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As a North Carolina native, I’ve always considered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to be synonymous with “UNC.” It was the first public university in the United States, and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. The institution itself owns the trademark for UNC, as well as the domain name.

The University of North Carolina family of schools actually has 16 different university campuses, most with disparate brands. Some institutions utilize a brand extension approach to identify themselves as part of the University of North Carolina family, including Asheville (UNCA), Charlotte (UNCC), Greensboro (UNCG), Pembroke (UNCP), and Wilmington (UNCW). But with other constituents of the University of North Carolina family adopting a different style of naming (Appalachian State, NC State, East Carolina, etc), it looks like the system needs some consistent brand standards. Does the brand extension approach for some universities imply that they are simply an additional campus of the main school and not their own entity? And do those universities that distance themselves in naming structure from the UNC family heritage do a disservice to their students and alumni?

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You’d think that after spending 40+ hours a week emerged in other companies’ corporate and product branding initiatives, a person would choose to escape and relax on the weekends. But for 3-4 months a year, my weekend activities incorporate my day job, because I represent a branded tailgate party.

A group of Wake Forest alumni who realized we no longer fit in with the student lot crowd at football games, but who weren’t qualified for parking passes in the lot closest to the stadium with the big donors (the Gold Lot), set up camp in the corner of the Blue Lot that almost touches the Gold Lot. Thus, Almost Gold was born.

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