Branding --- Marketing --- Promoting

So Ron Caragher is now on a-tweeting.

Jimmy Durkin also tweeted here and here that other Spartan football coaches are Twittering.

Good.

Having a presence is needed. It can be an essential part of promoting a brand.

After all, SJSU is situated in the heart of Silicon Valley and connectivity, not in that certain place in Egypt.

As for the basketball coaches, Chris Brazelton has just started. Omar Lowery has a twitter account but protects his tweets. Nothing for Jack Kennedy or Coach Wojcik although the latter started one while at BSU.

So in narrowing the focus considering the Spartan hoops subject matter of this blog, what and where is the strategic vision and planning regarding the marketing, branding and promotion of SJSU basketball? There is a new staff, therefore a fresh beginning, meaning opportunity abounds.

In general, coaches should not be responsible for such -- that's not their area of expertise (maybe John Calpari excepted) -- but absolutely need to play a part as they are the face of the program.

But far too often this is an area that is an athletics afterthought or it's placed in the hands of a youngster close out of college, someone minus ties to and familiarity with Silicon Valley, let alone SJSU itself. The result: typically a billboard or two might get plastered with a catch-Spartan-excitement exclamation and that constitutes and becomes the campaign.

For so long, it's been the same old attendees at the basketball games, the core 500 or so. Now winning is often offered as a cure-all and that's certainly true to a large degree. However, if a tree falls in the forest (SJSU enjoys a successful season) but 99% of the population in the Santa Clara Valley is unaware of this, what is the reality?

It's perplexing that some of SJSU's best and brightest donors, many who are successful in product marketing and branding at their own businesses and places of employment, aren't brought in to offer their expertise.

It's baffling that a roundup of former Spartans roundballers, the too often shunted aside and ignored, remain in that status rather than an attempt be made to reach out and respectfully bring them back into the fold.

It's confounding that a resurrection of the Spartan Rebounders, hopefully with a different title and not composed solely for the purpose of extracting donations, isn't looming on the horizon.

Now is the time to build momentum.

Not November.