I mentioned here the much discussed Pepsi Rebranding.

Fast Company revealed a leaked pdf that outlines the thinking behind the controversial new Pepsi logo.

If with this the designer team is trying to get excuses for their results and 5 months of working or the million dollar invoice, then they should listen to what everybody comment on this: it is a lame excuse.

Mixing gravitation in the Pepsi galaxy, energy fields, relativity of space and time, some mythical perfect proportions, some da Vinci Code and some smiley faces the document is trying, without a final conclusion, to make us stand up in ovation by the end of the reading.

Well, we will stand up…. And leave.

Download the document here.

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I honestly consider it one of the ugliest rebrands, redesigns of a logo, I have ever seen.  The letters which take on different weights, colors and textures are sending me the message of a unfinished draft logo on a designer table that still has long way to go until done.

Animal Planet Logo Change

All these even though the new logo was designed by Dunning Eley Jones, a London-based design firm with plenty of experience in TV branding.  I am just curious if any of my readers here, see any of the message in this logo.

The lucky thing is that the Discovery Channel logo change wasn’t such a failure, on the opposite.

Discovery Channel Logo Change

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It’s not the firs nor the last of big brands that seems to think that their slumping sales will recover by slight changes in their branding. I’m not sure that this is the right answer or just an effort in the wrong direction at not the right time.

It took the designers five months to finalize the (new?) iconic logo. Five months and $1 million dollars for the design.

The purpose of the rebranding? “Making the logo more dynamic and more alive … [it is] absolutely a huge step in the right direction” said Frank Cooper, Pepsi’s VP-portfolio brands

So far, branding experts are in both camps. “It’s tilting the whole brand presentation from a classic expression of uniqueness and quality into something that is much more humorous, almost flippant,” said Tony Spaeth, an identity consultant. “It worries me that it is less durable, less permanent and classic. It comes across as more of a campaign idea than an enduring brand expression.” 

The new logo is Pepsi’s 11th in its 110-year history. Five logos have been introduced in the past 21 years, with the last update in 2002. 

Pepsi Logo

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Gap has suffered in recent years and each new set of financial results have brought new problems as the San Francisco retailer finds competitors have emulated its essential casual style of T-shirts and khakis and at a cheaper price.

Alternative strategic decision, helped by ongoing speculation in the market, is that Gap Inc. is ever closer to a takeover is being stoked by a news report that the struggling retailer has hired the investment firm Goldman Sachs to consider such offers or other dramatic changes.

A story to follow…

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So yes, this really is all about ego. We don’t like to admit that we need our ego stroked, that we want to be recognized and feel important. But hey, it’s a fact AND it’s a huge motivator for purchase (like L’Oreal’s tag line: “It’s more expensive, but I’m worth it.”) Obviously all fashion, cosmetics, car companies, etc. are playing on Esteem, but as you can see from the above examples, any company can meet this need.

Re-Branding…

When re-branding ourselves – our organizations – we are making a declaration to be free of attachment to the comfort of the known. Free of the comfort of the predictable. We as organisms – be we individuals or organizations – seek stasis; predictability; comfort. The great trap of the human condition is a striving for comfort. As managers we organize work processes to gain as much predictability as possible. We become slaves to our forecasts and plans.

Coloring Your Brand Perception

Brands are defined by the perceptions and experiences that someone has with a company product or service, what it looks like, what it sounds like and how it acts. One element in shaping an image is the use of color. Although color alone does not establish your brand it is one element that effects consumers emotions, behaviors and perceptions in relation to your company, product or service. In designing it is important to pick the right colors for the right effect to help reinforce the brand. A good place to start is to recognize the product or service being advertised, the target market, and the desired reaction and response of the consumer.

Olympic strategy key to branding gold

How companies try to get the most from the Games is a sport all in itself. While some companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars for rights to the rings, marketers say there’s more than one way to play the sponsorship game around the Olympics.

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The tagline, ending the decades-long reign of “It’s everywhere you want to be,” is “Life takes Visa,” Lyons said. Although the tagline was used in the last couple of years in English-language communications in Latin American countries (actually Visa is using 5 different taglines for 6 different regions of the world – more here), TBWA\Chiat\Day decided to go with it and start promoting it next week during the Winter Olympics Openning ceremony.

The new brand campaign is the latest in a series of milestones marking Visa adapting its brand to its corporate evolution, with recently introduced new governance structure; new brand architecture, including a new logo and a new card design. More about the new branding campaign here: http://www.visa.com/advertising.

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Along with the logo change the famous “Intel Inside” phrase is out, and the company will now encourage consumers to “Leap Ahead“.

the new branding system simplifies and unifies the look and feel across Intel products and platforms in an effort to better communicate important characteristics and value to consumers.

says the press release on Intel’s home page.

The changes take the focus off individual chips and put it on “platforms” that the company hopes will spur the integration of Intel-based computers with digital media and networks in homes, businesses and schools. The new campaign also plays down Intel ‘s venerable Pentium brand while emphasizing its Centrino line of laptop chips and a new effort called “Viiv,” which aims to integrate PCs into home entertainment such as by recording TV shows and sending them to other devices.

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