The article in last week’s New York Times about major companies that revamped their corporate identities to project a softer image during this recession missed two stories that call into question how scarce marketing dollars are being allocated.
The article asked readers to “behold the new breed of corporate logo – non-threatening, reassuring, playful,
even child-like. Not emblems of distant behemoths but faces of friends”. The new identity for New England-based grocer Stop and Shop, for example, moved the Company from an unfortunate look that commanded consumers – STOP and shop - to a softer type treatment coupled with a simple image depicting a bountiful bowl of food. Similarly, Sysco’s redesign migrated the company from looking like a second tier manufacturer in a stagnant industry to the market leader that it is.
Author Bill Marsh missed, however, related stories lurking behind the Wal-Mart and Kraft redesigns.
The Arkansas retailer hit the ball out of the park by employing an inviting typography and creating a symbol that’s a cross between a punctuation mark and a low key starburst. [It’s happy! Just like Wal-Mart’s long-used smiley face!] Moreover, the company wisely eschewed the “big bang” corporate re-identity launch in favor of folding the redesign into a multi-layered strategy that includes refreshing many of the stores and introducing a new tag line. It’s worth noting that the new tag line - “Save money. Live better” - is extraordinarily powerful in the way that it marries functional and emotional benefits, among other reasons. The timing of the logo refresh, therefore, makes sense relative to the retailer’s other efforts.
But why invest in a new retail logo when it’s your corporate brand that needs the most dusting off? Leading corporate identity experts, such as Landor, contend that a corporate identity works best when it serves as a platform for announcing something big. Corporate Wal-Mart has been trying its hardest to go green, show its commitment to diversity, and otherwise claim that it’s a new day in Bentonville. Communicating a new day / new way vibe isn’t a low item on the behemoth’s to do list because the Company regularly finds itself the subject of any number of class action law suits, government actions, or generally nasty press. If any major company needed to visually communicate a break with the past, it’s Wal-Mart.
The redesign of the Kraft Foods corporate logo is another odd example of how scarce resources are being allocated. The Glenview, IL-based company, the second largest food enterprise in the world after Nestle, created a logo that included (in the words of the Times) a “smile and ‘flavor burst’. The mark also includes a new tag, “make today delicious”. The new logo and tag can be seen on the corporate site and will soon be their public face at investor conferences and similar venues. Kraft Foods’ new corporate ID is great. That said, it’s not clear why executives in Glenview thought that they needed a new corporate identity. Unlike Wal-Mart, which has several brands under its corporate umbrella, Kraft corporate and Kraft consumer are basically the same thing. Moreover, why on Earth did Kraft corporate get rid of its familiar but dated “racetrack” logo only to retain it on their packaging? Marsh noted in The Times that the old design would be retained on packaging, an offhanded remark that doesn’t recognize that packaging is Kraft’s most important touchpoint. Deloitte and other experts have estimated that at least 2/3 of decisions are made at the point of sale. Kraft has acknowledged as much by undertaking wholesale redesigns of salad dressing packaging and other well-known categories.
Kraft’s packaging redesign is, therefore, stunning in both a good and a bad way. The good news is that Kraft products are actually easier to shop, with color
cues and other design tactics employed to make shopping easier. The bad news is, however, that the racetrack logo - which wasn’t good enough for the corporate brand – remains like an awkward party guest that just won’t leave. Moreover, it’s front and center on the packaging. Someone in Glenview probably won the argument by saying something along the lines that the racetrack has “brand equity”. Of course it does. But that doesn’t mean you should keep it, particularly given the massive investment the Company is making to look more contemporary. There are plenty of examples of evolving an old visual element or gradually eliminating it. As one leading brand strategy expert noted recently, companies like Kraft “never have the time to do it right but always have the money to do it again”. Perhaps. Or maybe they just like racetracks.
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