© Priya Narayanan, Assistant Professor of Marketing, IIM Kozhikode. Views are personal.

This article was first published on July 24, 2023 (after edits) in The Hindu BusinessLine BrandLine and is available here on the publisher’s website.

Note: Post the writing of this article, Twitter rebranded to X in a seemingly arbitrary and unnecessary move. But given Elon Musk’s penchant for names that might sound odd to others, the rebranding of Twitter is no surprise.

*

Pepsi’s recent announcement of its new logo has put the spotlight on brand logos, those ubiquitous symbols that stand for brands and often convey much more than any textual description could. The redesign of Pepsi’s logo makes us wonder whether the design of the logo matters all that much. Put simply, if Nike had always sported a squiggle instead of the iconic swoosh, would that still make us just do it and buy our Nikes?

Of course, it is easy to argue that the design matters. But, toss in a bit of psychology to the discussion and it becomes clear that the brand is much more than its logo. After all, the Nike swoosh is now wired into our brains not so much as a shape but in terms of the meanings and memories that the shape evokes. And that could explain why successful brands can have logos as intricate as that of Wagh Bakri or as simple as that of SBI.

To word or not to word

Prior to its redesign, the Pepsi brand name was placed outside the circular logo. Segregating the brand name and the logo is not, in itself, a big problem. Brands such as RedBull and Puma follow this pattern. For Pepsi, however, this design was not working well. As the brand found out, when consumers were asked to draw the Pepsi logo from memory, then tended to recall the brand name as being placed inside the logo. And so, the Pepsi brand name sits smack in the centre of the new logo. In direct contrast to Starbucks, which took away the words surrounding the siren in the center.

Of course, there are brands such as Nike and Apple for which just an image of the logo is sufficient to make consumers think of the brand. But Pepsi cannot do that. (Keen observers might even discern similarities between the old Pepsi logo and Pacman!) At the other extreme, there are brands whose logo is simply the brand name written in a stylized font. Coca cola and IBM, for instance, use stylistic writing and color without a shape. Perhaps, having little material to play with has a role in keeping the Coca Cola logo stable over the years.

A game of color (or its absence)?

It might be hard to believe today, but Apple once had a very colorful logo – the same shape of the apple with a bite taken off, but with rainbow colors. Today such a logo would be surmised as related to supporting LGBTQ+ rights. After all, several brands change their logo to rainbow colors during LGBT pride month, so much so that this gesture could lose its value. But the white logo of Apple is so omnipresent that the absence of color glorifies the brand.

Does that mean all brands that seek to be perceived as premium need to go white? Not necessarily. Other colors can become iconic just as well, be it Coca Cola red, Starbucks green, or Tiffany blue. And while the jury is out on which colors can really set a brand apart, Apple has once again upped the game with a highly colorful art-based logo on its Apple BKC store in Mumbai. Well, if Apple has decided to color itself for India, maybe it’s time to rethink the plain = premium theory!

Controversy, copyright and more

Refreshing a logo is always dicey business. Even when a business school goes about redesigning its logo, as in the recent case of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad logo makeover, when various stakeholders held differing views on the new logo. A few years ago, apparel brand Gap decided to revert to the old logo after tremendous uproar from customers. Not surprisingly, customers have a natural tendency to feel possessive of logos, as many logos are worn on the physique and many others are placed on containers for food and drink.

Other issues surround logos due to their shape. Adidas’s three stripes seemed distinctive enough till two different instances of potential trademark infringement did not result in court wins for Adidas. Twitter changed its logo, somewhat inexplicably, to a dog, but has reversed the change (possibly to avoid having to rename itself Bark). Toblerone is up for a redesign of its logo because the iconic Matterhorn mountain can no longer be shown after Toblerone shifted part of its production away from Switzerland. Only time will tell whether the new logo can win the hearts of chocolate lovers.

Overall, redesigning a logo entails some risks, mainly because very few general rules exist, and consumer sentiment can throw up surprises. There are perhaps only two “truths” when it comes to successful brand logos, and neither has to do with the design of the logo per se. First, what the marketing department builds on top of the logo through follow-on marketing campaigns will, over time, build the equity associated with the brand logo. Be it Pepsi or Air India’s new look that is expected to be unveiled soon. Second, a logo of a well-known and loved brand is like the face of a loved one – familiarity and love overpowers looks.

And so, surprisingly enough, a squiggle on your Nike shoes – if marketed appropriately from day one – would have worked just as well as a swoosh!