“Comparison and Contrast”

            Every year Interbrand releases its annual list, rating the most successful organizations and valuable brands from all over the world. Over the past several years, the brand at the top of the list has been Coca-Cola. Given the amount of money and effort they have put in creating the brand, it’s not surprising.

Surprising is the fact that Pepsi also spend just about as much money on branding as the Coke and sell almost same amount of products but still Coca-Cola is more valuable brand then Pepsi.

            Over the years Pepsi has displayed signs of chronic logo redesign vs Coca Cola, who has stuck to preserving its brands’ integrity. Now, I am not against updating corporate logos every once in a while, as long as the change brings value to the equation – maybe the old logo was too flat or austere, maybe it needed to have some life or positive energy injected into it – but all too often, companies fall prey to some creative agencies’ claims that in order to refresh their brand, they need to refresh their logos as well. 

 

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs5/i/2004/333/6/4/Pepsi_vs_Coca_cola_by_Attarzi.jpg

 

            I am not saying that Pepsi’s choice to change its logo on a regular basis is a bad thing. I am simply using Pepsi’s M.O. as a conversation catalyst. In a way, there’s something kind of cool about a company that changes its logo every decade or so: Each new logo is like a cultural milestone – a snapshot if you will, of that decade’s graphic flavor, and how tastes change over time. But I guess once you get past the cool time capsule thing, you kind of have to wonder: Has each change in logo actually resulted in some kind of benefit for the Pepsi Cola company? Has the Pepsi brand been strengthened by every new logo design? Has each new logo helped boost sales of Pepsi Cola over time? Has the company’s chronic change of emblem and packaging art had a measurable impact on the company’s bottom-line? Perhaps it has. I don’t know. It’s an open question, and one which probably cannot be answered without also looking at

  Consumers like familiariity. So one can’t help but wonder, is Coca Cola more successful maybe because they keep their logo and packaging more consistant?? Something to think about.