo kind of looks sinister a
little bit, like these are some tough nuts hanging out
on the corner who might come after you. So I
just really went for this one. It felt very baseball
to me.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, no, I think it does. And honestly, it's a
dead ringer for Jay Leno. Honestly, I mean he does
kind of look like.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I mean, he's got the chin.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I like that he's wearing a baseball cap with the
M on top, you know what I mean. That's good touch,
that's good stuff. A solid pick. Here's here's one that
I couldn't deny myself, The Rocket City trash Pandas M. Madison.
It's a double a affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels.
(20:46):
Rocket City is a nickname for Huntsville, Alabama, home to
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and a rich history in
US space exploration. So that's where the Rocket City comes from.
Trash Panda is the internet's lovingly sarcastic term for a raccoon,
as we might all know from Guardians of the Galaxy.
(21:06):
I'm pretty sure it was a reference in there. It's
basically a fuzzy little band who lives for rating garbage cans.
So how did it come to be that this is
the name for the team and a contest In twenty eighteen,
the trash Pandas ran away with the vote because it
was hilarious, for one, but because it merges local pride
(21:27):
rockets with a pure marketing cast of raccoons. That's sort
of basically what it came down to, was, you know,
a contest. The reason why I chose it is it's
got this raccoon in a trash can, rocketing like there's
jet propulsion, and he's got this like grin on his face,
not like a happy grin, but kind of like a
(21:49):
little bit of a menacing grin. You know, he's ornery
if you will. I don't know, it's brilliant to me.
I think what's interesting too, is in the contest in
twenty eighteen came right after I think Guardians of the
Galaxy two, so one had been out two and I
wonder a little bit if in that contest, the trash
(22:11):
pandas had you know, like the public you know, consciousness,
they thought that would be fun, because I don't know
if that would have been as delightful if it wasn't
for Rocket the raccoon, you know what I mean. Because
it's also like he's in a rocket trash can, which
is you know, again pays homage to their history. But
(22:36):
I think it might have had something to do. This
is just my theory.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
It was the first thing I thought of when I
saw it. It was the first media connection I made,
and I thought maybe that was just me.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You look at all these different logos together and you
see some of the ones that are more design wise
well done than others, you know, and this is like
a very like nicely done logo. Yeah, very like nicely
put together. I do wonder though, if this logo and
the logo of the Quad City River Bandits have beef
(23:11):
because they are both raccoons.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I mean it might, it might.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I do take a little issue with the trash Panna's name.
It crossed a weird line where I was like, I
don't know, this is like almost like two chintzy, even
for minor league baseball.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I like that. It's kind of like what people felt
when they first came up with the Rubber Ducks. They
were like, it's kind of cheesy and dumb. But then
you're like, but it's fun, and the visual for it
is really exciting, Like little kids and adults can be
like this is silly fun, And I think that's the
(23:50):
brilliance of it.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
See my style of name. I'm like, you gotta be
able to like get behind it a little bit. And
there's some names that are just like slightly over the
line where I'm like, I don't know. That's kind of
one of them, the trash pandas. Let me give you
another creature, Okay, because a lot of these, there's a
lot of these better animals, especially kind of insane menacing animals.
(24:13):
So my next pick is the Double a affiliate of
the San Francisco Giants. The Richmond Flying Squirrels. Really like
the shape and colors of this logo, but mostly I
love how hard they made the squirrel look. You know,
we're just talking about the kind of raccoon. They just
made this squirrel look like some of you don't want
(24:35):
to mess with. This is something I would want on
a shirt or a hat. He looks like he's coming
at you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And a cool.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Interesting note on this one, the squirrel. The flying Squirrel
is meant to look like the outline of the state
of Virginia and the R patch on he's like. On
the Flying Squirrel, he has an acorn with an R
over it over his heart is where Richmond is located
in Virginia. Just a nice little Easter egg.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, I love that you picked that because that is
my second pick.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Oh it's not your second pick too, So we did
have an overlap.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You did have overlap. But here's what I will say
about that, both of my picks in the name and
in the logo both have some overlap and similarity too,
because the flying squirrel not not only are they flying,
like the raccoon and the squirrel are flying. Yes, I
get that, but if you look really close, like even
though the facial expressions of the squirrel and the raccoon
(25:32):
are super super close, they're very similar, you know where
they've got this like kind of menacing so you could
kind of see how, you know, if they use it
in certain ways, it feels tough. I also really like
the logos that they use in different ways depending on
the medium. So like if you look at the flying squirrels,
(25:52):
you know, like it looks one way on the hat,
but it's kind of stylized a little bit different for
like the tickets, or they just use like the head
and the face of the squirrel on certain things like
the JumboTron and stuff like that. Same thing with the
trash pandas you don't always see all of that logo.
