Bear-Faced Cheek From Bristol - Andy Goode

Barely promoted and already changing the identity of the club, the Bristol Bears backlash has begun and I can see why many are finding it hard to bear.

Ok, that’s enough of the puns but I genuinely thought it was an April Fool’s joke when I heard the news and that it was some sort of marketing stunt to promote the club after they’d sealed promotion. I just think it’s bizarre and I’m really not sure about the motivation behind it.

I played against Bristol when they were known as the Shoguns but that was all to do with Mitsubishi so you can understand it when there’s a sponsorship element and there’s money coming in. To rebrand as Bristol Bears is just a gimmick, though. They have no association with bears whatsoever. When was the last time you saw a bear in the West Country?

I appreciate their desire to capitalise commercially but I’m not sure it’ll have the effect they want and they really should be focusing on getting their product right on the field first. Bristol haven’t done that over the last decade or so and they’ve been up and down so many times that the Bristol Yo-Yos might have been a more appropriate nickname!

Someone has been paid a shed load of money to come up with this branding and I think it’s daylight robbery. They’re just opening themselves up to being labelled the Bristol Teddy Bears and attracting all the wrong headlines. Even the logo looks quite cuddly.

They obviously wanted something that younger fans can relate to and I’m sure they’ll have a big bear as a mascot but I’m not sure that and the other reasons are enough to warrant changing the name of the club.

The counterpoint is that nobody is criticising the likes of Sale, Leicester, Northampton, Wasps and others but they are all institutions. I know you have to start somewhere but it’s not comparable to Wasps, who have been called that for over 150 years, and I can’t help but feel they’re trying to run before they can walk in the Premiership.

The timing of it just a few days after they’ve won promotion is ill-advised as well for me. Some marketing guru has come up with this and I think it’s a gimmick that makes them look a bit foolish before they’ve even played a game in the top flight.

They’re going to be in a real battle next season and the media are going to have a field day with headlines and puns and references to big cuddly bears. They will be a lot more competitive this time than a couple of years ago but I really think it’s going to be a sideshow that they just didn’t need.

If you’re going to do it, at least cement yourselves in the Premiership and achieve some level of sustainability and then maybe think about this in a few years’ time.

You only need to look at the reaction on social media to see that a lot of people think it’s a bit of a joke but I suppose some will say I’m looking at it from a purely rugby angle and the marketing teams will obviously be looking at it from a different perspective.

I guarantee the boys will be laughing in that changing room though. There will be jokes going around about cuddly teddy bears and grizzly bears and players asking what sort of bear they’re going to be today.

Of course, they’ll be showing a united front to the outside world because the club are the ones paying their wages and I don’t think they’ll be bothered by it but it’s just a gimmick that’s come from the marketing departments and they’ll see through that.

I remember when I was at Bromsgrove school we rebranded our first team Bromsgrove buffaloes and had jumpers made and all sorts. It was a bit of fun for us as school kids and this feels the same really for Bristol.

And, it goes without saying that the fans are an integral part in all this. They should be consulted as they pay their very hard-earned cash to watch the games week in week out and that’s one of the biggest drivers in terms of revenue.

It all feels like it’s been done a bit cloak and dagger – we’ve been promoted, now here we are… the Bristol Bears. I think it’s ill-advised and poorly-timed but any press is good press in terms of branding and getting the name out there.

Gallagher are coming in as a US company to sponsor the premiership and some people have put two and two together and made five but there’s no way they’re insisting they want certain clubs rebranded to be more Americanised just because they’re an American company.

It is true that Gloucester have three different new logos that they’re considering but they changed the badge not too long ago and I can’t see them following a similar path to Bristol. The Shed would go absolutely wild if they tried to become the Gloucester Gladiators!

Ultimately, rugby is a sport in its infancy in terms of professionalism, we’re only 22 years in. As a result, there are a lot of people coming in with different ideas trying to generate as much interest and revenue as possible. They’ll go down various avenues and some will work but some won’t.

Bristol have gone all out to change their name and try to increase their revenue but this one might just be a miss rather than a hit.