Building a brand name means sticking logos on everything from license plates to pens, mugs and T-shirts, to make the brand stick in consumer's minds.
The W. P. Carey School of Business and the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering want to launch online stores for their merchandise to do just that.
More than 11 potential bidders vying to run the stores met Thursday in the University Services Building for a pre-proposal conference.
Whichever of the companies competing for the bid wins would run two online storefronts, one for each school.
Jeremy Fountain, W. P. Carey school marketing specialist, said starting two online stores for each school's merchandise will serve three purposes: increasing access to the schools' merchandise, boosting the schools' recognition and advancing University enterprising objectives.
Under the proposal, the vendor who wins the bid would sell merchandise at the cost of producing it, plus a 15 percent mark up that would come back to each school and then another percentage of profit for itself.
If the W. P. Carey or Fulton schools buy merchandise, the vendor would not charge the 15 percent mark up.
Fountain said normal mark up on merchandise is much higher than 15 percent.
According to the University's request for proposal, the consumer base will be at least 450 people for each school's merchandise.
"We're not going to make a ton of money off this," Fountain said.
But profit is not the reason for offering the merchandise.
Craig Smith, W. P. Carey director of marketing and communications, said the point is name recognition.
"If we don't make any money, and everyone's wearing our shirts, I'll be happy as a clam," Smith said. "This is a brand-making process."
He said the two schools did not set up their merchandising through the ASU Bookstore because the bookstore isn't ready for online sales yet.
The schools wanted their online stores to be up and running by May so that new graduates could buy and receive gifts with the schools' logos on them.
"Our brand stops at graduation right now," Smith said. "It screeches to a halt."
The online stores would help change that, he added.
ASU contracts with about 350 vendors to make products with ASU logos on them, said Fernando Morales, ASU trademark licensing coordinator.
Some of those vendors may end up bidding for the schools' online storefronts, Smith said.
The two schools' plan for merchandising differs from that of some other business schools across the country.
UA's Eller College of Business and Public Administration does not contract with a separate vendor to sell only Eller College merchandise, said Marcia Dean, Eller College program coordinator.
The vendors UA contracts to make merchandise also make Eller College-ware.
Indiana University's Kelley School of Business Alumni Association runs a Web site that sells just Kelley School merchandise.
A university-wide cooperative independent of Harvard University sells Harvard Business School merchandise.
When asked if the Harvard Business School was prestigious enough to have its own merchandise vendor, HBS spokesman Jay Chrepta said, "We're also prestigious enough that we don't need one."
Reach the reporter at ilan.brat@asu.edu.