You Sometimes you just see his face, and his face
can be used in a cute way but also kind
(26:15):
of be somewhat aggressive, And so both mine were connected
in that way.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, I think too, going back to our you know,
kind of conversation about you know, you're talking about the
logo you want it to be not too cute, and
I'm kind of saying the same thing about the name.
There's probably a balance there too, Like maybe if you
have a cute name, a slightly more aggressive logo or
(26:40):
vice versa, you know, modesto nuts, you know, you have
kind of a wacky name, and then you get kind
of an aggressive logo, and we're kind of like balancing
the scales a little bit. You get an aggressive nut,
you know, you bring in an aggressive nut to balance
things out, you know. Interesting on the honorable side. I
don't know if I like it or not, but I'm
(27:02):
very drawn to the Sugarland Space Cowboys logo. I find
it's just super interesting, though it's kind of strange and
it slightly scares.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Me which logo because they have like the sl.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I was thinking more of the Spaceman space where it's
like stars yeah, you know the Space Cowboy. What about
the El Paso Chihuahuas. I think that that dog on
the hat, I mean we're talking about balance. I think
that scale is tipped in the favor of logo aggression
because that dog looks angry. I do like Also the
(27:38):
Altuna curve. I enjoy obviously a good chin on a logo.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Hmm okay, yeah, there's a ton where I'm like the
problem that I had. There's so many where it's just blah.
You know, yeah, there's nothing, there's nothing visual for you
to pull from. So I think the ones that are
very successful immediately and you say it, you have a
visual of it. So a lot to take away from this.
(28:05):
Here's the marketing takeaway.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
What do you got?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Minor League Baseball proves that when it comes to branding,
weird works.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Weird works. From outrageous food to over the top promotions.
The names these teams embrace bold, local and often laugh
out loud ideas to stand out in a crowded entertainment market.
The lesson don't be afraid to swing for the fences
with your brand personality, because memorable beats safe every time.
(28:39):
Do you like that?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I do.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I think that stands up too, because I think if
you think about baseball as a game, and especially minor
league baseball, there's a small percentage of people who go
there for the games.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Mm hm.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Most people go there for the atmosphere and the vibe
and you know what, you're kind of like selling this
like a family good time where you know, something to
do for a night and experience. Yeah, so it's you know,
folding it up in this thing like let's get weird,
let's get interesting, let's do these giveaways, like all these
things going on around this thing that's going on in
(29:13):
the field, which can be exciting, can be fun. Some
people think it's slow, not everybody's sitting there and watching
every pitch. Yeah, but it's this is the center of it,
and you know, let's have all this stuff going on
around it and kind of like make that exciting, make
that fun, and sell you on it. And that's kind
of in essence what you have to do with marketing,
especially for companies on an everyday basis, where you're not
(29:37):
going to sell every person on you know, this central
thing all the time. It's not going to be like, oh,
let me talk technically about these things that we can
do and people would be like, well, I'm already asleep,
so let's you know, build a fun brand around that.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, And to your point, it's the experience, right, It's
like the whole thing is the experience when it comes
to branding. That should also be the point, you know,
of your branding is sure, the weird stuff works, but
it's about that whole experience. It could be your marketing,
could be whatever. It could be your messaging, it could
be how you treat people, you know, when they're at
(30:12):
your company, how do you make them feel like family,
almost like the family environment that they're trying to create
in the minor league teams.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
You know. Yeah, and you know your family's a little weird.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah. Well, we hope you enjoyed this look at the
minor league team's names, brands. But that's it for today's episode.
