In a drastic rebranding move, Elon Musk scrapped the perky blue bird that symbolized Twitter for more than a decade and replaced it with an enigmatic X.
In a drastic rebranding move, Elon Musk scrapped the perky blue bird that symbolized Twitter for more than a decade and replaced it with an enigmatic X.
Musk made the branding announcement early Sunday morning, and by the following day, the blue bird was gone, although everything else on the Twitter site appeared unchanged.
“Usually, people want to take the positive equity they have in a brand and bring it to the new brand. This move by Musk is what people do when they want to get rid of the old brand completely,” observed Patricia Hambrick, master lecturer in marketing at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University.
“This is much more drastic than a typical brand name change,” she told TechNewsWorld. “Brands do this when they have no positive equity left. You usually don’t see something this drastic.”
“From a business strategy standpoint, though, Musk needs to do something drastic to get what he bought back on track,” she added. “This could be something that could help him, or it could take him down, but it’s a pretty drastic move.”
Musk bought Twitter for US$44 billion in October 2022. Since then, he’s reduced the workforce at the company by 70%. However, that hasn’t stopped the company from losing almost two-thirds of its value with Musk at the helm, according to a report in The Guardian, nor has it halted an exodus of advertisers and users.The Brands They Are A-Changin’
Companies typically change their branding to stay relevant in a dynamic market, attract new customers, and differentiate from competitors, explained Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in San Jose, Calif.
“Branding updates can also reflect a shift in company values, products, or target audience,” he told TechNewsWorld. “A fresh brand image can reinvigorate public interest and build stronger emotional connections with consumers, driving business growth.”
Companies also rebrand to get away from negative associations made with an old brand, or to position themselves for more changes, added Jessica Melugin, director of the Center for Technology and Innovation at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a public policy organization in Washington, D.C.
“Since Musk has talked about the idea of a platform that does many things beyond just microblogging for some time, I’d guess it’s the latter that we’re seeing here,” she told TechNewsWorld.
