Merriam Associates, Inc. Brand Strategies » Logo

E Ink’s New Logo

LDMerriam — Fri, 13 May 2011 03:01:03 +0000

Congratulations to E Ink on their new logo. The company was a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab back in 1997 and pioneered the concept of electronic paper.

Old Logo

New Logo

Originally marketed for electronic signs, the company has enjoyed better success as a maker of mobile electronics displays. Paper thin and lightweight, the technology offers high contrast and low power consumption. Best known as the technology behind the Amazon Kindle, other users include Barnes & Noble, Casio, Citizen, Hanvon, Hitachi, Lexar, Motorola, Plastic Logic, Samsung, Skiff and Sony.

With a clear future as an ingredient brand, E Ink was more than ready for an updated logo. While the new logo is an improvement, I am not sure it does what the E Ink press release claims. The new logo is a safe corporate expression, but the company claims “new E Ink logo design emphasizes the cultural legacy passed on by technology. E Ink embraces technological advances while respecting human life, human culture and human nature.” Huh? Can’t say I’m seeing that.

(Full disclosure–I was E Ink’s director of marketing from 1998 to 2000, but the original logo had been chosen before I joined the company.)

KFC’s Success in China Breeds Imitators

LDMerriam — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 05:29:42 +0000

Bloomberg News is reporting that KFC is defeating all other fast food brands for dominance in China. By getting in early, tailoring its menu to local tastes (hamburgers are foreign, while fried chicken is well accepted), and hiring local decision makers, KFC stores in China contribute 36% of parent company Yum’s global operating profit.

Bloomberg even reports that “Colonel Harland Sanders’s image is a far more common sight in many Chinese cities than that of Mao.”

Nothing breeds imitators like success—especially in China. When I last visited China, many cities boasted a local look-alike contender. One wag has suggested this fake Chinese Col. Sanders might just be the famous General Tsao. . .

(Note: I know that KFC has updated their Col. Sanders logo, however, the Chinese copy is of the old logo, so I use the old one here for side-by-side comparison.)

Marathon Oil Spin Off Runs Into Brand Confusion

LDMerriam — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:40:37 +0000

Corporate restructuring can make perfect financial sense, yet create a perfect mess out of the brand.

Take Marathon Oil, which just announced it is spinning off its “downstream” refining and retail operations. Those low margin businesses drag down the finances of the whole company, so a spin off is a shrewd move. Still, calling one company Marathon Petroleum Corp. and the other one Marathon Oil Corp. creates endless confusion and genuine brand risk—people will always wonder which Marathon is which. (Motorola has done something similar).

From Brand Confusion to Brand Risk

Should Marathon decide to eventually sell the retail operation, brand confusion becomes a risk. What an acquiring company does under the Marathon retail brand will impact the parent company brand. The risk also runs the other way. If Marathon has an oil well disaster like BP did in 2010, it impacts the retail brand. Consumers aren’t going to differentiate Marathon Oil and Marathon Petroleum when they boycott. Marathon is one brand, no matter that it is now two companies.

Retail Rebranding is Expensive

Should Marathon eventually sell its spun-off retail operations, the buyer may not want to change the brand name on each of the 6500 individual gas stations. Joe Bona, retail brand expert and president of the retail practice at design and strategic branding company CBX, notes: “The cost of rebranding sites, terminals, transportation vehicles etc. would be quite substantial and the risk of alienating core constituents would also be a concern. Of course then there would be the marketing cost and time to build any new brand. Without having access to research, I would have to believe Marathon has positive equity in the markets they operate, so anyone planning a new brand would have to weigh the risks of any such move.”

A number of years ago, I worked on the rebranding of a major oil company merger involving some eight different retail brands. When deciding which brands to keep and which brands to discontinue, we discovered that distributors liked having a portfolio of brands so that they could own all four corners of an intersection, each with a different brand name. This may be another reason why keeping the Marathon brand could make sense to a future buyer.

Rebrand the Parent Company

A cheaper solution would be for the parent company to rebrand its exploration and production business. While they loses some legacy, they can make up for it with a clear, differentiated brand—and a future with less risk or confusion.