You can find current and past episodes of the podcast
on Speaking Human dot com.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
We'll be back in two weeks with another episode of
Speaking Human. Catch you then Yard
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Goats Speaking Human
Speeding Human.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today, on Speaking Human, we take a road trip through
the wild world of minor league baseball branding, uncovering team
names and logos that knock it out of the park.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Speaking Human.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to Speaking Human, where we simplify the world of
marketing for humans. I'm Shad Calmly and with me is
my co host Patrick Jebber.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome, Patrick, Welcome to you, Shad Welcome. What we should
be saying tonight is take me out to the bull game.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, buy me some peanuts, crack of jacks and crack
a don't care I ever go back.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I gotta say, when I was a kid at the
ball game, idea of cracker jacks, that box and that
little tattoo thing that they would give you inside or
you know, prize, but it was it seemed like it
was always a tattoo when I was a kid. I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I think it still might be. Do they I don't know.
Do they still even have anything in there?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I don't know. But here's the thing, like the box
and everything had a very distinctive smell. Do you know
what I mean by that?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I do Cracker Jacks though kind of a scam. It's
just caramel popcorn. Yeact like it's something otherworldly or like, eoh,
try our fancy you know, candy in this box and
then you open it up and you're like, oh, you
mean caramel popcorn? No, No, this is actually cracker Jacks,
(01:49):
completely different. Do we mention there's a prize inside?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, it's always something small, but it's to be clear,
it's caramel popcorn. Did you see the prize though? Did
you smell the inside of the box. It's very nostalgic
Crackerjacks themselves, this whole idea of a promo item when
you go into the ballpark, you know, like I think
Crackerjacks are kind of like that. It's this thing that
(02:15):
you associate with, you know, with a ball game.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, not a promo though.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
They're not giving it away the true true. But you know,
I was forcing the tie in with my trivia question,
so come on.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, I'm glad I can help you out there anyway.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So here's the trivia question for you that I think
you'll really like. Which unusual promotion did a minor league
team run that offered free admission to fans who showed
up wearing what? And here I'll give you multiple choice
a backwards baseball caps B wedding dresses, see nothing but
(03:02):
underwear or d a mustache, real or fake.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
So a's out. That's just too normal. Maybe maybe probably underwear.
I know that seems like it could get crazy, butts,
that's this is minor league. This is the thing about
minor league baseball. All of these things could be true.
I'm gonna go with mustaches, though. Is the kind of
thing going on with mustaches in the past, like ten
(03:31):
to fifteen years, You know, there's kind of a wave
of popularity with mustache. It's kind of become cool in
a way. So I'm gonna go with the mustache.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
All right, No, it was underwear. You should have went
with underwear.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Ah okay.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, So the Salt Lake Bees once had an underwear
night where fans who showed up wearing nothing but their
skivvies got in for free. For one, I think that's appropriate.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
If you are.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Only coming in your underwear, you get in for free,
if you've got that kind of confidence. But for family
friendly entertainment, it could have gotten a little risque.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, do we want to see that? In some cases?
