I am very happy with the news of the green mermaid coming to India for two reasons:
1. I will have one more option (not just cafe but the coffee shop colours as most Indian coffe chains follow a red code.)
2. The competition will buckle up which means better service and hopefully more options and innovations in the offerings.
Year 2010 and the begining of 2011 looks like season of rebranding/brand refurbishing by some major names across the world and in India as well.
This month both Star bucks and Target have decided to drop their names from their logos – Starbucks because its trying to expand in newer products and Target, for its own reasons.
Starbucks has apparently changed their logo for the fourth time since launch and every time the change looks minimal. However dropping a name from the Brand is a big step but a necessary one I guess if they want to move into a new line of products.
Last year Gap faced a severe backlash from public due to its logo change and reverted back to its earlier one.
Back Home Airtel went through a major rebranding exercise which was again criticised suggesting Airtel new logo to be a combination of the vodafone and videocon logos; which is exactly how it looks. However the firm dint pay much heed unlike Gap maybe due to the fear of having to return to its previous logo making the whole expensive brand redressing affair a wastage or maybe Airtel still thinks its good enough to decide how it wants to handle its logo.
Recently flipkart.com also changed its logo to a newer darker version from its initial light bright one. The reasoning as suggested by the team is that since they are moving away from online books to online mobile shop as well the change is necessary. Or another reason as suggested by some people is that the initial logo of flipkart looks heavily influenced by Amazon from where some of its team members have joined.
While some of the above examples justify the logo change others look at rebranding as more of a marketing gimmick. Rebranding makes sense only when there is a major overhaul in the offering either in terms if attribute s or price or the target customer segment has changed. Otherwise the brand stands to loose its identity as the image that it has been trying to imprint for a long time will get changes even before its mark has been made.