Working with a company that redefines and refocuses brands, I have come to love before and afters. I love the idea of taking something old and stale and making something appealing and desirable out of it. I think that’s exactly what the folks at Pentagram just did with the Popeyes brand. Until recently the brand still looked like it was trapped in the 1980’s - it was especially obvious when up against the still competition of Chic-Fil-A, Burger King and McDonalds, each of which has a fresh brand image that fast food diners can easily understand and identify with.

Here’s how the Popeyes identity stood before Pentagram began:

I’ll let the work speak for itself, but here’s a quick description from the Pentagram blog:

The new identity emphasizes the restaurant’s rich Louisiana Gulf Coast culinary heritage and distinguishes itself from the stiff fast-food competition. Stout created an evolved logotype that updates the easily recognizable word-mark originally inspired by the “dancing” letterforms used in old Popeyes comics. A simple icon based on the single dancing “P” of the original letterforms and a new crest featuring the words “Louisiana Kitchen” are designed to be additional components of the flexible identity system. Packaging and other elements feature images of jazz musicians to emphasize the company’s Louisiana heritage.

And the afters:

Reading about this Popeyes work got me thinking about some of the other brands that I interact with every day that could use this same exercise. There are so many that I walk and drive by each day, and some that I even patronize with brands that are lack luster. The question then is…why? Your brand is the foundation of your being, and arguably one of the most important things to the success of the business (aside from of course having a worthy product or service), so why let it languish?

I think many corporations and organizations are hesitant about investing in their brand, and that might be one of the core hesitations. It’s not a process that comes cheap, and the results are not often immediate. But when you focus on creating a brand that positions your company properly, you make the process of turning a regular person into a brand loyalist infinitely easier. Always remember, without a solid brand no marketing vehicle, regardless of how creative, can deliver the desired result.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 11:35 am and is filed under Blog Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.