And no, I hope shoes were allowed. There's some kind
of footwear.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
In most cases, No, but I would imagine most people
were pretty conservative. You know. I'm sure there was some
people who were on the on borderline inappropriate. I'm sure
there were you know what I mean, because there's gonna
I mean, if you get enough people together, of course,
but most of the I would say attendees were probably
(04:37):
keeping it clean. So now I got to go back
one more. Since we were talking about cracker jacks, I
had a trivia question. I was going to ask you
which is which of these is a real stadium food item? Okay, okay,
and I'll give you multiple choice. A the Porcoppoli. Its sorry,
I'm gonna have the porcallipse, pork porkopolyps, porkalypse, porkalypse. I
(05:07):
would say, it's the porkalypse, like apocalypse, but a porcalypse.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah, porcopolypse.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's called the the called the pork Porkalypse. Now, oh,
b the churo dog, see the Soggy Slammer or d
the triple bypass biscuit.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Which one of these is real or which one of
these is not real?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Is real? Yeap?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Oh man, they all sound real. I'm gonna say the
cheuro dog is real.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That's a good guess. That's a good guess. That is
the correct answer. The truro dog. Oh okay, what's better
is when you hear what the truro dog is, it's
chio on a bun. So. This is served by the
Arizona Diamondbacks Minor League affiliate. The churo dog is a
churo stuffed inside a chocolate glazed donut, topped with frozen yogurt,
(06:03):
whipped cream, caramel, and chocolate sauce. I mean it's like
a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I was into the chiro inside the donut and then
the frozen yogurt part lost me.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
No frozen yogurt for you, huh, Well, it's just too
much at that point.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I think if you coated it and whipped cream and
caramel and chocolate sauce, that's fine. The frozen yogurt, it
seems although for you know, a hot baseball game, that
might actually be pretty good because it'd be refreshing. Maybe
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So the poor Coppo lips, Now, poor coppol is not real. No,
not real, doesn't exist anywhere.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I'm sure the triple bypass biscuit does exist, But it's
not should should, but you know they're not as famous
as the Cracker Jacks. I will say that they haven't
caught on.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
The smartest thing Cracker Jacks ever did was let's tie
ourselves to baseball. Let's get in this song. Yeah, because
if it didn't happen, I don't know if Cracker Jacks
are still going strong. No offense. Crackerjacks, you got that sailor,
but I don't know if it's gonna be lasting if
you didn't have this forever tie to this historical game.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, the song helped them, and then also the giveaway
the prize inside.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
So we should clarify at this point this episode is
not about Cracker Jacks. It is about minor league baseball.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Minor league, big bold letters, minor minor league.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know, the majors get all the glory, but the
minor league it's where it's really happening. So let me
take you back a little bit. Minor league baseball dates
all the way back to nineteen oh one, whoa over
one hundred years ago, when it began as a way
to organize professional teams that couldn't financially compete with the
(07:57):
powerhouse clubs in the National and American leagues. Over the years,
minor league baseball evolved a little bit into a fully
affiliated system, so they were connected to the big leagues.
It's where the big league clubs would send their top
prospects to develop across five distinct levels rookie league, Single A,
(08:18):
High A, Double A, and Triple A. So players move
up the ranks as they hone their skills, with the
ultimate goal of making it to the show, the Show,
the Show. You got to get to the show, I mean,
that's what we're trying to do, get called up to
the show. In twenty twenty one, minor league baseball underwent
(08:40):
a major transformation, streamlining to one hundred and twenty teams,
with each major league organization now affiliated with four minor
league clubs. But what really sets the miners apart is
the color and charm, quirky team names, offbeat promotions, family
friendly atmosphere. It's baseball with a local twist, with some
(09:05):
teams throwing out some truly wild marketing and branding pitches.