Everyone’s Crazy for a Sharp Dressed Brand

LDMerriam — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:21:37 +0000

President Obama’s reputation for dignity and style took a step back with his less than decorous vacation pictures. Gawker.com felt it necessary, due to the flip-flop flap, to provide how-to advice . The last time a President so crossed the line into “eew” was when President Johnson lifted his shirt to reveal a bare belly and surgical scar.

Don’t do this to your brand:

Brands should take notice: How your people look conveys a powerful brand message.

“A company that has employees meeting the public must realize that what they convey about the brand is just as important—if not more important—than the logo,” says New York-based business consultant Rob DeRocker. I talked to Rob after The Financial Times interviewed him for an article on dress codes.

I thought back to last year when my computer blew up while I was traveling. I had to get it fixed fast. I found a small local shop manned by guys with tattered t-shirts and plenty of body piercings. They were probably talented computer nerds, but I ended up in the safe environs of Best Buy, with their well-groomed and uniformed staff.

Ensuring staff conveys the brand with their grooming and dress can take many forms:

UBS has a 43-page dress code that gets into the details of how men should knot their ties and what color underwear women should wear. Too detailed? Maybe for some, but it might be just right for a Swiss bank.

The Hooters brand aims to be “delightfully tacky yet unrefined,” and that requires a very specific dress code that specifies flesh colored nylons at all times, no body piercings or tattoos and no bra straps hanging out or visible midriffs. Shorts must “not be so tight that the buttocks show.” Hooters even has a Web site devoted to achieving the ultimate Hooter-Girl look—be advised that the content is mostly pictures.

TGI Friday’s brand spirit of employees having as much fun as their customers with “an attitude of serious showmanship” was famously lampooned in the movie Office Space where the waitress character said, “We’re, uh, we’re actually required to wear fifteen pieces of flair…I, uh, I just grabbed fifteen buttons and, uh, I don’t even know what they say! Y’know, I don’t really care. I don’t really like talking about my flair.”

Dress codes can be controversial. Disney is still locked in a legal dispute with an employee who wants to wear a hijab to work. Disney’s position is that employees are entertainers portraying characters and types. The dispute is ongoing. One wonders what will happen when the employee portraying Snow White wants to wear a burka.

Company dictates on fashion are not merely about looking nice; they are about conveying brand. The human interaction experience has far greater impact on making a brand impression than the logo, name, color scheme, typography, etc. As Rob says, “People ultimately do business with people.”

General Motors: A Reorganized Brand Architecture for a Reorganized Company

LDMerriam — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 04:28:41 +0000

General Motors has done more than reorganize its finances. GM has turned its brand architecture upside down.

Trimming nameplates like Pontiac, Saab, and Hummer from its stable of brands was just one aspect. Beginning in August of last year, the GM “chicklet” logo has been quietly disappearing. It is no longer slapped on the doors of every car.

It has disappeared from the Web site.

And in the ads touting the “new GM”, only the new name of the company is used, spelled out in letters. The logo has disappeared.

Indeed, the individual nameplate brands are actually and literally now on top and front and center:

Reorganizing the company’s the brand architecture makes sense for a number of reasons:

1) The GM name will always be associated with “Government Motors”

2) The individual brands appeal to very different clientele. The Cadillac buyer sees no benefit to being associated in any way with the Chevrolet brand. The constant linking of GM with each brand did just that.

3) No one actually bought the GM brand anyway—it was always about the name plates–you bought a Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac not a GM.

4) Should General Motors seek to sell off any additional name plates (like Opel), distance from the parent company gives the spun-off brand a better stand-alone chance.

5) Maybe, just maybe, the brand change will help change the company’s highly bureaucratic corporate culture.

UPDATE: A new ad has begun airing with the familiar blue GM “badge” as the sign-off:

…always good to see some snippets of Animal House.

More on Brand Architecture:
What is Brand Architecture
Approaches to Brand Architecture
Brand Architecture: Strategic Considerations
Does Your Brand Architecture Support Your Business Strategy?

The Gap Fiasco: The Latest in a Long Line of Brand Mistakes

LDMerriam — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:48:01 +0000

With everyone piling on The Gap logo redesign fiasco, it is a good time to remember that this is just one of a long line of branding mistakes.

Edsel–Spent $400,000,000 in development for a product that never found its market.

New Coke–Abandoning its venerated formula nearly sank the brand before it reverted back to its “classic” taste.

