Will Google Join These Logo Losers?

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Google changes its logo every day with clever home page animations, but the latest iteration is more permanent. Weeks after announcing Alphabet, a new parent company, the search engine giant unveiled a new logo on Tuesday.

Look at me: Preferences change over time, and marketing professor Rosellina Ferraro at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business says companies must keep up to stay modern. “A brand may be in trouble, and rebranding entirely or updating a logo is part of fixing that,” she says. “Or a tried-and-true brand that may not be top of mind anymore — a logo refresh can help with that.”

Not too dramatic: While Google doesn’t fall into the company-in-peril or the off-our-radar camp, Ferraro suspects Google’s logo change was a push for more consistency across all of its platforms, tied together with their four colors. “It’s not so different that it’s going to change anything in consumers’ minds about the brand,” she says — unlike some other companies that have tried logo changes in recent memory.

Oops, you hate it: One of the biggest flops was Gap’s 2010 attempt. The shift caused such a consumer backlash online that the company ditched the new logo after only a week. Gap’s change was just too drastic, Ferraro says. “With a gradual change, you’re not giving up all of the equity you have in an existing logo.” Orange juice drinkers also hated Tropicana's makeover. More good and bad logo overhauls...

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