Sheepish branding.

Several rebranding initiatives this year have raised the question, is there something afoot?

This past August, FileMaker, an Apple subsidiary, announced it was rebranding as Claris. The new logo is all black. Real estate listing site Trulia rebranded to an all black logo in April. British betting and gaming company Paddy Power Betfair rebranded in May as Flutter, with a black logo. That same month, iShares rebranded, announcing they were aligning their new logo with their parent’s, which is black.

And so, it has progressed this year. Of course, not all rebranded logos are black. But there have been enough to wonder if this is the beginning of a new trend, one that would be ill-advised. A key objective of branding is to differentiate the brand. That is difficult to do with a black logo.

Many (most?) high-end fashion logos have for many years been mostly black. This is an observation, not an endorsement for a look to emulate. One can understand this, to a certain extent: black is associated with sophistication. Earlier this year, there was pushback from some in social media and the business press to the lack of differentiation among fashion brands. This related to the similarity of the font selection for these logos. Notably, all these logos were black. It is absolutely certain that a successful and differentiated fashion brand can be created, and the logo need not be sans serif and black.

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Last month, Nordstrom rebranded, keeping their logo black.

Some brands with black logos employ another colour to create their unique look. Probably the best example is Tiffany & Company. Their distinctive “blue boxes” (more like a teal or aqua green) is so iconic, the colour is also used in store décor. If consumers were asked, what colour is the Tiffany logo, no one would be surprised if blue or teal was the overwhelming response.

Colour is, after all, one of the strongest branding signals. The moniker “Big Blue” came to be associated with IBM because of the colour of its logo. This did not prevent the IBM Marketing Cloud unit to rebrand with (a new name and) a black logo.

By some accounts, over 70% of all corporate logos are blue. There are, however, dozens if not hundreds of different shades of blue. No one would confound the aforementioned IBM blue with the blue used by the Gap, or AT&T’s blue globe with the HP or RBC blue. But black is black, if it isn’t, then it’s a shade of grey (no pun intended). Compare the small sample of the blue logos with the examples of black logos or of the fashion logos in this blog. Which logos stand out more?

This is not to suggest that black logos are, by definition, bad. There are instances where an all-black logo is the most effective vehicle to communicate a brand’s positioning and attributes. Decades ago, we lived in world of black logos largely due to the limited use of colour, in a world of black and white movies, (later) television and newspapers. The opposite is true today. There are very few areas where a colour logo cannot be used. With no technological barriers to the use of colour logos, what is motivating all these companies to opt for a black logo?

Have these brands minimized their distinctiveness, thinking they are being trendy and this will help them survive, warding off the “wolves”? We may well be living in a challenging world, with a difficult retail market, with technology changing at an ever-faster pace. But brands with a herd mentality – trying to blend in rather than stand apart – will have sealed their fates.

filemaker.com
trulia.com
flutter.com
ishares.com
shop.nordstrom.com
acoustic.co