Premier Smokeless Cigarette: RJReynolds CEO F. Ross Johnson said, “ Tastes like shit and smells like a fart! Got ourselves one hell of a product on our hands. It’s one unique advertising strategy, I’ll tell ya that.”

Monday: When PwC Consulting separated from PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC Consulting selected Monday: as their new name, oblivious of the obvious negative connotations.

The new Gap logo joins a long list of brand mistakes that beg the questions: “Why?” “Who?” “How?” Why did The Gap feel the need to change a logo? Given the expense of changing out all the signage, labels, communications, I’d love to see the cost/benefit analysis that made it seem like a good idea. Who green-lighted the project? How did The Gap determine that particular design would be a good one? What is interesting about brand debacles is that no one ever comes forward to take the blame or explain how or why the slip-ups happened.

Hitting the Brakes: Google Speedbook Naming Disaster

LDMerriam — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:05:22 +0000

Google’s launch of the Speedbook tablet PC has hit the brakes. The company had hoped to make tracks challenging Apple’s iPad in the tablet PC market–just in time for the holiday gift buying season. Instead Speedbook has landed Google in naming hell. A small technology company CollegeNet has challenged the company’s trademark filing. The legal challenge to the Speedbook name could potentially doom the product. And the shame of it is that Speedbook is a terrible name not worth fighting for.

Trademark Battle Legals Costs and Time Costs

The costs of the trademark challenge to Google are significant. Aside from the legal cost of pushing the name through the courts is bigger problem of the time cost. To get Speedbook to market in time for the holidays, Google is already far along in developing marketing, packaging and merchandising materials. Any delay in granting the Speedbook trademark will cause Google to miss this critical window of opportunity. In all likelihood, the holiday shopping rush will be history before the company can ship a rebranded product.

Trying to Trademark a Generic Name

The real naming debacle is that the Speedbook name that isn’t even a good one. The “book” idea for laptop and tablet computers is an overused cliche. Arch-competitor Apple already dominates with its Macbook. Then there is Panasonic’s Toughbook, Axiotron’s Modbook, Dialog’s Flybook, Acorn’s Deskbook, Pace Blade’s Slimbook, Fujitsu’s Lifebook, Toshiba’s Dynabook and HP has a Probook, Omnibook and Elitebook. How could Speedbook ever hope to stand out with such a generic name? Brand names need to be unique to distinguish a product from the competition, unusual in order to get attention and be memorable, and meaningfully vivid to have any branding power. Speedbook loses all around.

Google’s Answer to Apple iPad Should be an Iconic Brand

Google will most likely win the trademark battle, but at great cost for little gain. The cost of the court challenge delay along with the weakness of the Speedbook as a brand should give Google pause. Google is better off choosing a name with iconic brand power and doing it with great speed.

More on Naming:
Six Factors for a Memorable, Motivating Brand Name
History of Great Brand Names: How Best Known Brands Were Named
Styles and Types of Company and Product Names
How to Choose a Name
Naming in Our Web 2.0 World
Does Your Approach to Naming Your Company Products and Services Support Your Business Strategy?
How Different Companies Have Approached Naming Products and Services
Case Study: Rebranding Proxios
Selected Name Portfolio

Boring Green Logo Redesigns Are a Color Cliche

LDMerriam — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:04:40 +0000

Green–it’s the new blue. As an overused boring corporate color, blue is losing ground to green. Corporations everywhere have been jumping on the “green” bandwagon, whether they are hotels that wash towels less frequently, moving companies that reuse boxes, or retailers that recycle plastic bags. The green washing trend is even spreading corporate logos. Companies with once distinctive and exciting brand marks are trading them in for boring green ones.

Mayflower Movers redesigned their logo and lost their iconic graphic presence. (That creepy giant girl puppet in Mayflower’s “Big Move” ads gets points for being unusual–but not in a good way).

Holiday Inn looks like they hired the same designer as Mayflower. They ditched their fantastic funky retro signature for this forgettable brand mark.

Animal Planet redesigned their mark so that there is no more animal and no more planet.

Quick Chek incongruously grew a leaf in their logo redesign.

Lending Tree went from a Fall-ish maroon leaf to a green one. And they’ve adopted the newly ubiquitous lower case typography that is supposed to make us feel warm and trusting.

