Facebook Changes Product Branding To FACEBOOK
5 November 2019
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Facebook is introducing brand-new branding for its products and services in an attempt to identify the company from its familiar app and site.
Instagram and WhatsApp are among the services that will carry the new FACEBOOK brand name in the next few weeks.
The primary Facebook app and website will maintain its familiar blue branding.
The brand-new logo design, which is in uppercase, uses "custom typography" and "rounded corners" so the business's other products and app look various.
The branding also appears in different colours depending upon which item it represents. So, for instance, it will be green for WhatsApp.
"We desired the brand to link thoughtfully with the world and individuals in it," Facebook stated. "The vibrant colour system does this by handling the colour of its environment."
Facebook's chief marketing officer said: "People must understand which business make the products they use. We began being clearer about the product or services that belong to Facebook years back.
"This brand name change is a way to better communicate our ownership structure to the people and organizations who use our services to connect, share, construct community and grow their audiences."
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US Senator Elizabeth Warren has actually said she desires to separate the huge tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Google and put them under harder regulation.
This plan may be seen as Facebook's way of countering, although Ms Warren - publishing on Facebook - said: "Facebook can rebrand all they desire, however they can't hide the reality that they are too big and effective. It's time to separate Big Tech."
Distancing the Facebook brand - the blue app that's home to almost everyone, including your parents - from the trendier Instagram, a place for you and your pals, has constantly made great service sense for Facebook.
And it obviously worked: when Pew scientists asked research study individuals whether or not Facebook owned Instagram or WhatsApp, 49% of American grownups were "unsure".
So why would Facebook make this change?
It brings numerous benefits. Front of mind: the company is covering itself from accusations it conceals how powerful it truly is by not making it absolutely clear they lag many of the most significant apps in social networks.
And Facebook likewise wants to ward off efforts to break it up, by making the case that the business isn't just a corporation of separate, unique apps which could be easily broken up by regulators. Instead, this rebranding argues the company is one huge connected organism, called Facebook.
Facebook has actually come under criticism recently over a range of concerns.
Its boss Mark Zuckerberg had to face US legislators last month to discuss the company's policy on not fact-checking political adverts.
He likewise needed to defend prepare for a digital currency, speak about the social network's failure to stop kid exploitation on the network, and was quizzed over the Cambridge Analytica information scandal.
Earlier in the year, Mr Zuckerberg said the firm was going to make changes to its social platforms to improve personal privacy.
These consisted of messages sent out via Messenger being end-to-end encrypted, and concealing the number of likes an Instagram post receives from everyone however the person who shared it.
Does rebranding constantly work?
Several other big companies have tried rebranding in the past:
In 2001, British Airways turned tail on its strategies to get rid of the red, white and blue Union flag from its aircraft and change it with "world images"
In the same year, Royal Mail rebranded as Consignia, just to switch back again a year later
Dunkin' Donuts dropped the "Donuts" from its name in 2015 to try to move more into the coffee industry and its share cost has continued to increase
The parent business of Paddy Power and Betfair began trading under the new name Flutter Entertainment in May this year. It said the brand-new name "better showed the variety of the group".
'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'
Manfred Abraham, president of consultancy Brandcap, told the BBC: "I make certain this will be a successful move for Facebook. After all, the parent brand stays strong, regardless of recent troubles, and reminding consumers that Instagram and so on are all Facebook companies will assist with cross-membership.
"The rebrand is unsurprising as it is following a pattern - that of simplification. Many organisations are picking a strong, but pared-back visual identify and are shaking off 'style' in favour of plain."
However, Mr Abraham thought Facebook was right to leave the logo design on its flagship social networks platform as it is.
"Facebook's primary website does not require a rebrand. The old adage holds true: if it ain't broke don't repair it."