Best Buy Brand Identity – Testing Using Open Principles
On Friday, there was some web traffic on commentary related to what was purported to be Best Buy’s new logo. The comments were all over the map and for me it was actually great to see people’s passion regarding our Brand. The comments are captured at http://tinyurl.com/4yc9ud. To be clear at the outset of this entry, the Brand identity work posted is not Best Buy’s new logo and this is accurately reported in the comments.
A little context for the work on which people were commenting. As Best Buy followers know, we are on a journey to significantly improve the customer experience across our touch points. We have many initiatives in place to make our experience better but we know for our Brand great customer experience is a result of the efforts of human beings, in our company primarily the Best Buy “Blue Shirts,” Geek Squad “Agents,” and Call Center Reps. These people are the face and voice of the Best Buy Brand. As mentioned in a entry posted on August 31st, I believe our people are Best Buy’s “silver bullet,” something our competitors can’t replicate that affords us sustainable advantage. I know we don’t always get it right but I do know from surveys and talking to customers that we are making good progress.
We have many activities in play that are designed to improve our experience and well executed hopefully will create greater loyalty for our Brand. Some of them you can see today like; a longer return policy and free shipping for Reward Zone Silver members, a “click to call option” on Best Buy.com and an improved warranty program called “Black Tie” protection that has a higher service level and even a forgiveness option built in if you don’t use the policy. Other ideas are being tested and will be launched as we find they make our experience better.
The point of all of this is that a better consumer experience delivered by our people is a long term strategy. As such we have been thinking about how to call greater attention to all of these activities. As one of the tactics to gain greater “consumer credit,” we have been testing new ways to communicate our Brand identity across all mediums including but not limited to in store signage. Our objectives for this test are as follows:
- Signal to consumers that something new is going on
- Appeal to a broader group of customer groups
- Free the tag to eventually become more of an icon
- Update and modernize the current mark
Our testing process includes gauging reaction in a “live” environment such as our Mall Of America store and also includes getting feedback on employee uniforms, store design, colors, font styles etc. Our intent is to get learning in an open way not necessarily to “roll out” anything in that store. I need to emphasize that we have not decided to iterate our logo. I also would remind folks that Brands look at this stuff all the time. Most great brands have iterated their identity many times over the years, Apple (3 times at least), Target and most recently Wal-Mart are a few examples that are top of mind for me.
For me, however, the most significant part of this test is in the “how” we are conducting it. This test is a small first step in utilizing “open” principles in how we do marketing which I believe will enable us to radically improve our marketing work product. If we can try small things in a live environment and then quickly iterate based upon conversations and feedback both through traditional means and social technology forums we will learn (fail) faster and get far better outcomes than we would doing marketing the way I have done it for 20 years.
So in the interest of open feedback in the hopes I can learn faster, I welcome any additional comments on this post as well as the actual test in the store. For those that live in Minnesota, a trip to Mall Of America would give you a first hand glimpse. I also plan to update this blog when we have taken our learning to the next level.
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Barry, continue to appreciate your candor and openness.
We visited the Mall of America store in September. For a closer look and some of our impressions, follow this link:
http://www.retailnetgroup.com/Newsletters/Files/RNGStrategyAlert-10.pdf
This seems like an exciting step towards evolving the brand to keep up with the changing customer landscape. I’m curious to why you chose the Mall of America location. Was it due to the store size? The regionality? The cache of the mall? Is that location the best in terms of sales performance?
I would argue that although you would get reactions and a “pulse” of a customer from feedback, that you would need a sample closer to a dozen or so to truly test regional variance before a full rollout. Agree?
Just saw the MOA store over the weekend. My son and I played electric guitars in the sample room. Great experience. I really like the “look and feel” of the trial logo, brand colors and signage. I think it’s more sophisticated, less “cartoony” than the current logo and color scheme.
I dig it.
We wanted to pick a high profile location for the test in order to get a lot of traffic and feedback. We have other testing methodologies in place to ensure that we get a wide yet representative take on customer and employee perceptions.
This is an amazing use of the digital space Barry. I remain blown away by the candor and insights found here and on Twitter.
Keep going.
I’ll be in MSP tomorrow and will be sure to stop by MOA to take a look and the identity testing.
[...] Here’s a link from Best Buy’s CMO Barry Judge as to how they are rolling out the new logo. addthis_url = [...]
Love the blog/co-creation- good stuff. The ‘new logo’ (not final if I understand correctly) looks like an arrow pointing down and backwards to me – not so convinced. I do dig the font: speaks about ‘first name basis’ vs. institutional, which works with the culture.
It’s a sharp logo, and still reminiscient of the established current design,
HOWEVER,
it’s too similar to the Walmart redesign (yes they dropped the hyphen, and made the rest of the word lowercase, and added a yellow ‘burst’ logo)
http://www.walmart.com/
At least the two box stores would look coordinated when next to each other.
