Twitter modifications to X: 5 well-known rebranding fails

Chief govt Linda Yaccarino shared the brand new X design over the weekend, which was adopted onto the homepage on Monday, to a divided opinion from customers. Musk has described he desires the change to herald the appearance of an “all the pieces app”.

“And shortly, we will bid adieu to the Twitter model and, steadily, all of the birds,” the tycoon mentioned on Sunday morning.

Musk has already rung the modifications since shopping for the social media web site final 12 months, from charging customers for a “verified” blue-tick standing, to imposing a brief restrict on the variety of tweets somebody may view in a day. The corporate has additionally been identified to make savage redundancies, and emails to their press workplace at the moment are met with an automatic response of a poo emoji.

Having already introduced his displeasure with the state of play on Twitter, Musk is hoping that the rebranding can get the positioning again on observe. However historical past serves as a reminder {that a} rebrand just isn’t at all times a revolution — and, in some circumstances, fairly a backwards step.

Listed here are 5 instances when an tried rebrand failed and a U-turn was made.

1. Tropicana 

The model that requested orange juice devotees how they favored their eggs within the morning discovered their clients would flip their noses up at a brand new bottle.

Gross sales of the breakfast staple plunged 20 per cent within the US following a rebranded carton, forcing the model to carry out an embarrassing U-turn.

2. UKIP 

After reaching its main purpose as a celebration in efficiently lobbying for Britain to depart the European Union, the UK Independence Celebration wanted a brand new route in 2017.

However regardless of the reply was, it was not a brand new emblem of a lion. The celebration launched the design to interchange the acquainted sterling image, however was instantly on the again foot when the Premier League took challenge that its personal lion was very related. UKIP swiftly reverted.

3. Mastercard

One other branding change to go awry was in 2006, when Mastercard tried to replace its traditional emblem of a pink and yellow circle.

The scrapped rebranding value a reported $1.5 million (£1.17 bn) however was ditched after the merging of the 2 circles right into a blurring impact confused clients.

4. Cardiff Metropolis

International homeowners have typically realized the exhausting approach that messing with membership custom is a harmful sport.

Cardiff Metropolis’s proprietor Vincent Tan outraged followers by rebranding the Bluebirds’ emblem with a pink Welsh dragon, and altering the blue equipment to pink. Cardiff has been referred to as the Bluebirds since they began sporting the workforce colors in 1908.

The change was allowed to face for 3 years from 2012 to 2015 however the membership finally reverted and is now again in blue.

5. Waterstones

In comparison with the others, Waterstones’ rebrand was minimal, with solely their font altering in Might 2010. However two years later the corporate fell on its sword and reinstated the well-known Baskerville serif font for its capital W. The U-turn was made so shortly that the new W design had solely transferred onto 25 of the corporate’s 310 shops by mid-2012.