10 Yetis Insight – 10 Brands that got rebrands/design/logos really wrong

It’s happened many-a time, a brand feels that it needs a cool, fresh start. Whether following a serious crisis and the brand needs a serious overhaul to keep customers and attract new ones, or just if their logo appears a little outdated. Often, they are fairly successful, people identify with the new branding and quickly become familiarised with the new logo. However there are a few exceptions, where the rebrand hasn't gone down well, for example if the logo is just terrible, or a brand overhaul is confusing for consumers. I’ll be having a look at these examples, so you know how NOT to do it, should your company be ready to take the plunge with a rebrand.

• 1. Pepsi

Pepsi’s latest rebrand happened in 2008, their classic red white and blue circle got tilted to its side and the wave in the centre got accentuated at the side rather than in the centre. The logo was widely ridiculed with the logo being compared to an obese person. It looks as if the red t-shirt is straining over the white belly which is overhanging the blue shorts. Pepsi insist that the white ‘swooshes’ were supposed to be smiles. On top of that, Pepsi decided to change the typeface, which again was widely ridiculed, especially in the design world. It probably didn't help that it was such a drastic change from the previous heavy bold and italicised typeface.

What we can learn from this: Don’t make your changes too drastic from the original, especially in terms of typeface. The cost of their rebranding was said to be about $1.2 billion, but there aren't any figures available as to whether the rebrand affected sales. I would guess that as the brand is such a well-known name that if the packaging did change, it wouldn't affect sales drastically.

(Via: Flickr)

• 2. Tropicana

Tropicana had such an iconic and familiar logo in its orange tapped with a straw, that it would seem odd to rid yourself of this altogether, though this is exactly what Tropicana did during their widely ridiculed rebrand. They chose to instead use a glass of orange juice as the logo, (not a straw to be seen) and Tropicana written in a newer modernised font on its side. Though the brand was a well-known name, the newer more generic branding really affected sales, likely due to it being less recognisable. The damage was a loss of a huge 20% of sales. They quickly learnt their lesson and pulled the new branding after a couple of months; they reverted to the old style carton again.

What we can learn from this: Do not remove your recognisable brand symbol for something generic which could be confused for a non-brand competitor. Basically, don’t take the fun out of your brand.

(Via: Flickr)

• 3. London 2012 Olympics

This one doesn't really count as a rebrand because each Olympic city can create their own branding for their event, but it makes our list as it was so widely panned. The Logo moved away from more traditional designs that recent cities had used and instead create a whole new design. The designers knew that there had to be space for the city name, the year and the Olympic rings but had free reign with the rest. They decided to make a mashed up version of the year ‘2012’ and the rings incorporated into the zero and the rings on the first ‘2’. The logo was branded childish, ugly and ridiculous. Safe to say the logo was not a success.

What we can learn from this: Do not attempt to go for a design which is too quirky and colourful, and pick your designer carefully.

• 4. Kraft Foods

Kraft’s logo is iconic, the red outline and the simple blue text is instantly recognisable. For some reason Kraft thought they needed a logo overhaul in 2009 and updated their logo to say Kraft foods, along with a tagline and a weird swoosh design, which represented nothing of the brand. The company was inundated with negative feedback after the change and it was only 6 months before the company listened to consumers and changed back to their original renowned logo.

What we can learn from this: If you know your logo is iconic, and recognised across the world, don’t change your logo.

• 5. Gap

Gap introduced their new logo without any warning in 2010. They had reportedly spent $100 million creating it. The fact there was no marketing, no pre-buzz about the new branding did not help their case. It took people a while to notice the change, and when they finally did they were not overly thrilled by it. Gap got the idea pretty quickly and the new logo was gone after only 6 days!

What we can learn from this: Big brands don’t need big makeovers.

• 6. Best Buy

Best Buy, again, had a very iconic logo, it’s the Curry’s Digital of America, so the moment you see the logo you know what they’re selling. The brand decided to have an overhaul in 2008 to ‘modernise’ their logo and give it a flatter (dull) design. They changed their logo from a bright yellow noticeable logo to a plain boring blue design. Again this was an expensive short lived experiment with the brand, and the logo was reverted to the original within a few months.

What we can learn from this: Even if you think your logo appears outdated, bright and outdated is better than flat and lifeless.

• 7. Airbnb

This one is more of a rebrand fail because it took them so gosh darn long to upgrade their logo! The original logo for Airbnb was bubble writing on a bright blue background and was only meant to be temporary whilst they launched and took off in 2008. Then 2014 came around and it still hadn’t changed and the business was growing faster than ever. They finally upgraded and with a major font change came a new logo which symbolised people, places and love. Very sweet. There were a few jokes on Twitter that the logo looked a little rude, but that was mostly people who were looking too hard for something to ridicule, and all in all the rebrand was a complete success; helping the company to grow even further.

What we can learn from this: Don’t be afraid of a complete brand overhaul to replace a very plain and outdated logo.

• 8. Royal mail

This rebrand was a complete disaster, and I can’t quite understand the reasoning behind it in the first place. The Royal Mail, though often berated, is a British staple; it is the most well-known postal service in the UK and probably gives most people nostalgia pangs of growing up and greeting the postman in the morning. Maybe I'm just being overly sentimental, but you understand what I mean. When the Royal Mail was privatised back in 2001 the new owners decided to spend £1 million on the new name and logo Consignia. Predictably, as with most of these well-known and long standing brands, it did not go well and the new owners had to spend another £1.5 million to revert back to Royal Mail.

What we can learn from this: AGAIN. Don’t tamper with a long-standing and well-known brand!

• 9. MasterCard

There’s no denying the MasterCard logo is iconic. (You can see where this is going). In 2006 MasterCard thought they’d change it up with a more complicated design and whilst they were doing that, they chose to remove the most colourful parts of the logo. Not a good idea, and of course the public did not receive the changes well and eventually the original logo was brought back.

What can we learn from this: As mentioned in NEARLY EVERY PREVIOUS POINT, don’t remove your brand’s iconic logo. You think these guys would learn from example.

• 10. Netflix/Qwikster

Back before Netflix was as we know it now; in America it was predominantly a DVD delivery service much like LoveFilm was here (May it R.I.P). In 2011 Netflix announced that it was splitting its DVD delivery service and its online streaming service, the latter was to be renamed Qwikster. Once this was announced consumers generally responded negatively and were confused as to why the company was to be split into two. As usual in these rebrand disasters, the decision was overturned in just a few months and all plans to split the two services were abandoned. Eventually, a fair few years later, Netflix flattened their logo and reversed the red and white colours as a simple way of updating their logo.

What we can learn from this: Don’t split your company into separate areas, it will just confuse consumers, if it’s crucial to split segments, keep the overarching brand name and use an extra word to explain which segment you are talking about. E.g. in this case, Netflix Instant.

What have we learnt: If you are a major iconic brand, don't change your logo; unless your original logo is very plain and uninspiring. If you do change, keep your colour scheme; and if you need to split your company, keep one overarching name so consumers don't get confused. Got it?