University of Alabama – Family Weekend PopShop

The complete story

How the program came together

1. 01

   Opportunity

   In 2024, the University of Alabama wanted to streamline its Family Weekend PopShop. The shop needed to keep a strong selection of branded merchandise for families and attendees while making the ordering process more efficient to run. The department was looking to simplify its own operations around the event without reducing the quality of the shopping experience families expected during one of the busiest weekends on the campus calendar.

2. 02

   Strategy

   Club Colors reviewed how previous shops had been run and built a more structured framework from what that analysis showed. The central decision was catalog discipline: limit the selection to a few key items, all carrying a consistent logo treatment. A focused catalog makes the shopping decision easier for families and, at the same time, narrows what has to be produced and fulfilled — one change addressing both the visitor experience and the department's operational load.

3. 03

   Solution

   The rebuilt Family Weekend PopShop applied that framework directly. Product selection was refined to the core items families actually wanted, and branding was kept consistent across all of them, so the storefront presented one coherent Family Weekend identity. The structured approach removed steps that had made previous shops harder to administer while keeping a clear brand presence throughout the event. The result is designed to scale to future Family Weekends without being rebuilt.

4. 04

   Outcome

   The structured model gave the university a simpler shopping experience to administer while reinforcing brand visibility for Family Weekend. A focused catalog with consistent branding made the ordering decision clearer for families and reduced what the department had to manage around the event. Existing copy documents that results from this initiative helped inform future strategies for running university events, giving Alabama a framework it can carry into subsequent Family Weekends.