Issue 32: Do You Need a Brand Refresh?
Welcome to Backstory, a weekly newsletter turning global technology shifts into a three-minute read. This week we have some thoughts about Facebook’s new logo and what a brand says about a business – Joseph Dana, Senior Editor
THE BIG TAKE
Do You Need a Brand Refresh?
Facebook’s blocky logo is an iconic part of the company’s brand. Since its founding 15 years ago (only 15 years!), the big blue “F” has been an instant reminder of the social network’s ubiquity. That’s all going to change. Facebook unveiled a new corporate logo last week, which one reviewer said looked better for a finance company than the world’s largest social media platform. The new logo, which is the company’s name in generic font, will appear across the Facebook products like WhatsApp and Instagram. The negative pushback got us thinking about the tricky intersection of brand and strategy.
Is your brand ready? The debate about Facebook’s new logo is really about the health of the company’s brand. Years of data privacy scandals have battered the it's image and calls to break-up the social media giant have put its house of brands under the microscope. When CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this year that he would change the name of popular Facebook-owned applications like WhatsApp and Instagram, the pushback was swift. Put simply, this is not the right time for a rebrand at Facebook. Even if the design language is powerful, audiences aren’t buying the change.
Potential hazards: Facebook’s new identity might be another misstep for the company, but it is also useful in highlighting how a great rebrand can reposition a business. Consider Google’s Alphabet rebrand in 2015. The company was able to draw investors’ attention to the panoply of products in its portfolio without diminishing Google’s brand recall for the average user. A good brand is a visual extension of business strategy. But how can the vision and values of a business be conveyed in a subtle but clear way that catches the eye in seconds? What symbols convey leadership, strength, and intention?
The mark of importance: When the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority(ADDA) adopted an expanded mandate earlier this year, we saw enormous potential to use a new brand identity to tell a larger story. The goal was to create an identity that is fresh and digitally native while honouring the incredible journey Abu Dhabi has taken over the past decades; a reflection of the department’s organisation strategy. This is where a brand identity can convey excitement and passion to build something profound. A good logo, in our opinion, speaks for itself. It becomes a shared foundation and a canvas for limitless stories.
OUR VIEWS THIS WEEK
Better together: There is a great deal of fear about the future of medicine and the role of artificial intelligence (AI). Advances in medical technology have many thinking that doctors will be replaced by artificially intelligent computer programmes and robots. This fear has been partly spurred by several recent articles predicting the AI will soon dominate medicine. It’s not going to be that simple. This week we demonstrated how technology and medicine can work together to improve the lives of millions. We really are better together.
Unicorn obsession: WeWork is the latest technology company tospectacularly stumble while going public. Uber and Slack are facing similar reckonings. The trends are familiar: companies go public at incredibly high valuations only to see their stocks drop off a cliff in the weeks following. Wary of a sluggish global economy, investors don’t seem to have the appetite to pour money into companies that pursue growth at all costs. What else is at play? We explored the so-called “unicorn industrial complex” in Silicon Valley to forecast what will happen with the next big technology IPO.
SPOTTED ELSEWHERE
The four day week: You have probably heard that AI and robotics will enable humans to work less and be more productive. We aren’t there yet but there is some encouraging news about the nature of productivity. In notoriously overworked Japan, Microsoft tested four-day working weeks for the month of August. The result: a spike in productivity by more than 40%. If the Japanese can be more productive with less time in the office, it’s time to redouble our efforts to build technology that gets us out of the office. A better world is possible.
The town with no WiFi: Thanks to a powerful telescope that requires electromagnetic silence, the small town of Green Bank, West Virginia has no WiFi. That’s right, no internet in the whole town. Guess what? The residents love it. We’ve written about digital detox but this seems a little extreme. Next time you are overwhelmed by technology think about humble Green Bank. Perhaps they could create some digital detox retreats where turning on your smartphone has real-life consequences.