GAP new logo fails to Stick

GAP made a valiant effort to update its logo.

More modern type-face - Check
Keep Iconic Blue box...er..somehow - Check
Used Crowd sourcing to make sure it was well received - Kind of

Look changing a logo is chock full of danger and it is usually done for all of the wrong reasons: mostly a new CMO was hired and they wanted their stamp on the brand...It is especially tough when people have invested in the brand, they feel they helped build it or it has deeper meaning to them.

Here is a gallery of others that have tried from today's Daily Beast bit.ly/944GH7 .

There are times when I think it is not only appropriate, but should be carefully considered: think BP - they have considered going back to the Amoco brand in certain regions. If Enron had survived and other brands in crisis that want a clean break or are trying to break from previous customer thoughts about the brand.

I survived two major logo changes at a previous company, book were to modernize - both were handled wheel by making the changes evolutionary vs revolutionary.

And the GAP, well they punted after feedback was pretty negative - the design firm was embarrassed and felt they had to defend themselves and enough money was wasted to buy all of us dinner.

Me, I don't think that it was a bad design at all, certainly not in the realm of the horrid Pepsi redesign or the new United Airlines "Hey, lets not hurt Continentals feelings!" logo!

Great Social Marketing from Pepsi

Pepsi's refresh project ( http://pep.si/cdWemz )is a great example of social marketing - specifically crowd sourcing.

Pepsico, like lots of other public and private companies, give away millions of dollars a year to charity, either directly or through organizations such as the United Way. Thousands of requests a year come in and something that starts out as a positive can grow negative fast.

"You gave money to XYZ - I will no longer support Pepsi products"
"You do you never support small organizations like XYZ"
"This organization is involved with Puppets...I hate puppets!"

Ok the last one I hope is made up, but the issues aren't. What Pepsi did is basically say...You decide. We'll make the first cut to make sure they are reasonable organizations. They then bracketed them into Tiers based on the dollar amounts.

They then supported this in traditional marketing, packaging and social media like Facebook. Holistic marketing, all on message +10points to Pepsi. This has already garnered over 1.4MM likes on Facebook and coverage in the mainstream press.

All for something they were going to do anyway.

First Day at School

Definitely like the first day back at school....for me not you. I decided to start this Blog since I was answering the same questions over and over on LinkedIn and for my friends regarding Internet Marketing, SEO, rebates, and other scary mumbo jumbo that kids in Bierkenstocks try to sell to CMO's and VP's of Marketing.

The New New New Economy insists that you participate Mr. CMO! You are being left behind!! You fail!!!

OK not really - doing nothing is often better than doing something bad. What I will try to do is point out good and bad examples of marketing. I'll be happy to answer your questions, delete your spam and try to help where possible. No question will be too dumb (unless I ask it), no one will get hurt as we will all have helmets on. Mom said...