Mix together a newly successful athletic program, the holiday gift season and a fresh slogan and you have a marketing winner. ``Fear the Roo'' merchandise has been selling out since the women's cross-country team, the men's soccer team and the football team all won Mid-American Conference titles, the soccer team earned a national ranking and the football team went to the Motor City Bowl.
The school grossed $100,000 in athletics merchandise sales in December, according to Mike Waddell, associate athletic director in external relations at UA. Waddell estimated that half of that came solely from Fear the Roo sales. In December 2004, the gross was about $7,000.
The bookstore inside UA's Student Union has been a hot spot for Roo items, selling out its first shipment.
Prices range from $14.98 for a youth T-shirt to $34.98 for an adult hooded sweatshirt.
The fearsome kangaroo is not the same critter as the university's bouncy, friendly mascot, university officials say..
``This is not Zippy. Zippy is the guy who will go to your birthday party and kiss your baby. Around our department, we call this guy Hoppy.''
[Excerpted from a story by Dan Kadar on the Beacon Journal Business front on Thursday, December 20.]
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