Brand Evolution is to make strategic small, incremental changes, tweaks to business branding and is a very popular approach to the often difficult task of rebranding. Big brands who feel they need to make updates but already have a very loyal customer base (who have a strong emotional attachment to the look and feel of the brand identity) often take this approach. In short, your brand has a strong position in the market and changing the look of your brand completely may jeopardise customer loyalty but in order to keep up with trends and to make new connections with a new younger demographic, evolutionary design is not only the safest option but the only option!
On the message boards of design blogs you can often read very negative comments from fellow designers when logos are updated. Personally, I recognise the need for brands to always keep evolving and moving with critical trends, and having worked with Qantas in the past, I think the design of the new logo is great and while being unsure of the new typeface, I absolutely love the use of the type on the underside of the carriage and can’t believe that all Airlines aren’t using this prime real estate.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said having the Qantas name on the belly of their aircraft would make “a huge difference to people looking up and wondering what airline it is”.
“We were one of the first airlines, if not the first to do it with Jetstar in 2003 and a few airlines have copied Jetstar since then and it’s great to do it with Qantas aircraft,” said Mr. Joyce. “We’re very excited about that, we think it’s a newly added feature.”
He went on to say that it was only the fifth redesign since 1944, and only the fourth change to the font. Alan Joyce cited social media as the reason for the change. Which is obviously what all designers should consider before embarking on any type of brand build. “In the last rebrand, the font didn’t change and the previous design was created before Facebook and social media and the requirements now for a logo, a brand, is a lot different. We wanted this to be more vibrant, three-dimensional and this font is more versatile.”
Wise words from the Qantas CEO and food for thought regarding every brand that not only wants to maintain it consumer allegiance but to grow its brand into new markets