And on today's episode, Patrick, we're gonna talk about some
of those branding curveballs that we get from some of
these minor league teams. We're gonna share our favorite minor
league baseball team names and logos. Are you ready to
(09:28):
slide into this?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, I'm gonna take it home.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
You can't take it all the way home.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I'm gonna take it all the way home. I'm gonna
knock it out of the park. I'm gonna slide to first, second,
and third base.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
You know what they say though, when you're sliding into
first you feel something burst.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Oh yeah, what's that your spleen? Yes. In our case,
this is a fun exercise to think of our favorites
because there are a lot of minor league team names. Yeah,
got one hundred and twenty in the running. Yeah, they're
not all super catchy. I mean, there are some in
(10:07):
there that are just kind of like uh ho hum. Yeah,
but there are some insanely good ones in there as well,
especially because I think a lot of the teams have
rebranded themselves in the most recent years. I would say, like,
for instance, you know, the Akron Arrows, which are close
to us, rebranded into the Akron Rubber Ducks, changing it
(10:29):
up a little bit, trying to be more family friendly,
being a little crazy with the name and having fun
with it. So stuff like that's happened, I think in
the later years.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, I think teams have gone for it a little
more in the past like decade or so to try
to kind of drum up some more interest. And that's
what makes this, you know, a little more fun. We've
done some I think we talked about like favorite NBA branding,
and I don't know if we did it for the
NFL or professional Baseball, I forget would be even done
in the past. This is a lot more interesting and
(11:00):
fun and varied in what we get in the major leagues.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And one of the things I've really loved about the
minor league, you know, like as you if you look
into the minor league teams, the names and everything are
all very closely related to the immediate geography or location
of the team. Like the name has a ties to
the community. There's history there typically.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, or at least a lot of the best ones, right,
and they're a little riskier than what you typically see
with you know, major corporate marketing, right.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, So let's get to it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
First thing we're going to do is we're going to
do our two favorite minor league team names. Do you
want to share your first one?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
This is hard because we're doing our favorite names and
doing our favorite logos, and a couple the two that
I have for my logos, I really wish I could
just actually use them for my names too, because they're
they're really good. But I had to choose, so I
would go like my first one for the names would
probably be the Hartford yard Goats. Okay, so this is
(12:05):
a double a affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, so Hartford, Connecticut.
The Hartford yard Goats. Yard goat is a railroad slang
for a small engine that moves train cars around in railyard,
a nod to Hartford's railroad history, and they leaned into
the literal meaning of the goat the animal for the
(12:27):
mascot and the branding. The logo features this fierce goat
chewing on a baseball bat. Naturally, I think that you'll
find a lot of the logos have something where like
if the mascot has it, it's either chewing on it
or smashing it or I don't know, doing something weird
with a baseball bat. Of course, with the names and
(12:49):
the logos, you know they draw from the community. A
lot of these names. What's really fun is that they
have public contests, so like for the naming or for
the a lot of times. So for the yard Goats,
they did the same thing. At first, I guess it
was pretty divisive. Then merch was flying off the shelves
(13:09):
because you know, it's fun and it's this goat chewing
on a bat.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And one of the I guess one of the reasons
for the name was the team stadium was built on
the site of an old railroad yard. To kind of
jump in, this is one of mine too, is it
the name? I yeah, I really like the heart. I
mean this to me might be the most minor league
team there is in terms of branding. You know, they
(13:34):
just completely have the right vibe. I think the name,
the logo, everything kind of down the line for all
the reasons you stated, you know, as you kind of
explained it. You know that the Double a affiliate of
the Colorado Rockies in Hartford, Connecticut, and you just, you know,
yard Goats is just such a name that just feels
very minor league baseball to me, I like the use
(13:57):
of slang term. Yeah names my close second. It's not
necessarily my second pick, but the in this same category.
Along that, I also liked the Amarillo sod poodles. Oh yeah,
a sod poodle being a slang term for prairie dogs, yep,
which is pretty hilarious.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I battled with that as my second and here did
you and I? And what I really liked about it
was that they both are slang and if you look
at them, they're both very similar in terms of the logo. Now,
I know we're not picking for note logos, we're picking
for the names. But the prairie dog has I think
the bat is in his mouth. But he's got you know,
(14:40):
like the Texan hat on which I love.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
And he's got like alfalfa or something.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Oh yeah, okay, that's alfalfa. It looks like a bat.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I could see why he say that.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, yeah, And I really liked I liked the idea
because it's odd and you know, catchy, just like the
yard goats, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
M hm.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Regional, very regional, right.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, it's very regional. I mean, how do you like
even say sad poodles without kind of smiling a little
bit like what is this sod? This is why I
I you know, I was thinking about it as sort
of a duo in my lists because This is the
one thing about the minor league teams that I think
they do so well. It's this like family friendly environment,
you know, where they do weird things, but they're all
(15:23):
kind of fun and they're trying to make baseball lively
and get people really excited, which you know in Major
league baseball. I mean it happens, right, but there's more
seriousness to those games, yeah, whereas like minor league teams
seem to have like a little bit more kitschy fun,
you know.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So that's not your second pick.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, I don't know. I think I kind of want to.
