Amazon.com and the ACLU

In the last section of the book, we turn to take a look at some case studies and best practices. I'm not going to repeat the book and I'm probably not going to offer much of a summary. But what I do want to do is take a look at a few topics presented.

Amazon.com. Turner Duckworth was retained to redesign Amazon.com's brand identity with specific attention paid to packaging.There are several things interesting about the move from the old logo to the new logo.

First, one of the challenges was how do you create a new identity but retain the brand equity of the previous logo. Obviously, the new logo doesn't overhaul the old identity. What it does though is smile from "A to Z". The smile represents Amazon's personality and the "A to Z" communicates that Amazon is the web's largest retailer selling everything from "A to Z". Pretty neat.

Another topic I found interesting was that Amazon didn't do a big launch. They did a soft launch. They didn't announce the new brand identity. They didn't notify the press and the new identity wasn't even mentioned on the web site. Amazon merely implemented the switch. Why the soft launch? Amazon didn't want to give the perception to customers and investors that they were a "different" company.

ACLU. The ACLU rebranding project completed by the Fo Wilson Group illustrates how a national organization has to properly manage its assets. As part of the identity audit, the ACLU discovered that every affiliate in each of the 50 states had their own unique logo, website design and architecture. There was no standardization and brand assets were being diluted. In response, Flo Wilson revitalized the ACLU's original symbol from the 1930's, the Statue of Liberty. Additionally, FO Wilson provided the ACLU with the all important means to manage its new identity - a successful role out, an Identity Guidelines website, etc.