By now I am sure you will have heard about the new ANZ brand launched in Melbourne the other day. Looking at various blogs it appears that the common reaction is it is a waste of $15 million. The expected comments of ‘ my 7 year old child could do that‘, and ‘ how could that cost 15 million dollars‘ are flying thick and fast. No your 7 year old child couldn’t do that and it doesn’t cost
$15 million.

Firstly it is so easy to look at something once it is created and say ” I could have done that“, the reality is you think you can because it is already there in front of you, but take a brief and then try going through the process to get to the end product and you will find it is a lot harder than you think.

Secondly the cost of $15 million being trumpeted about is not the cost of designing the logo (if that’s what we get for rebranding I would have retired a long time ago) it is the cost of all marketing and promotion using the new brand over the next few years as well as the redesign and implementation.
A large proportion of this money will already be budgeted for as part of the banks ongoing advertising and marketing plans anyway.

Even with the old brand instead of the new, the bank will still be spending money on advertising and managing their brand. Part of this is of course the continual maintenance and repair of existing livery. New bank premises, vehicles etc. need new signage and there is continual maintenance and repair of existing signage. Stationery is reprinted and supplied, staff come and go and need new uniforms and business cards and this is a fact of business regardless of which logo is used.

Lets face it rebranding is a part of successful business, companies need to portray themselves to their market in the way that the business is heading culturally and strategically and I am sure that the new brand will position the ANZ to where it sees itself heading to. Whether we like the look of the logo is purely subjective and it will always be open to opinion, the key is to be objective to how it works.

Sure there will always be people who are opposed to any kind of change, but if businesses didn’t rebrand then they would appear out of date and left behind as their competitors and the world marched on.

And I am sure that in a year from now the public will have got used to the new look and accept it and more importantly their market too. For this to happen though the bank has to live up to and deliver on its promise of a new direction and culture that the brand and strap-line of ‘We live in your world’ represents.