I love the BBC. Not just for shows like Sherlock and Doctor Who, but also for comedy during Red Nose Day and intense dramas. The programming is smart and realistic and brilliant storytelling.
Last week, BBC Three, a part of the bigger British Broadcasting Company, released a new brand identity in preparation of becoming a fully-online channel in February. As might be expected, people weren’t too pleased with the change. An article on Mashable shows how upset people got about the new logo.
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| New BBC Three logo. Image from BBC. |
The head of marketing at BBC Three, Niki Carr, wrote a blog post explaining the reason for the new brand and the general ideas behind it. In addition to explaining how the new identity brings the whole channel together as they venture solely into the digital world, she also says, “New BBC Three is founded on three principles that underpin everything we do. The first is ‘make me think’ . . . The second is ‘Make me laugh’. . . The third, the exclamation mark, is ‘Give me a voice’, which is what we will do for young people.”
BBC Three knew what they wanted to accomplish, had reasons for working it out the way they did, and are sticking to their guns. Other brands haven’t been as brave. In an era where anyone can say anything about whatever they’d like, people make their voices heard. BBC Three heard them, poked some fun at themselves, but ultimately kept at it because they think it’s the right move for them.
In an article by Entrepreneur magazine, the author outlines why people push back against logo redesigns—the expectation, realistic or not, that the brand redesign signifies a bigger change in the company they feel tremendously connected to. By releasing the blog post more than a month ahead of their move online, BBC Three followed the Entrepreneur article’s advice to inform consumers a change is happening and explain why the change is necessary, which can help dispel negative reactions.
Brand design is important. It needs to convey who your company is in a very simple way. Your brand identity needs to resonate with your audience and represent who you are and what you do, to people around the world. I’m sure BBC Three didn’t venture into this lightly. And neither should you. There are many reasons to want, or need, to change your brand, including your logo and collateral materials, but don’t just do it because you feel you should. Do it because you need to send a message to your audience, to better connect with them, to reevaluate how your mark represents you.
Do you need to talk through how you should change your branding? Talk to us.