The uproar created in Israel in recent days over the change in the logo of the National Library, which led to a return to the previous logo, is an example of what can happen when an entity replaces a familiar and old logo with a new one. The audience does not always connect to the change, sometimes to the point of fear of damage to sales that leads to the cancellation of the change. We used Perplexity, Forefront, and ChatGPT to find similar cases around the world.
One of the most prominent examples of such a failed change is Gap, the fashion giant that tried to update its logo in 2010, following low sales caused by the financial crisis of the end of the first decade of this century. The new logo featured a more modern font than the company's familiar narrow font, and a blue square in the upper-right corner, behind the p. Criticism from customers and design experts, who argued that the new logo was too generic, lacked the iconic status of the original logo and even "something created by a kid in clip art," led the company to announce a return to the original logo in less than a week. The company released a statement saying it had "learned a lot" from the experience and would be more cautious in the future when making changes to its brand identity.
In 1997, a decade after privatization, British Airways decided to remove the Union Jack (the British flag) from the tails of its aircraft and replace it with various artist designs. Passengers and crew complained, claiming it was a lack of patriotism and abandonment of the company's British identity. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was even photographed at a Conservative Party conference covering the tail of the company's Concorde model with a napkin because of its unpatriotic consonant. It took the company 4 years to admit its mistake, until in 2000 its CEO was ousted and the new CEO quickly announced in 2021 a return to the logo based on the British flag.
Netflix attempted a slightly different kind of failed branding change in 2011 when it announced it was splitting its services into two separate brands: the streaming service would remain under the Netflix name, while the DVD rental service would become a new brand called Qwikster. The move was met with confusion and frustration from customers, who felt it was unnecessary and inconvenient. After only a few weeks, CEO Reed Hastings announced the reversal of the decision and the continuation of Netflix as a unified company. Interestingly, despite the shift to streaming over the past decade, the disc rental service has continued to operate, and will only shut down at the end of this month.
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