Tech news is currently oversaturated with discussions surrounding Elon Musk’s recent rebrand of Twitter to X. The commentary ranges from light-hearted mockery, to outright confusion and in some instances; fear that this bizarre move may set a trend amongst CEOs that the process of rebranding can be streamlined with negative results.
Indeed, at a surface level this rebrand does seem to be somewhat arbitrary, another confusing new milestone in the controversial reign of Twitter by Elon Musk. However, the dust is starting to settle as the reality of X begins to set in and with it a whole slew of questions as to what the future holds for the brand.
One thing that has become strikingly apparent is the discussion surrounding the impact of branding and what the correct approach is, specifically when rebranding.
Rebranding is a creative and involved process
For the marketers out there who have spent months working on rebranding projects, the seemingly instantaneous decision to change the immediately recognisable brand language and design of Twitter to X will be initially frustrating. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that X is still in its infancy in terms of its identity. However, there is something quite momentous about losing the Twitter look and feel. For people who use the service daily, it’s a marked change.
Think about how holistic Twitter is as a brand identity. The entire essence of the service is present within the name itself, to use Twitter you are Tweeting, when you are Tweeting people read your Tweets. The logo is a bird, what do birds do? In fact, Twitter has such a successful branding that the term has become ubiquitous in the modern lexicon, it is simply a part of the marketing language that audiences and businesses are generally accustomed to. None of this was by accident and Twitter is a prime example of branding done right.
This goes to show just how powerful and culturally significant great branding can be. The moment a brand name becomes synonymous with the service it provides, we can be assured that it has succeeded. ‘Google It’, ‘WhatsApp me’, the list goes on. All of these terms work their way into the business lexicon and then are staple parts of marketing strategies worldwide.
There is certainly room for Elon Musk to start implementing his own brand language for X, we have already seen rapid updates as the rebrand starts to gain further traction. With Threads poised to make a huge impact, perhaps a complete change is needed for Twitter.
The right and wrong lessons
There are some real teachable moments in what has happened with Twitter, and hopefully the right lessons are taken away by CEOs in the long term.
The first is a greater understanding and respect on the importance of a carefully considered, planned, and executed brand proposition. When we talk about brand language and identity, it is primarily to build a cohesive visual style for a brand to operate with. This helps to build universal recognition, trust and consistency across platforms.
A strong brand builds a distinct identity for a business and helps it to stand out from the competition whilst remaining memorable in the eyes of the target audience. A compelling brand story can attract the right audience, as they will naturally find themselves drawn to a business that aligns with their own values.
Time will tell what comes next with X and whether this is the end of Twitter as we know it, or the beginning of something else entirely. There have been rumours that Elon Musk plans to develop Twitter into an “everything app” so it remains to be seen how that will play out.
In the meantime, it’s worth remembering that rebranding is not as simple as changing a logo and name, it requires a lot more strategic thought and insight.
If you want to learn more about what Crowd offer get in touch with us here.
