Ambling along the 20mph speed on a Monday morning rush hour you can't help but notice the interesting number of marques, badges and names on the various cars. This morning I seemed to be in the midst of VWs, Fords and Mercs (who isn't) and Fiats. Interestingly, if you have noticed you may see a number of different Fiat badges or marques - quite unlike, lets say, a VW or a Merc. Look at VW or Merc registered in the early 1985s or this year. The 85 model looks dated, the curves aren't as elegant as the ones today, the grills are plasticky, the colours lack the sheen. Lets face it the 1985s model isn't exactly new. But notice the VW badge. It will be in the same place, it will be the same size - almost. And if you look into the Think Small ads, its the same for the B&W beetle advertised in another generation.
Not Fiat.
On any day you will see a few distinctive marques - the italic capitals FIAT, reminiscent of the BBC (top right, logo from 1968-2003), the one with the wreaths - which looks straight from the early 1900s (bottom left, 2003-2006) or you might even come across the recently unveiled logo - reflecting "Fiat's new strategy". Fiat has a heritage of a good dozen or so logos, sometime lasting a mere few years (like the top left logo from 1901). Though many sites talk of Fiat's new strategy - few spell out the relationship between the new logo (bottom right) and the new strategy.
Therein lies the paradox...
The new logo predates the capitalised italics logo - and according to Fiat's site: "is a basic, strong logo that sums up in the best possible way this ongoing change that distinguishes Fiat today. A company travelling into the future which is, at the same time, proud of its historic identity." As car manufacturers move across horizontally and vertically - in search of new markets and new customers they are at risk of diluting their core brand values and propositions. When you begin to mean a lot of things to a lot of people, you often do not stand for something - but end up being commoditised for the masses. Is this what Fiat means when it says "to move forward you sometimes need to take a step in the other direction." Can logos truly change the culture and nature of the company or do companies and their internal change actually add a distinctive meaning to their existing logos?
Lets wait and watch if the new logo can help Fiat find its brand mojo...
1 comment:
Fiat article is interesting
The red may well represent the hot blooded performance of their parent company (Ferrari). I think Ferrari inherited this from the use of colour to identify international backing in the ground prix series. France was blue (now Renault) England Green (historically Lotus) etc.
The circle represents so many positive values to so many cultures. The typeface perhaps infers that development and progress has been built around strong historic values which remain uncompromised. The grill shape is modern and has a shelf life but the new approach works for me.
Derek Johnson
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