There’s a surprisingly lot of feedback and opinions on Airtel’s new logo change. Personally, I like the logo – it looks younger and trendier to me, compared to the simplistic one it replaces.
But, given the number of people who have run polls asking others to opine on the logo change…the number of people who have compared this logo change with GAP’s now-epic logo rollback…and the number of people who continue to tweet which other logo/thing/body part this new logo resembles, here are a few observations.
1. First, the GAP comparison.
GAP announced the logo change on October 6, 2010. The next day, it was forced to respond to mounting criticism about how bad the new logo is/was. On the same day, GAP also tried to assuage the incredible negative sentiment around the logo change by announcing a crowdsourcing project to find a new logo.
The 3rd day (October 8), GAP’s president Marka Hansen wrote a blog post on Huffington Post explaining why and how the logo change happened.
On October 12th, 6 days after the new logo was announced, GAP sent a press release announcing that it is getting its old logo back.
I recall some people asking if Airtel will change its logo back after not-so-jubilant feedback.
Consider the differences. GAP announced a change of logo. Airtel announced and did change its logo. GAP’s announcement was largely virtual and I’m not sure if they had plans of changing the logo on-ground…storefronts, product line-up, ad billboards etc. They may have.
Airtel’s on-ground execution was mindbogglingly amazing. Some refer to a figure of Rs. 300 crore being used for the logo change, but, for me, as a man on the road, on the day after the announcement, what mattered was seeing the new logo all over my drive route to office, in Bangalore. There was not even one board/ad/notice with the old logo. That is one heck of an amazing execution!
And that perhaps holds the key to reverting or not reverting to old logo as well. In GAP’s case, many people guessed that the logo change was a social media buzz experiment. I’d tend to think so too, considering how they did not go on with their on-ground execution of changing the logo and succumbed in a day or two. That could mean 2 things – one, they really, really care to listen to its loyal customers. Or, they simply did not have the intention to change the logo in reality and just wanted to perform this exercise to be on top-of-mind…and look customer-friendly, at the end of the exercise.
Another example worth adding is that of Tropicana. Tropicana introduced a redesigned packaging in January 2009 and had even started using the new design in its cartons. After listening to tons of feedback (mostly scathing), they announced a design roll-back only on February 23rd, almost 2 months later.
Now, you could argue that Tropicana was late, while GAP was prompt in heeding to customer feedback. I understand… so, read the next observation.
2. To me, a logo is much like a piece of music. People are bound to have assorted opinions about it. Consider the example of Rahman’s CWG theme. It was mauled by many, while some came to Rahman’s rescue and said the theme was adequate. They were all opinions…and the amount of opinions was directly proportional to amount of compensation Rahman allegedly received, that too, from public money. That money part perhaps gave people the right to criticize the quality of that piece of music, while privately funded musical projects (film music, pop music) can only dream of attracting so much negative/positive attention.
So, in Airtel’s case, in the absence of public money and the only thing involved being perceived loyalties with the brand, why so much hue and cry over a logo change? That’s not a statement – I’m asking that question too!
3. To be entirely honest, and offering my sincere apologies to logo designers, I feel that liking a logo is a matter of personal opinion. There are so many factors that go into a person liking or not liking a logo. My perceptions change according to who I am and how I’m connected with Airtel – an employee, a partner, a vendor, a fan, a non-customer, a potential customer, a brand hater, someone with prior bad experience with the brand…and so on!
I’m sure we all understand that too; so it was mighty strange that people were polling others on websites and on twitter seeking feedback about the logo. I was wondering what is the point of it all and why are people even trying these bizarre ideas.
I could ask, where were these people and their polls when other brand changes happened? UTI Bank to Axis Bank, for instance. Yes, you could argue that the number of people touched by Axis Bank is far lesser than the ones touched by Airtel. Point taken, but again, take the number of people touched by a film song – I’m sure it’d outnumber both Airtel and Axis Bank put together. So, why don’t people do polls asking others to opine on liking/disliking ‘Sheila ki jawani’ from Tees Maar Khan?
If there’s a takeaway, at least for me, from the kind of reaction Airtel got out of this logo change, it is that its brand is one of the most visible and most followed, despite being so ubiquitous. Notice I am not saying ‘liked’ here – just visible and followed, which is quite different from ‘liked’. The alleged budget for propagating the logo will take care of the visibility and the ensuing all-pervasive visibility will ensure the new logo’s assimilation into our lives.
There is no need for opinions here. There never was.