5 Best Corporate Branding Changes

Salamandra came up with this guide of some of the best branding styles that they think companies can take inspiration from, by incorporating similar ideas to their branding.

It’ll inform you on how taking an innovative step and evolving a company’s branding or style can actually be beneficial for a brand. 

It aims to help you gather instant inspirational material if you so happen to be deciding on branding changes.

Read below to discover more. 

1. Deliveroo – Energy & Personality

Starting off the list with Deliveroo, they had a massive brand refresh in 2016. They integrated their iconic Kangaroo logo with a peace symbol, pumping up the energy and enforcing their brand with a positive vibe. Not only this but they chose to use bold and vibrant colours, which gives the company a fun and playful personality.

In our opinion though, the new brand image looks more upbeat, matching our society’s current modern feel. Which is why we chose their brand as a prime example for others to emulate. As keeping up with modern trends and catering to consumer expectations is a good start for any business to follow.

Look below to see the upbeat nature of their new branding. We definitely think that the logo’s development has a much better impact and is a welcome change by its consumers.

Read more about it here: New Identity for Deliveroo

 2. Spotify – Flexibility

Spotify is a music streaming service that’s dominating their industry. Being an innovative company, in 2015 they also updated their branding. Originally, they thought that green should be their primary colour.

They’re known to change colour schemes from time to time, using a consistent green when marketing to the outside world but on their user-base platform, they are flexible at the colour palettes used, spicing it up with different ‘mixes’ and styles. By incorporating secondary palettes, so they are a hybrid at being consistent and flexible in branding.

With this method, their standard green logo is consistently recognised, being used on billboards, adverts, and social media. Whilst on their own platform, they’re fresh, wild and always using a range of different colours, which has almost become an exclusive feature for their userbase.

We must say though, we love the way they’ve changed their old logo to the modern one we know and love now. They had a funk and hipster look in their old branding style but they now go with a simpler, bolder, modern look; stating their confidence in the world.

Read more about it here: New Identity for Spotify

3. Kodak – Consistency 

To change things up a bit we chose to include Kodak (yes the company we used to all buy analogue celluloid film from). Jokes aside they’re actually still big and leading 3D printing industries for consumers as well as big leaders in the industrial and healthcare world.

But the reason we chose their branding for the 3rd spot on our list, is because being flexible in colour schemes (like Deliveroo and Spotify) doesn’t always work for every brand. And in most cases, it’s actually more beneficial to have a consistent colour scheme, one that allows their branding to be easily recognised no matter where they’re seen.

Kodak, in this case, needed a brand refresh and we can see that they choose to use the same original colour scheme (red, orange and black) and instead of a complete overhaul, they just updated their branding to incorporate new shape metrics. Once again another innovator deciding that the modern aesthetic is a good trend to follow. This proves to consumers and to other businesses that Kodak can adapt itself and it knows how to keep up with society’s progression, not only in their business model but in their branding as well.

Read more about it here: New Identity for Kodak

4. Google – Simple and Minor Changes

Now I know what you’re wondering… “Google, 4th place? You can’t be serious right!” Hang on and let us explain why. The reason we chose Google to be on this list is not because of its status but as this is a guide to different styles in branding, we wanted to give you as much variety to choose from as possible. So the reason Google’s brand changes made it on this list, is because every couple of years or so, they make minor and subtle changes. They have literally done nothing besides changed the font of their logo, periodically.

But how can a simple change like that be considered best, in our eyes of course? Well, as mentioned in the examples above, sometimes a brand doesn’t need a complete overhaul, like examples 1-2. Sometimes you just need a slight tweak or re-adjustment to make it a little bit more presentable and up with the times.

So for our fourth place, we chose Google simply because modern is the new black (caught the hint yet). Have a look at the video below to see how Google has consistently done minor changes throughout the years and other brands who have done the same.

Read more about it here: History of the Google Logo

5. Zendesk – The Same Concept, Just Different.

Zendesk is a prime example of how you can change a once ‘predictable’ brand, to something spectacular and meaningful! For those of you who don’t know, Zendesk is a customer support software company that helps other companies with their customer experience.

For our 5th spot we chose their brand as it shows that if you’re unhappy or wanting to change a brand logo that’s linked to a name, there are many ways around that. With that in mind, their original logo was a happy Buddha, sitting down, wearing a headset and looking super Zen! For the most part, being subliminal on the services they provide hinting at the expertise and enlightened nature of their business of course.

However, Zendesk distanced themselves from the Buddha logo and decided to completely overhaul their original branding, incorporating the same concept by not changing their company’s name but instead they sectored each sub-category of their services with the help of animation, better visualising and aiding the understanding of their clients who rely on them. Further embracing the Zen nature of their business! Have a look for yourselves!

Read more about it here: New Identity for Zendesk

Key Takeaways

In conclusion, we hope you gathered some useful information and ideas about the different branding styles your company could potentially take inspiration from. And to recap, brands should find what works for their personality and their target audiences should be considered when deciding. Remember that keeping up with social trends correlates especially well in branding, you want to match the styles that appeal best to your consumers or clients.

Ideally, brands should try to incorporate a more modern aesthetic, something meaningful, sleek, simple and even vibrant! It can be hard to decide the styles needed which is why there are experts who can help! Contact us at Salamandra for any branding work or consultation if you’re in need of a refresh. We specialise in branding, logos, animation and designing the right styles that match your brands feel. Check out some great examples of the company’s we’ve helped excel, on our case studies here.