Yale markets its name and merchandise overseas

With 300 years of history, billions of dollars of endowment, and tens of thousands of alumni resting on the prestige of its name, Yale has an obligation to protect this asset. To this end, the University created the Office of University Licensing Programs three years ago to monitor and expand the usage of the Yale name domestically and abroad.

"There has been a major change [in the usage of the Yale name] in the last 20 years or so," history professor Gaddis Smith, PC '54, GRD '61, who is currently teaching the DeVane Lecture on Yale and the External World in the 20th Century, said. "President Giamatti [SY '60, GRD '64] was opposed to the use of the Yale name at all. For example, I recall an instance when an advertising firm wanted to take shots of the Yale crew rowing team in practice to use in a television ad for a perfectly healthy product. There would have been no mention of Yale--just the rowing. A good fee was offered. Giamatti said no."

Helen Kauder, director of university licensing programs, said, "Our obligation to the University has four basic parts." She explained that her office seeks to create a positive image for itself in New Haven and abroad, as well as in corporate sponsorship in promotion of the Yale name and properties. Cynthia Atwood, director of Yale public relations, said, "The office also works to protect the Yale name so that it is not associated with something that Yale would not choose to be associated with, like a movie script or the advertisement of a certain product."

Before the office was established, there was no "centralized institutional view and voice on these matters," Kauder said. Internationally, the Yale name was being used without the University's permission to promote schools in Taiwan and Venezuela and was being unfairly treated in France.

Kauder described the problems faced by the University abroad due to a lack of recognition. "The Office was notified that, in France, when movies were dubbed from English into French, phrases like, `She went to Yale,' were being translated as, `She went to Harvard,'" Kauder said. "The Harvard name carries more meaning there. That's one of the things we're trying to deal with right now. We want recognition of our name and recognition in the most positive way possible."

Yale is subsequently trying to market merchandise and other products abroad in order to create more recognition. "Right now, alongside Harvard, we're licensing our name to a European apparel company to create a line of sportswear based on our vintage images from the 1920s and '30s," Kauder said. "We're celebrating our history, bringing out our famous alumni, and embodying the Yale spirit while securing the rights to our name. In the European market, trademark laws are `use it or lose it,' so it's important that we do something like this."

Yale has also been concentrating much more on the Asian markets in recent years. "More than any place in the world, in Asia there is an appreciation of what is best in education," Kauder added. "We recognized that early on and fought to protect our marks in Asian countries. Now we're trying to do more retail there to gain recognition for our name, but due to the financial crisis, people are not buying a whole lot of Yale products."

According to People's Republic of China native Irene Liu, SY '02, few people in China recognize the Yale name. "If you're talking to people in business who have a lot of encounters with foreign investment, they will recognize the Yale name," she said. "But with normal, everyday people, it's a little bit different. The name is not recognized anywhere as much as Harvard--that is the name people relate to good education. In Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, people recognize Yale a bit more than on the mainland because those places are a little more business-oriented."

The exact figures of Yale's revenue from licensing are not public information, but Kauder said that the University is working toward the lofty goal of approximately $2 million that Harvard earns in its best licensing and merchandising years.

Besides the financial results, international recognition has many auxiliary benefits. For example, the international recognition often helps the admissions office when recruiting international students. "It is always nice to have our name out there as long as it is done tastefully and appropriately," Richard Shaw, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, said. "Recognition in any form is helpful."

"We've been around for 300 years and we have an extraordinary legacy," Kauder said. "It is easy to sit back on our laurels but we must instead continue to seek to reference and celebrate the past. This is all a component of enhancing our image as one of the world's greatest universities."

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