Joining the crowd is never a good idea in branding. It’s time to induct the color green into the Overused Brand Ideas Hall of Lame.

Rebranding Proxios

LDMerriam — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:58:31 +0000

Outgrowing the Brand
Proxios had its beginnings as a small technology infrastructure outsourcing company called SuperServer. The company has grown beyond its Richmond, VA roots to have a national reach and had made significant investments in cutting-edge technology. They needed a brand that would convey the true stature of the company and give it a better footing for growth.

Finding Opportunity Among Sound the Same/Look the Same Competitors
Our work began with extensive market research, including a comparative analysis of copy and design used by competing companies, and interviews with current, past, and potential customers. We found that companies were using essentially the same words to say the same thing:

We found that competitive approaches to design were similarly undifferentiated:

We positioned company around the concept of “responsive service”.

Renaming: Finding a New Brand Name for the Company
The SuperServer name could not effectively carry the company forward. Both employees and customers felt the name was too small time and old fashioned. We conducted a thorough naming program, considering hundreds of concepts, testing dozens of candidates through our proprietary process and eventually selecting Proxios.

A New Logo
We created a new logo that raises the company above the visual cliches so common to the category.

A Visual System Unifies and Strengthens the Brand
To support the logo and tell the Proxios brand story, we designed a visual system that unified the look of all the company’s marketing communications pieces. We used hexagons in the logo and visual system because they are a visual metaphor of what Proxios offers:
* Are a highly space efficient shape
* Are one of natures strongest, stiffest, most stable structures
* Have a high ratio of strength to weight
* Tessellate—that is, they create a solid plane with no overlaps of gaps into infinity
*Are graphically simple and flexible

We selected at a color palette that is differentiated from the blue/green/orange cliches of technology—warm colors suited to the risk mitigation/headache removal story in strong hues that talk to the reliability/responsiveness positioning. We provided a usage guide to help our client manage the creation of materials internally and with other agencies.

Strong, Unified Brand Communications
We wrote and designed the entire suite of communications materials, down to the business cards, and continue to support Proxios through the brand relaunch and as they ramp up marketing.

For more about Proxios: www.proxios.com

More naming resources:

Logo Styles and Logo Types

LDMerriam — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:33:34 +0000

After you have selected the name of your company, product or service, you will want to bring it to life with a visual representation–you need a logo!

You’ve got a number of approaches to choose from. Below are the four general logo styles in common use, along with their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Logo Style: The Word Mark

The Word Mark is the most common style of logo—39 % of the top 100 global brands use this approach. This type of logo turns the word itself into the graphic representation of the brand. The reasons for the popularity of this approach are:

Your logo is tremendously flexible in both a design and a business sense.
It can evolve to work with new businesses and sub-brands. The Microsoft brand now works to endorse dozens of product brands such as Windows and Business Solutions.
From a design sense, you are have more graphic freedom. Your logo doesn’t compete against your graphics in brochures, Web pages, and ads.
The cost is lower to implement
The logo is easier to use

This approach works best if you have a unique name.

Logo Style: Symbol

On the other end of the spectrum are logos that are only a symbol. No words necessary. The benefits of this approach are:

Your brand transcends language—it has meaning everywhere
It creates an iconic presence

Only 3% of the top brands in the world are strictly symbol brands. It takes an enormous budget, wide distribution and lots of time to establish a symbol as a brand that speaks on its own.

Logo Style: Combination Mark

Some designers believe you can get the best of both worlds by combining a word mark with a symbol. The thinking goes:

The symbol and the mark give people two cues to memory
The symbol can communicate a message that supports the name
If the name is not particularly unique, adding a symbol can make it easier to copyright.

Unfortunately, too many symbols attached to brands are just random generic shapes. Perhaps the designers have some arcane explanation of what the symbols mean, but can the average consumer perceive the story behind those blips in the Blackberry logo. Too often even the biggest brands with huge budgets cop out with some version of the swoosh.

Logo Style: The Emblem

Perhaps a better approach for some companies is to make their name an intrinsic part of the symbol—creating an iconic emblem of the brand. This approach:

Creates an icon that is supported by the name
Is easy to use—many product brands use this approach to stamp their products like a cattle brand
It’s compact
It’s self-contained—the meaning and the name are one entity—not a word and a widget

This approach works best for short names. For all it’s benefits, it can be inflexible.