Collaborative Branding (CB)

It’s no secret that even Starbucks, long an economic barometer of the disposable income of the United States and the greater world, has come on tough times of late, shutting 600 stores and slashing new store openings around the globe.

No wonder, then, that one of many proposed changes in store for the company is the possibility that Starbucks will roll out a new design for its 15,000 stores in 2009, creating an even stickier customer experience.

Architect Magazine recently profiles 5 teams of architects who offered up their own unique spin on the “perfect” Starbucks store atmosphere, seen here.

One firm went so far as to suggest a redesign of the iconic Starbucks logo, replacing the well known Starbucks name and mermaid image with a “txt-speak” looking *$.

Fortunately, this writer doesn’t think the world is ready for a Fortune 500 company falling for this kind of silliness.

However, with the recent makeovers of Walmart, Xerox, and AT&T (not to forget Intel, Sprint, and UPS), I predict dozens of more top names ditching their stale logos for a hipper, modern look in the next few years. Taking a glance at the Fortune 100, I present…

CB’s top picks for brand remakes by 2010:

• Hewlett-Packard
• Best Buy
• Kraft (there’s an interesting, if not predictable, modernized conceptual logo here)
• Continental Airlines

(I also think Wells Fargo, with it’s horse drawn stagecoach, is due for a remake sooner than later.)

If anyone out there wants to submit some branding ideas for any of these companies, I’d like to profile it in a future article.

Read the rest of this entry »

A fresh identity was unveiled today at the Beijing Olympic Games by Bell Canada, the largest telecommunications company in Canada with a storied history. The company debuted the brand with a TV spot this morning at the Olympics, featuring just music and images, sans voiceover.

Bell goes back to basics with a stripped down, decidedly straightforward logo.

Ditching their familiar identity in use since the ’90s — a blue and yellow logo with a pair of swooping ellipses orbiting a face — the company has opted for a simpler logo with slimmer letters and a lighter hue of blue.

“Canadianites” can expect to see the new logo plastered prominently in print and TV.

The new campaign is a joint effort between four prominent agencies. Most notable is the role of Zulu Alpha Kilo, an agency started by Canada’s respected Zak Moureh, who created classic brand and advertising campaigns for Mini/BMW, Nike, and Pfizer. The remaining trio is comprised of Leo Burnett, LG2, and Cossette Communication Group, the latter having provided the new, simpler logo. 

Combined with the new logo is a new slogan, “Today just got better.” This tagline is moldable to the context of a particular ad — in the case of an ad for HD PVRs, the tag reads, “Recording just got better.”

Not one to succumb to the dullness of corporate typeface, Bell tries to stay edgy by inserting so-called Bell-ements — practically unrecognizable bits and pieces of the Bell logo, often rotated — into the company’s advertising.

The new TV spots feature a backdrop of a huge Bell logo. Zak Mroueh, Zulu Alpha Kilo’s creative director, explains:

Bell has such a rich history, so we decided to make the biggest honking logo there is and tell all these stories on the logo itself.

Read the rest of this entry »