Friday 24 August 2012

Microsoft have a new Logo. Instead of a new CEO.


Microsoft have a new logo - the first change in 25 years. Drum roll, here it is.... please, remain in your seats.        
                             
Here's the first and the most recent -


It's lighter, straighter (sans serif as we say in the trade....) although the red, blue, yellow and green colours remain. The font is 'Segoe'.

It's just not as brash or as "in your face" and is seemingly intended to bring Microsoft into a better place for their new product launches later this year. Including the revamp of 'Windows' and 'Surface'.

As readers of this blog will know, it's more than a new logo Microsoft needs. As most people are calling for, is not a new logo, but a new CEO. Don't think so? Well here's the current one.


Yep a new logo will surely fix it - right?
Apple's iphone business alone, is now worth more than Microsoft.

Read here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/08/microsofts-first-hardware-venture.html and here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/microsoft-and-nbc-divorce-from-msnbc-it.html and here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/vanity-fair-august-article-to-add-to.html and here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/06/microsoft-acquires-yammer-for-12.html okay I'll stop. But all of these pieces are over the last few months - none are good news for Microsoft.

But built around it, is the usual PR spin of signalling "an exciting year ahead!" and words that sound as trite as "Go Team, Go!!". 

Like "signal the heritage but also signal the future — a newness and freshness," said Jeff Hansen, Microsoft's general manager of brand strategy. God help us.

The colours are also meant to convey "the diversity of our products and the diversity of people that we serve," Hansen said. Of course they are. It's for all the Orange and Green people out there.

But of course it is one of the oldest tricks in the book - when things go against you, get a new logo, get a new look. And it's been news today all over the web and print, diverting eyes away from the problems at Microsoft.

I have no idea of the actual cost of this but from experience, designing and implementing a logo like this globally - is in the tens of millions. And trust me, I've been involved in enough new corporate identity launches to be able to forget them all.

Does a new logo pay dividends?

Only if what's in the box has changed.
Because if you change your product or your ethos (really change it from the inside) then new packaging (starting from a logo) can help convince people that you've changed.

It's what's in the box that matters not what it says on the outside.

If the new products such as touch screen 'Surface' and Windows 8 prove to be spectacular, then a new logo might help in signifying that. It will say to consumers "look, we've just got a whole lot better". If.

A logo on its own just signifies meaningless twaddle.
An attempt to give an old worn out company, a feeling that it's fresh which consumers will see through quickly.

And in my view, that's just what this is.
Meaningless.

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