Facebook Changes Product Branding To FACEBOOK

5 November 2019
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Facebook is introducing new branding for its product or services in an attempt to identify the business from its familiar app and site.


Instagram and WhatsApp are amongst the services that will bring the brand-new FACEBOOK brand in the next couple of weeks.


The app and site will maintain its familiar blue branding.


The new logo, which remains in uppercase, uses "custom typography" and "rounded corners" so the company's other items and app look various.


The branding also appears in different colours depending on which item it represents. So, for example, it will be green for WhatsApp.


"We desired the brand to link attentively with the world and the individuals in it," Facebook said. "The dynamic colour system does this by handling the colour of its environment."


Facebook's chief marketing officer Antonio Lucio stated: "People should know which business make the products they utilize. We began being clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook years earlier.


"This brand name change is a way to better interact our ownership structure to individuals and companies who utilize our services to link, share, build community and grow their audiences."


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US Senator Elizabeth Warren has stated she wishes to separate the big tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Google and put them under tougher regulation.


This plan may be seen as Facebook's method of hitting back, although Ms Warren - publishing on Facebook - said: "Facebook can rebrand all they desire, but they can't conceal the reality that they are too huge and powerful. It's time to separate Big Tech."


Distancing the Facebook brand name - the blue app that's home to almost everybody, including your parents - from the trendier Instagram, a location for you and your friends, has always made great organization sense for Facebook.


And it apparently worked: when Pew researchers asked study individuals whether or not Facebook owned Instagram or WhatsApp, 49% of American adults were "not exactly sure".


So why would Facebook make this change?


It brings numerous benefits. Front of mind: the company is covering itself from allegations it conceals how effective it truly is by not making it absolutely clear they lag the majority of the most significant apps in social media.


And Facebook also wants to fend off efforts to break it up, by making the case that the company isn't just a conglomerate of separate, distinct apps which might be easily broken up by regulators. Instead, this rebranding argues the company is one huge linked organism, called Facebook.


Facebook has come under criticism recently over a range of concerns.


Its employer Mark Zuckerberg needed to face US lawmakers last month to discuss the company's policy on not fact-checking political adverts.


He likewise had to defend strategies for a digital currency, talk about the social network's failure to stop kid exploitation on the network, and was quizzed over the Cambridge Analytica information scandal.


Earlier in the year, Mr Zuckerberg stated the firm was going to make changes to its social platforms to improve privacy.


These consisted of messages sent by means of Messenger being end-to-end encrypted, and hiding the number of likes an Instagram post gets from everyone but the person who shared it.


Does rebranding always work?


Several other huge companies have actually attempted rebranding in the past:


In 2001, British Airways turned tail on its plans to get rid of the red, white and blue Union flag from its aircraft and change it with "world images"


In the same year, Royal Mail rebranded as Consignia, just to switch back again a year later


Dunkin' Donuts dropped the "Donuts" from its name last year to try to move more into the coffee market and its share price has actually continued to increase


The moms and dad company of Paddy Power and Betfair started trading under the brand-new name Flutter Entertainment in May this year. It said the brand-new name "better showed the variety of the group".


'If it ain't broke, do not fix it'


Manfred Abraham, president of consultancy Brandcap, told the BBC: "I'm sure this will be an effective relocation for Facebook. After all, the moms and dad brand name remains strong, in spite of current troubles, and reminding consumers that Instagram etc are all Facebook companies will help with cross-membership.


"The rebrand is unsurprising as it is following a pattern - that of simplification. Many organisations are picking a strong, but pared-back visual identify and are brushing off 'style' in favour of plain."


However, Mr Abraham believed Facebook was correct to leave the logo design on its flagship social networks platform as it is.


"Facebook's main site doesn't require a rebrand. The old adage is true: if it ain't broke do not fix it."