What would you expect for around $1 million investment on a rebranding excercise? And how risky is it tampering with a classic, well known logo in an attempt to engage the general public?
The questions which have to be asked in a project like this - is exactly who is being targetted? Will the rebranding affect the current Pepsi lovers? Or - does anyone really care? After all, tampering with a globally recognised brand is a risky business. By putting it up for public scrutiny, end trying to engage the market through various social media sites using sites such as You Tube and Flikr to reach out and, try to generate some buzz around the new loo, they have to be commended for moving into new ways of interacting with customer base.
A quick look at the redesign quickly brings to mind a multi-colored Pac-man. Some of the comments from the last few weeks on their flikr site give an insight into some possible perceptions, including "Wate of money!", "Miliions over Millions goin to the trash" to "I love it, it is totally minimilistic".
Whataver your opinion might be, the lack of sustained excitement or interaction around the released pictures is not surprising given that the US was going through the throes of a presidential election and in the opening stages of a severe economic downturn. The Pepsi strategy of trying to engage through social media using the proposed new design as a focal point for discussions, is pretty innovative for such a large corporation, and though the timing may not have been perfect it was a brave move. We'll have to wait and see whether any of the criticisms, advice and comments are taken on board, and what there plans are for moving this forward.