You know, it's been sitting there on my list, kind
of like going up and down in the second and
third spot because I you know, I had backups.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah, of course, I mean there's so many you got it.
So it is your second pick.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I think that's my second pick. It was either that
or the Modesto Nuts.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Another good one. So my second one. This is, you know,
kind of doing a different thing. I also like names with,
as we know from everything we do on the show. Alliteration. Yeah, yeah,
you know, it's a little off the beaten path. It's
got some alliteration. The name's probably gonna win for me,
so I liked the Cannapolis Cannonballers.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Mmm, okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
This is a single a affiliate of the Chicago White
Sox based in Cannapolis, North Carolina, which I was like,
where is that? Twenty five miles northeast of Charlotte. So
this is like a lot of the teams we mentioned
kind of has had a lot of names. They were
the Piedmont Phillies and then they kind of moved, and
then they were the Cannapolis Intimidators, a name inspired by
(16:53):
NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, who was a part owner, and
then in twenty twenty they became the Kannapolis Cannonballers. The
name comes from James William Cannon and the textile company
he founded, the Cannon Mills Company, which the town is
actually basically named from. So the original suggestion I think
(17:18):
came from fans was the Cannons. Some copyright issues there
as well as the weapons connotation. They went with the Cannonballers.
Interesting thing about their mascot I mentioned the Dale Earnhard connection.
Their mascot has kind of a baseball head and a
Dale Earnhardt mustache. It's kind of like a stuntman with
(17:38):
a baseball head a Dale Earnard mustache. Pretty cool. I
like this name, the Cannapolis Cannonballers. They sound a little.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Nuts, like the Modesto nuts. One of the things I
think is really cool about you know, the names. They're
so hyper local, you know what I mean to being
like you were saying this company created the town, right,
and that people probably worked at that company from the town,
(18:05):
and then that led to somewhere down the line a
minor league team, you know, to play baseball because it's
an all American sport. And you get to this point
where that is the root of how something is named
is So it's a beautiful thing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It's wild, but it's also logical. It follows a clear
line of history, Yeah, and logic to get to this
like kind of goofy name.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, all right, So we've got our list OF's favorite logos.
This is gonna be I have a feeling we have
the same exact ones.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
For this, do you think so? I doubt it.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
There's so many, Yeah, that's true. There there's a million
of them. What's your first? Your favorite?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So my first you mentioned it? I doubt you have
this one. You mentioned this name this team before you
mentioned their name. You threw it out there just offhandedly.
It's a single, a affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. It's
the Modesto Nuts.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Now, I generally like when the logo is alive and
weird and angry. Another kind of honorable mention in this
category is the Hartford Hops, which is the neatest looking
hops you'll ever see. But the nuts. In this logo
of the Modesto Nuts, you got a peanut who just
has a great scale in which looks like a very
(19:32):
hard chin and sort of a very uh, not too
bright looking walnut. I think as idiot is, you know,
holding a baseball. There's actually three of them, three mascots.
I think there's only a couple of them that appear
in their logo. But there's al the almond, Wally the walnut,
and Shelley the pistachio. But it's just the logo itself,
(19:53):
very old timey with the font. You know, the name
sounds screwball, but the logo kind of looks sinister a
little bit, like these are some tough nuts hanging out
on the corner who might come after you. So I
just really went for this one. It felt very baseball
to me.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, no, I think it does. And honestly, it's a
dead ringer for Jay Leno. Honestly, I mean he does
kind of look like.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I mean, he's got the chin.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I like that he's wearing a baseball cap with the
M on top, you know what I mean. That's good touch,
that's good stuff. A solid pick. Here's here's one that
I couldn't deny myself, The Rocket City trash Pandas M. Madison.