[...] uniforms are all part of this intermediate step. Barry Judge, the CMO of Best Buy, insists on his blog that this mark is not a new identity system for Best Buy, only a transitional [...]
I’m afraid I’m terribly underwhelmed by the new logo. Very bland and lacking in distinctiveness. Sorry.
Anna:
I have a response from James Damian, Chief Designer at Best Buy, to your comment regarding the tag pointing down. Its copy and pasted below:
“The positioning for the tag, lines up in a parallel position with the angle of the ‘Y’ when used next to Best Buy. You will also see it used as a pointer when the tag is used on line or in print media. This will enable us to use it in many other positions which will free us solely from price. It will become more of an animated icon that is distinctive for our brand identity.”
Thoughts back?
Todd:
Appreciate the comment on the logo, you don’t like it. Good to know. This is work in progress and exploratory, so your comments are helpful. Do you like the current logo? What does it say to you?
[...] Here’s Seattle Times technology reporter Benjamin J. Romano’s take.La Vida Logo In a blog post last week, Best Buy CEO Barry Judge confirmed that the retailer is testing a new logo.National [...]
Barry,
Curious when you talk about radically improving how you market and utilizing “open” principles in marketing, are you much concerned about the wisdom of the mob and how do you control the playground, or do you just not worry much about those that might discuss in front of your customers why they might sometimes like a competitor better?
Hi Barry,
I’m not a big fan of your new logo, but I love the ideology behind open principle.
I love the objectives you’ve set forth for your new brand, but I think the mark, as it stands now is a little too generic.
The Best Buy tag is different.
The huge yellow tag and typeface say young, confident, low-cost and different. It indicated (to me as a consumer…not a jaded branding person) that your business model was different. Once you step inside, the brand promise delivered.
The new logo type logo melts into the backdrop of every other store. You no longer lead, you blend.
Best Buy rocks…and I love your dedication to staying at the front of the curve.
Can’t wait to see what develops!
So we were just going to put the Best Buy logo (as a sponsor) on the back of a teaching vehicle (literally, a bus that travels around) that Best Buy is generously supporting for the next two years with a nice contribution here in Georgia…and I said in a meeting “I heard they had a new logo, maybe we should use that one.”
But reading this, I guess not, eh? Big ol’ yellow tag remains the current logo?
Hi Barry. Great seeing you today, and thanks for the prod to leave comments here, even if, or maybe especially if, they’re against the flow.
The stuff i’ve seen on your corporate id, of which your logo is just a small part, has been a definite step in the right direction. (before you stop reading, there’s a ‘but’ coming…) It’s forward, open, vibrant, and, i feel a lot more care has been taken with it. not sure if that’s true, but that’s what it feels like.
Here’s the But: i hope you’re slowly weaning the world away from your ‘tag’, either by further abstracting it, or by developing secondary marks and icons that can one day step in to be the primary representative of your brand. marks that have no apparent meaning, such as target’s, can just be what they are. but the tag has such a clear story to it… and from what i can see as the direction your business is going (”the only brand with people in it”) the tag always has me doing a u-turn back to a transactional relationship. i’m suddenly back in that st paul parking lot. your customer, your business and your brand have come a long way since then… i wish i could see that reflected in future iterations – by further sublimating the ka-ching.
[...] of a larger reinvention strategy as reported by RetailNet Group, the proposed although not finalized new corporate logo (left) is an interesting departure from the company’s existing [...]
Darryl has captured well the intent of our refined positioning for the Best Buy brand. For his take, click the link in the above post. For me, the spirit of our Brand work is trying to reflect the importance of our people over time to be Best Buy’s key differentiator vs Wal-Mart, Costco, Amazon and the like.
I really love this conversation. I would love to hear more about how the new design evolves the image of the brand vs the old design. Does it say anything different about the brand? Does it change how you feel about the brand? ? Good or Bad.
Gosh it’s really too bad people don’t know the definition of brand identity. A logo is not a brand identity, it’s a mark. A brand identity encompasses everything a brand wants to be perceived as (both internally and externally), which is much more than a logo.
You can read all about what brand identity is here: http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/2008/11/what-is-brand-identity-really/
[...] Barry Judge Blog Archive Best Buy Brand Identity Testing Posted by root 15 minutes ago (http://barryjudge.com) Uniforms are all part of this intermediate step chief designer at best buy to your comment regarding the tag pointing down devart theme powered by wordpress and maintened by bust out solutions Discuss | Bury | News | Barry Judge Blog Archive Best Buy Brand Identity Testing [...]
This is the first time I’ve seen your blog and I must say I’m impressed. It’s a great way for you to stay in touch with the fans of your brand, which includes me. I think the new logo, but more importantly the fact that you use input from your consumer base, is great.