It has been hard to miss the news that Facebook is buying WhatsApp for a whopping sum of $19 billion. Large deals in the mobile and tech industry are nothing new but this one plays in another league.

Facebook has defended the deal, citing the huge potential, popularity and value of the messenger service that WhatsApp is providing. Even if WhatsApp only has been on the market for a few years, they currently have around 450 million users and growing exponentially, where the goal is to achieve 1 billion users.

WhatsApp has built its brand without any marketing or advertising activities. Instead, the objective has been to develop a direct relationship with its users and avoid clutter. The company has not collected any personal information from its users except from their phone number.

That is a quite different strategy from Facebook who has been forced to focus more on advertising revenues, meaning they need to collect personal data from their users. This is something that has turned away some users from Facebook and might be a worry now also for the users of WhatsApp. However, just like Instagram – that was bought by Facebook in 2012 – WhatsApp will continue to operate independently with its own brand, strategy and HQ.

So what is the brand strategy behind buying WhatsApp?

Facebook has previously bought more than 40 companies, mainly small start-ups who provided great talent or interesting features. The acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp are different. It seems like Facebook is now aiming to build a portfolio of market leading brands with large potential that offer services that are complimentary to Facebook and who already have a large user base. This is a similar brand strategy to the big FMCG companies like P&G, Unilever and Nestle who all focus on building “House of Brands” consisting of successful and independent brands that supports their overall vision.

Being able to offer strong brands like Instagram and WhatsApp will support Mark Zuckerbergs vision of “making the world a more open and connected place, offering engaging and outstanding services”.

It will be interesting to see what brand will be the next one in the Facebook family.

Yahoo has recently unveiled their new logo after a 30-day campaign during which a variation of the logo was presented each day on the company web site, then the final candidate was launched.

The new logo has been designed by CEO Marissa Mayer and a team of internal designers during one weekend in summer. The background due to Mayer:  “We knew we wanted a logo that reflected Yahoo – whimsical, yet sophisticated.  Modern and fresh, with a nod to our history.  Having a human touch, personal.  Proud.”

OLD LOGO

NEW LOGO

The revamp is the first major identity change in Yahoo’s 18-year history and this could have been a great opportunity to signal a positive change for the company. Instead the designers have left more or less all major elements of the logo intact except for the font where the elaboration has been focused. Unfortunately the new logo does not really fit Mayers brief as it feels more engineered, structured and boring than fresh and modern. More business-like than whimsical and personal. The new font also makes it look more like a brand in the beauty sector than a proud internet brand. Out of the 30-day campaign I believe there were several options that suited the brief better than the final one.

The feedback from the public has so far been mainly negative where a majority prefers the old logo. That can be due to the fact that most customers don’t like changes. However, don't forget the disastrous feedback that GAP, Tropicana and British Airways faced from their customers when conducting big rebranding projects. This lead them to change back their identities causing big costs and embarrassment.

Branding is an important strategic discipline and a rebranding is a big operation for any brand. A new logo should be a core element of a professionally planned brand launch consisting of a new brand strategy, new vision, new brand positioning, new customer promise etc. Yahoo should therefore have focused their efforts on defining a strong brand foundation including the elements just mentioned, then using good creative design to conceptualize the brand strategy into a visual identity where the logo is a main expression. Just re-designing the old logo makes this look more like a cosmetic overhaul than a much needed signal of strategic brand change.

In the highly competitive arena where Yahoo is playing, they need to be able to tell customers why they should choose Yahoo and what makes Yahoo different.
A "new" logo is not enough.

Etihad's new brand campaign

The phrase " The world is our home and  you are our guest" is catchy in a sense that might provocate more established aviation companies, where focus lies on customers and less on guests. The purpose is to make a bold brand statement and tell the world a brand story. However, the question is what value will this add to the Etihad brand and how does this make Etihad different from its competitors? The future will tell whether going global will infuse even more fierce competition at home with older sister Emirates.