Are logo changes like that of Kraft a good ROI?
There was a lot of talk yesterday about the new Kraft Logo. I happened to mention it to John Ferris of Kern Design Group, the firm responsible for the Anderson Analytics logo. “In brief, it is pretty horrible” he said and directed me to UnderConsideration, an identity and branding blog that is well respected in this field.
I think I have to agree with their conclusion, “A wimpy logo for such a large corporation”. It seems whenever things get difficult, and the CMO doesn’t know what to do it’s time for a new logo, though supposedly this new logo is won’t be totally replacing the old one on the packaging, at least not yet.
Good free PR I guess? Though logo design and subsequent replacements are far from free.
Personally I can’t say I like the new logo less than the old one, it’s just that I’ve seen this before. For instance, the former CEO of Starwood spent a lot of time and money deliberating on changing the Sheraton logo, only to conclude that, duh, it had a lot of brand equity. Perhaps the product should change before the logo…?
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Sarah // Feb 20, 2009 at 11:19 am
I don’t love the new Kraft logo. I think putting the company name all in lower-case letters makes it kind of wimpy, where it was bold and strong in the old logo. However, I think there is something to be said for companies updating logos that haven’t changed in decades. I see it as a visual representation of a firm’s understanding that times are changing, and consumers want to see something different. A great example of this, I think, is Stop&Shop’s recent logo refresh, which works well because it’s tied in to a commitment to delivering fresh, healthy options to consumers, as seen in their recent ads. Not sure what’s Kraft’s new logo is a representation of, or what it will tie in to, but we’ll see…maybe!
2 Sean Condon // Mar 10, 2009 at 3:28 pm
hi Tom-
love the site. this article is a good one. A little anecodte- when I was with Deloitte they picked a green dot as their logo, with a rumored cost of $2m+ ?! it was sorta impressive though. After released, they made a contest out of it and employees submitted videos of what it (and firm philosophy, etc) meant to them. corny at times but I think it went off well and people enjoyed it.
Re: Kraft, I think they come off as a kinder/gentler company with that logo. I agree with ’sarah’ - change can be a good thing.
S
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