It's a double a affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels.
(20:46):
Rocket City is a nickname for Huntsville, Alabama, home to
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and a rich history in
US space exploration. So that's where the Rocket City comes from.
Trash Panda is the internet's lovingly sarcastic term for a raccoon,
as we might all know from Guardians of the Galaxy.
(21:06):
I'm pretty sure it was a reference in there. It's
basically a fuzzy little band who lives for rating garbage cans.
So how did it come to be that this is
the name for the team and a contest In twenty eighteen,
the trash Pandas ran away with the vote because it
was hilarious, for one, but because it merges local pride
(21:27):
rockets with a pure marketing cast of raccoons. That's sort
of basically what it came down to, was, you know,
a contest. The reason why I chose it is it's
got this raccoon in a trash can, rocketing like there's
jet propulsion, and he's got this like grin on his face,
not like a happy grin, but kind of like a
(21:49):
little bit of a menacing grin. You know, he's ornery
if you will. I don't know, it's brilliant to me.
I think what's interesting too, is in the contest in
twenty eighteen came right after I think Guardians of the
Galaxy two, so one had been out two and I
wonder a little bit if in that contest, the trash
(22:11):
pandas had you know, like the public you know, consciousness,
they thought that would be fun, because I don't know
if that would have been as delightful if it wasn't
for Rocket the raccoon, you know what I mean. Because
it's also like he's in a rocket trash can, which
is you know, again pays homage to their history. But
(22:36):
I think it might have had something to do. This
is just my theory.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
It was the first thing I thought of when I
saw it. It was the first media connection I made,
and I thought maybe that was just me.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You look at all these different logos together and you
see some of the ones that are more design wise
well done than others, you know, and this is like
a very like nicely done logo. Yeah, very like nicely
put together. I do wonder though, if this logo and
the logo of the Quad City River Bandits have beef
(23:11):
because they are both raccoons.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I mean it might, it might.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I do take a little issue with the trash Panna's name.
It crossed a weird line where I was like, I
don't know, this is like almost like two chintzy, even
for minor league baseball.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I like that. It's kind of like what people felt
when they first came up with the Rubber Ducks. They
were like, it's kind of cheesy and dumb. But then
you're like, but it's fun, and the visual for it
is really exciting, Like little kids and adults can be
like this is silly fun, And I think that's the
(23:50):
brilliance of it.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
See my style of name. I'm like, you gotta be
able to like get behind it a little bit. And
there's some names that are just like slightly over the
line where I'm like, I don't know. That's kind of
one of them, the trash pandas. Let me give you
another creature, Okay, because a lot of these, there's a
lot of these better animals, especially kind of insane menacing animals.
(24:13):
So my next pick is the Double a affiliate of
the San Francisco Giants. The Richmond Flying Squirrels. Really like
the shape and colors of this logo, but mostly I
love how hard they made the squirrel look. You know,
we're just talking about the kind of raccoon. They just
made this squirrel look like some of you don't want
(24:35):
to mess with. This is something I would want on
a shirt or a hat. He looks like he's coming
at you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And a cool.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Interesting note on this one, the squirrel. The flying Squirrel
is meant to look like the outline of the state
of Virginia and the R patch on he's like. On
the Flying Squirrel, he has an acorn with an R
over it over his heart is where Richmond is located
in Virginia. Just a nice little Easter egg.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, I love that you picked that because that is
my second pick.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Oh it's not your second pick too, So we did
have an overlap.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You did have overlap. But here's what I will say
about that, both of my picks in the name and
in the logo both have some overlap and similarity too,
because the flying squirrel not not only are they flying,
like the raccoon and the squirrel are flying. Yes, I
get that, but if you look really close, like even
though the facial expressions of the squirrel and the raccoon
(25:32):
are super super close, they're very similar, you know where
they've got this like kind of menacing so you could
kind of see how, you know, if they use it
in certain ways, it feels tough. I also really like
the logos that they use in different ways depending on
the medium. So like if you look at the flying squirrels,
(25:52):
you know, like it looks one way on the hat,
but it's kind of stylized a little bit different for
like the tickets, or they just use like the head
and the face of the squirrel on certain things like
the JumboTron and stuff like that. Same thing with the
trash pandas you don't always see all of that logo.
