Firebrand

Putting the B in Rebranding, both Best Buy and Baskin Robbins are starting to roll out their respective rebrandings. I am generally critical of rebrandings especially of large and well liked brands. But both of these rebrandings are fantastically executed. They are both evolutionary not revolutionary, are for good positioning reasons, and are well designed.

Baskin Robbins-

When I think of getting ice cream at Baskin Robbins I think of letting the kid out in me. It seems as if Baskin Robbins has let the kid out of their logo. The previous logos conservative, linear, serif type face never embodied the brand values or customer experience, and the 31 flavours isn’t as effective a differeniator as it was before. The blue and pink was it’s saving grace in making it more child (or inner child) friendly and distinctive. That was a good thing to maintain along with the basic composition of the logo because the new logo builds the brand without sacrificing too much brand equity. The fun dancing typeface gives the logo a much needed youthful, playful energy. Are you taking notes, Chapman’s?

The only thing I would have done differently is move the BR/31 symbol up over the name, and have the name read without interuption. It could be confusing to read for the few people unfamiliar with the brand.

Best Buy-

The big yellow tag with block letters always said discount retailer and not electronics store. When Best Buy was coming to Canada, I assumed they were at competitor of Wal Mart and Cost Co; in fact they carried the same block letters as Cost Co’s logo and Wal Mart’s previous logo. The new logo’s typeface references the type found on alot of their products: LG, Apple, HP, just to name a few. This positions them better by associating themselves implicitly with the electronics industry. While the blue is new to the logo, it isn’t to the brand. The maintaining of colour in both of these examples has served the companies well by maintaining associations built in their patron’s minds.

It seem’s as if Best Buy is testing this logo thoroughly and it may or may not run with it. I hope they do, some great strides are made with it.

Question of the Post: How would you rate these rebrandings on a scale from 1 to 10?

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large multinational brands everyday designing retail displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

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Last post I mentioned how passion is the fuel of a brand, and that you don’t need a passion that is wide spread such as cars or fashion. Having a few very passionate people is just as good if not better. I call these niches Pockets of Passion, and you would be amazed of the pockets you find when you look under the surface.

One I was very proud to be a part of is the user community around the program Solidworks. Solidworks is the 3D CAD tool I use to design, visualize and implement designs. In earlier in February, I attended the Solidworks World 2009 convention at the Disney Swan and Dolphin hotel in Orlando. There Solidworks had assembled 4300 of it’s most powerful users. Their passion was clear: people showing off what they had made in Solidworks, new things they had learned, and hanging off every word in seminars. Exhibitors bid high to gain access to these people who were the influencers of the engineering and design industry.

The conference also reminded me of the good you do for the world you do when you assemble like minded people. No other place I have ever been to could you so easily meet people; walking to the general session you just needed to turn to your left and start up a conversation. Very comunal. I met a veriety of people from all over the world, alot of whom I corrispond with now.

The lesson to be learned is that Solidworks does just fine even though 3D CAD doesn’t spark passion in the vast majority of the population. By assembling their teir one users, they get all the passion they need to fuel the development of the product and message.

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large brands everyday designing displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

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I realized that whenever I see a trademark symbol, I immediately glaze over the preceding text.

You know what I am talking about. It only happens when you are not engaged with the company or the information. In a body paragraph on a website there is something in Title Case with a TM at the end. Like if I was talking about Firebrand and then I had something like The Hottest Resources For The Hottest Companies (TM). You would just do a mental eye roll or shoulder shrug and say to yourself “not another cheesy marketing tag line… Oh brother.”

Here is a good example.

I see 5 trade marks on that page, which is 4 more than I think there should be. I think Minute Maid has a good brand, and to protect their promotions I know they need to use trademarks like that. But do we really need a symbol beside every instance of something to eliminate every false interpretation of the trademark? It seems antiquated.

In an age where being precieved as genuine is goal number one, our intellectual property tools are actually hurting as much as they are helping. Time for some new ones maybe?

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large brands everyday designing displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

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We talked about how brands can stand brightly in dirty industries. Porter is a great example. Porter understands that user experience starts when a customer sees an advertisement to when they leave the terminal, and they work to optimize every step in between. That is a commitment I appreciated recently when I flew home for the holidays to Ottawa from Toronto.

Porter is a regional airline that runs exclusively out of the island airport in downtown Toronto, so their lounge is the one and only gate. The free ammenities that they offer are great for their passengers. Free WiFi for those with laptops, and iMacs for people without. Desk seating, upright seating for reading, and lounge seating. Decent light, and good interior design that ties into the graphic branding of the company.

But there is one thing that they offer that contrasts them against all other airlines: free beverages. I am not talking about a free Diet Coke when your on the plane; they do that for sure. But in the lounge they have a fridge full of waters, juices and pops for any of their patrons who feels the need. I know I always grab an orange juice that I drink half of and then bring onto the plane. That is the sort of trust in customers that spawns great loyalty. When I arrived in Ottawa we say a beverage fridge not unlike the one in the Porter lounge. But the big difference was the lock and chain around it. What is worth more: A few cents profit on a $2 bottle of cranberry juice or customer loyalty for a service that costs hundreds of dollars each time?

Keep up with the great work Porter!