What you see above you is the new line of bottles from the giant American soft drink company Pepsi. They have, in the last month, gone through an entire company re branding. They have changed their packaging, their bottles, their motto, and their logos. But why? What is the cause of a huge change like this from a company that has had such a place in our hearts and refrigerators for so long? What do they accomplish bu doing this? And are they the only ones?
Actually, they are not the only ones. This year alone I have seen quite a few companies change their image and branding and some even create their own brand. The first one is a local company that I deal with every month when I get my bill cycle. Citizen’s Gas changed their image to a much brighter, more clean, crisp logo and brand. Their logo, seen here, is on their bills, websites, buildings, and their vans. And I love it. I can not even tell you what their previous logo looked like. And the thing about their logo is it is one that I actually associated with every month.
It is interesting to me to see company take their image that has been created from the very start of their days to something new. What is the risk factor associated with that? You are basically starting over as a company. You are throwing away all your old packaging, your old documents, your old website, your old image all together.
Let’s take a look at Pepsi for example. They have had the same color scheme for as long as I can remember if not from the very first days of their drink. And they have kept that. They have also kept the same shape in their logo. But they have changed their font choices and overall design style. And some of you might not even notice, or care, but a designer like myself it matters a lot.
But does changing that set of bottles, and even the name of Mountain Dew to Mtn Dew, effect your purchasing? Sure it does. Their new design is very clean, modern, and designed for a much younger and hip crowd. Think Dr. Christian Troy when you think Crate and Barrel. The people that are buying soda are the younger generations. Or the older ones that are stuck on the flavor or the loyalty to the name. So why not move to a modern design that follows current design standards? If anyone is making the right decision it is the cola company.
But does it hurt them in the first stages? I do not think so, no. The people that buy Pepsi every week at Kroger and Marsh are not going to stop because the label and logo changed. But the people that might walk down that isle (and it is always in the same isle as the chips) and be interested in getting a 2 liter or starting to drink pop again will be grabbed by the colors, fonts, and logo.
There is so much more I want to go into here but I basically just wanted to let you know, if you had not already seen, that this is a common trend in the business world these days. So if you are a company that has had the same image for quite some time maybe you need to consider changing your logo and fonts. They really do mean the world when it comes to a brand. I will go into this more in the future. I would actually like to talk about the color red. I might do that later. (My wrists hurt.)
Good points all around.
The only things I could really think of, while reading this, was the drastic change Facebook made to their entire interface! The world revolted, for the most part, myself included. But, time went on and the people began to fall in love with the new layout.
I also began to respect and garner the decision of Facebook. I was intrigued and excited to learn a totally different platform and it got me hooked on Facebook even more, which probably isn’t a good thing, but overall, high fives and prosperity to Facebook for their wonderful and daring efforts to totally reconstruct such a popular site into an even more prestigious icon of our time.