You Sometimes you just see his face, and his face
can be used in a cute way but also kind
(26:15):
of be somewhat aggressive, And so both mine were connected
in that way.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Yeah, I think too, going back to our you know,
kind of conversation about you know, you're talking about the
logo you want it to be not too cute, and
I'm kind of saying the same thing about the name.
There's probably a balance there too, Like maybe if you
have a cute name, a slightly more aggressive logo or
(26:40):
vice versa, you know, modesto nuts, you know, you have
kind of a wacky name, and then you get kind
of an aggressive logo, and we're kind of like balancing
the scales a little bit. You get an aggressive nut,
you know, you bring in an aggressive nut to balance
things out, you know. Interesting on the honorable side. I
don't know if I like it or not, but I'm
(27:02):
very drawn to the Sugarland Space Cowboys logo. I find
it's just super interesting, though it's kind of strange and
it slightly scares.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Me which logo because they have like the sl.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I was thinking more of the Spaceman space where it's
like stars yeah, you know the Space Cowboy. What about
the El Paso Chihuahuas. I think that that dog on
the hat, I mean we're talking about balance. I think
that scale is tipped in the favor of logo aggression
because that dog looks angry. I do like Also the
(27:38):
Altuna curve. I enjoy obviously a good chin on a logo.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Hmm okay, yeah, there's a ton where I'm like the
problem that I had. There's so many where it's just blah.
You know, yeah, there's nothing, there's nothing visual for you
to pull from. So I think the ones that are
very successful immediately and you say it, you have a
visual of it. So a lot to take away from this.
(28:05):
Here's the marketing takeaway.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
What do you got?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Minor League Baseball proves that when it comes to branding,
weird works.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Weird works. From outrageous food to over the top promotions.
The names these teams embrace bold, local and often laugh
out loud ideas to stand out in a crowded entertainment market.
The lesson don't be afraid to swing for the fences
with your brand personality, because memorable beats safe every time.
(28:39):
Do you like that?
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I do.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I think that stands up too, because I think if
you think about baseball as a game, and especially minor
league baseball, there's a small percentage of people who go
there for the games.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Mm hm.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Most people go there for the atmosphere and the vibe
and you know what, you're kind of like selling this
like a family good time where you know, something to
do for a night and experience. Yeah, so it's you know,
folding it up in this thing like let's get weird,
let's get interesting, let's do these giveaways, like all these
things going on around this thing that's going on in
(29:13):
the field, which can be exciting, can be fun. Some
people think it's slow, not everybody's sitting there and watching
every pitch. Yeah, but it's this is the center of it,
and you know, let's have all this stuff going on
around it and kind of like make that exciting, make
that fun, and sell you on it. And that's kind
of in essence what you have to do with marketing,
especially for companies on an everyday basis, where you're not
(29:37):
going to sell every person on you know, this central
thing all the time. It's not going to be like, oh,
let me talk technically about these things that we can
do and people would be like, well, I'm already asleep,
so let's you know, build a fun brand around that.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, And to your point, it's the experience, right, It's
like the whole thing is the experience when it comes
to branding. That should also be the point, you know,
of your branding is sure, the weird stuff works, but
it's about that whole experience. It could be your marketing,
could be whatever. It could be your messaging, it could
be how you treat people, you know, when they're at
(30:12):
your company, how do you make them feel like family,
almost like the family environment that they're trying to create
in the minor league teams.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
You know. Yeah, and you know your family's a little weird.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah. Well, we hope you enjoyed this look at the
minor league team's names, brands. But that's it for today's episode.
You can find current and past episodes of the podcast
on Speaking Human dot com.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
We'll be back in two weeks with another episode of
Speaking Human. Catch you then Yard
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Goats Speaking Human
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