The Importance of an Effective Identity
I’m not sure if many of you have been following what has been happening recently with GAP – they rebranded and their new logo received a ton of criticism. So much criticism, in fact, that they have backtracked and decided to continue with their old logo.
Rebrand Disasters
Incidents like this aren’t entirely isolated – in fact, the Post Office attempted to rebrand as Consignia a few years ago and had to backtrack on that decision as well.
Interestingly the thing that both of these botched rebrands had in common was that the brands spent over two years being developed. The fact that both were a bit rubbish is quite coincidental and I think mostly a result of the bad choices made in the development of their respective brand marks.
Powerful Brands are Spontaneous
The thing that really stands out for me as a lesson that should have been learnt here is that brand creation (or regeneration) needs to be a spontaneous, company-value driven process, as opposed to being snowed under with middle management decisions by managers who don’t have a clue about design.
Reality Strikes Again
If only the power of middle management could be restrained when it comes to creative decisions. Companies hire marketeers but somehow don’t trust their decisions or marketing skills. Companies hire management to oversee and, ironically, manage the process. Yet one ‘high up’ manager has the ability to wipe out weeks of work by creatives, agencies and the people who are essentially their team. One thing about marketing and design is that you sometimes need to ‘get over yourself’ – consider the market and target audience as a whole. You may not like pink fluffy sheep but if that’s what is being demanded then, unless you have a truly better idea, then listen and respond to consumer demands.
What are your thoughts? Have any of you recently gone through the process of rebranding or are thinking about doing so? Tell us about the struggles you’ve faced, vent at us!
Tags: Brand, Branding, Business, Communication design, Gap, Graphic design, Management, manager, Marketing, Post Office, Rebranding
“Companies hire marketeers but somehow don’t trust their decisions or marketing skills. Companies hire management to oversee and, ironically, manage the process. Yet one ‘high up’ manager has the ability to wipe out weeks of work by creatives, agencies and the people who are essentially their team. One thing about marketing and design is that you sometimes need to ‘get over yourself’ – consider the market and target audience as a whole. You may not like pink fluffy sheep but if that’s what is being demanded then, unless you have a truly better idea, then listen and respond to consumer demands.”
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