Goodbye BEST BUY. Hello Best Buy.

   
Whether you liked the old BEST BUY logo or not, there was no doubt that it was BEST BUY. If you were driving, you could see it from a mile away. Flipping through the Sunday paper, you couldn’t miss it. Although I never personally liked the BEST BUY logo, I still thought that it worked. And it worked well. It was iconic. It said low price. It did everything that it was supposed to do. Let’s face it: BEST BUY “owned” the price tag. So why replace it with something so generic and classy?

The whole idea of BEST BUY was to convey a price /value statement. The new Best Buy logo fails in that attempt. I think the new version, although a much cleaner design, doesn't grab the attention.

Why go with a classier look anyway? People go to Best Buy because they think they’re going to get the best price. That's been their brand position for years. And with the economy in the dumps it would be better to hang on to the old logo and roll out a new one when the economy improves. So why change now? Why change at all?

Why trade such enormous brand equity for a complete redesign rather than an update?

Why not just become “bestbuy” and be done with it?

BEST BUY is market testing this new logo in The Mall of America.

Comments

[Anna]

Maybe you should stop looking at the logo as a logo and see the bigger picture.

Maybe Best buys is creating a visual that will be able to be translated and adapted to different languages, therefore character fonts.

Chinese, Arabic, etc... Way easier to adapt new version than old version, wouldn't you say????

Look like Best Buy is aiming for a worldwide market to me, not so much a local American-minded re-brand.

[Megan]

I do think such a dramatic divergence from the familiar Best Buy logo is a mistake. But I think it's even a greater mistake to test it in the Mall of America. The Mall of America is hardly Best Buy's typical retail environment. How are you supposed to gauge value and brand perception at such an extreme shopping destination when you should be interested in the strip mall down on Main Street?

[Darryl]

I think it works. It reflects a more socially minded, approachable Best Buy. The old logo looks dated and austere with the upper case typeface. De-emphasizing the price tag element acknowledges that consumers care more about just low prices -they want personalized service. Read my post: http://www.darryljonckheere.com/blog/?p=58

[Ron Nevers]

Hey everybody,

Thanks for your comments. A number of you bring up some interesting points, especially about price, and to an extent service.

We all know that BEST BUY doesn't always have the lowest price. But, their name certainly implies that, especially when combined with a price tag. So by changing their "iconic" price tag for a new "me too" makeover, they lose any sort of brand equity that they have built up over the last twenty-five years or so.

And no amount of logo re-design will fix what is wrong internally. BEST BUY's service and customer experience is anything but desired. So by taking out the "low price" image, they have nothing to put up against the competition.

If they think that by changing their logo, without changing some fundamental business practices, that things will get all better. They have another think coming. As Seth Godin said, "take the time and money and effort you'd put into an expensive logo and put them into creating a product and experience and story that people remember instead." Then and only then will things change.

[JNH]

I went to a Best Buy yesterday and remember thinking that Best Buy's identity clearly proves that design and branding are two completely different animals. Best Buy has had a strong brand and god-awful design.

I don't see much worth complaining about here; their original design looked like it was designed on the fly using one of those books of "custom" logos that you flip through at Kinko's. Now they have a better color palette, better typeface and if they roll it out soon our highways will look better. If we're lucky, maybe it'll encourage Ikea to also lose that same generic blue that they and BB have been polluting the landscape with for so long.

Maybe a new logo won't increase their sales, but since I don't work there, don't own stock in them and am not dependent on them as a vendor thats not a concern of mine.

Props to BestBuy (and Wal-Mart) for cleaning up their visuals -- can you guys get Walgreen's to follow suit?

[Paul Merrill]

REALLY bad new logo.

As one of the commentors remarked, you can't see the new mark from the highway, zooming along at 65 mph. Aren't almost all their stores near highways?

[Greg]

Ron, a couple of the comments alluded to Best Buy's brand position regarding price/value. I believe like in much of life, things change. When Best Buy began I'm sure the price tag and even the name Best Buy was positioned to have the consumer believe they offered the best price/value available. And I'm quite sure that the internet commerce was not to the level it is today. Perhaps the company felt it was time to change since in all reality, they are no longer the best price, you can find everything they sell cheaper online. But this brings me to the thought, why a wholesale change? Perhaps some change was needed. I often cite the job Cadillac Motor Car Division when they updated their logo. They did it without losing the lustre of a long time brand. I wonder if Best Buy could have done the same thing. It will be interesting to see how the test goes.

[Murphy]

Was at the MOA recently and saw it - they've got a massive store to go along with it. Frankly, I never thought that BEST BUY was inexpensive, they always seemed classy, and the logo, to me, is a representation of their actual culture. Also, it might be an attempt to recover from the flop that was the Geek Squad acquisition.

[Santhosh]

I personally like the current logo over the new one. First one catches the attention of the new customer who might not have heard of Beat Buy and immediately indicates best buy for existing customer. New logo seems little dull.

[Logo Design Works]

Perhaps it is not so bad.

Perhaps Best Buy is trying to redefine it's image. As long as their brand strategy remains the same, I believe a new logo will perhaps rejuvinate a stale brand in a Market place where every one is trying to broadcast the image of quality.

[Michael]

If they're trying to say price is no longer the reason to shop there, they're right. Sure, it's convenient to shop from a big box store, but convenience is the only reason I do that anymore. When I can buy things like computer RAM online for less than half the price (including overnight shipping), why would I ever consider Best Buy just for the price?

Smart move? I don't know. Intentional move away from price? I don't know. But in this "new economy", Best Buy's prices are generally not close to the lowest available.

[Benxamin]

Lame-o. Looks like a store, not a brand.

Thick, white sans-serif associated with a blue square. So everyone wants to be Facebook?

Their yellow-ticket icon has changed into a "by-the-way-here's-an-arrow-going-against-the-motion-of-your-eyes." Before, it was tilted so you could read it easier. Now, it's tilted to not be read. Maybe just pointing to the front door?

While I didn't care for their old logo (too derivative of Blockbuster), the new one is just an also-ran for Walmart's new one.

[russ Tate]

I think they're trading iconic for moronic! Don't get why they would even consider changing to the other logo. To me, the minimized tag is saying price is no longer the main reason to shop us. It'll be interesting to see if the test prompts them to go all the way.