Jerry Min and Anson High School Teacher Peter Asciutto
Orion Griffin | Anson Record
Jerry Min, the General Manager of the Wampus Cats speaking to the class
Orion Griffin | Anson Record
WADESBORO — What is a Wampus Cat?
That’s the question that Jerry Min, the general manager for the Uwharrie Wampus Cats, asked Anson High’s sports events and marketing class last week. Min came in to speak with the class about the importance of brand awareness and marketing, using Albemarle’s newest baseball team as an example.
“Part of the relevance of sports and event marketing is really about brand awareness,” Min explained to the class. “So brand marketing is an important part of what any company or business does. And it’s something that we spent a lot of time working on prior to the launch of our team, which was in January of this year.”
Min, who has 16 years of experience working with ESPN, walked the class, taught by Peter Asciutto, through the steps of how the Uhwarrie Wampus Cats came about, from their logo to their name’s font. He explained that logos are an important part of marketing and helping people recognize the brand. He started from the very beginning, explaining that Uhwarrie was chosen since that is where the team is located as well as the relation with bigfoot and sightings in the Uhwarrie forest.
“So that’s how we came up with Uhwarrie, we chose the forest,” began Min. “And of course that ties back to the mascot. The wampus cat is a mythical panther-like, cougar-like creature along the lines of bigfoot.”
The decision to use the wampus cat as the mascot played into marketing in it’s own unique way. Given the mythical notion of the creature, people will ask what a wampus cat is, generating conversation and bringing attention to the baseball team.
“Because one of the best questions somebody can ask is ‘What is a wampus cat?’” Min said. “If they’re asking questions about your brand, your product, they’re talking about it.”
After choosing on a name, as well as what the mascot will be, the next step is bringing the brand to life and giving it a face, something people will recognize as well as appeal to everyone. This step starts with choosing keywords that the image will be built around.
“We wrote down fun, we wrote down happy, we wrote down smiles. We wrote down good times,” explained Min. “So whenever you’re creating the brand or a marketing plan for anything, you want to focus on the keywords and then figure out how you can create pictures and colors that help invoke those keywords.”
Out of the keywords comes and image. For the Wampus Cat’s mascot, Catty Wampus, that was a smiling yellow, brown, and orange cat with a five o’clock shadow. A smiling face and bright and uncommon color scheme, draws in the children while the parents can relate to needing to shave everyday.
“We created a mascot that really is about drawing attention to the brand, drawing the attention and interests of kids, because when kids are interested in something, they typically will bring their parents along as well,” Min explained. “But we needed to make it, also, something for parents. So what’s a little example of that? If you’ll notice, Wampus Cat has razor stubble. Those little black dots are razor stubble. It’s not just a kid’s character, it’s an adult character as well.”
The design went as far as thinking about how the letters would appear, looking at the wavy and swishing nature of a cats tail, and using a font that would depict the cat’s tail. Each and every part of the logo was thought about in order to make their team, their brand, marketable and recognizable.
“We all want to be known as Albemarle’s baseball team. or Stanly County’s baseball team,” Min began. “We are a regional team; we represent everyone from the entire region. We chose Uhwarrie because that’s the forest. It’s not just a single place that people identify with, it’s a whole area.”
Min also explained that another part of marketing a baseball team was bringing attention and people to the games. Without that, there wouldn’t be a baseball team. The old field needed some love, and the Wampus Cats gave it just that. They renovated the park, giving new life to the concessions stand and seating as a way to show that this was not an American Legion game or team; this was Albemarle’s fun baseball team.
“We needed to make sure we created a fun environment. So, at that baseball field [Don Montgomery Park in Albemarle], we completely rebuilt the concession stand,” Min began explaining. “We’re going to have hot dogs, pizza, and popcorn, normal things you’d find at the ballpark, but it’s going to come out of a new concession stand.”
“We took one of the bullpens [batting cages] and we simply just got rid of it,” Min continued. “But we took that area, which is right near the concession stand, we moved a fence, and we’re gonna bring in picnic tables.”
Other upgrades include stadium seats, new bleachers, vendors and beer being served at the concession stand as a way to bring in more young adults who may not have children.
“These are all things that we’re doing from a marketing perspective to make sure we deliver on our promise that the Wampus Cats are going to be fun and entertaining,” said Min. “It’s great to use all those magic things to create a logo, but if you don’t deliver on those words and those promises, you’re going to fail in the long run.”
This means that a brand must communicate with its consumers and its audience, gaining feedback and seeing what they can improve on or do differently. Doing this ensures that the company survives, and in the Wampus Cat’s situation, keep coming to games.
The team goes as far as using wooden bats, like the major league does, to give audiences a more professional feel to the baseball games. It also appeals to the traditionalists, who feel that wooden bats are better, and appeals to everyone with the satisfying crack of a wooden bat every time it hits a ball. For the players, it gives them an opportunity to grow, since swinging a wooden bat is a little different than an aluminum one.
“So to appeal to traditionalists, we make sure we play with wooden bats,” Min said to the class of high school students. “And that’s really good for the players because one of the purposes of our team is to get existing college players to grow, a chance to continue to develop.”
The Wampus Cats is a team made up of college baseball players and students.
“We have 34 guys on our roster,” Min said. “We have seven or eight pitchers. That’s going to give all the pitchers an opportunity to work, but none of them are going to get overworked.”
The season will begin on Memorial Day Monday, May 29. The Wampus Cats will be dancing off with the Carolina Disco Turkeys starting at 6:00 p.m.. Tickets can be purchased at the Wampus Cat website.