What we can learn from the Uber rebrand

Rebranding projects are difficult, as we well know, so our expert panel offers their sage advice on what we can learn from Uber.

Rebranding projects are difficult, as we well know, so our expert panel offers their sage advice on what we can learn from Uber.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a critique of the new, large piece of work that Uber have unveiled to the world today. You’ll find no angry annotations, no caps and no harsh words said about the team who crafted over Uber’s new identity.

As is evident from the comments that have surrounded this launch, creating a new brand language for an existing brand, especially one as far-reaching and with as many users as Uber, is a brave move. When you have existing customers who already have a solidified idea of what a Uber means based on their years of interacting with it, a redefinition of the brand inevitably provokes reactions, often negative.

So, in an effort to avoid rushing into extreme opinions, we present the considered views of our expert panel on Uber’s rebrand and what it shows other organisations.

The designer’s view

Rodrigo Lozano, senior experience designer

What I’ve found most interesting about today’s rebrand have been the vitriolic responses that bombarded my Twitter feed when I woke up this morning. For Uber, see also Google/Alphabet, Spotify and of course, poor old Tropicana and Gap, who buckled under the early onslaught of negative comments. How many of the early complainers are still moaning about Spotify’s new green? My guess is very few. I may have to unfollow a few accounts before Instagram inevitably drops a new non-skeuomorphic icon…

A brand is more than a logo, and certainly more than an app icon. And this new brand has positives and negatives, like most. Let’s start with the good: the logotype and typography update is really nice, as are the illustrations and flow on uber.com. On the other hand, the ambition to act as the local-global brand is let down with crude national stereotypes — see red for China, green for Ireland. Plus, the app icons are a little farfetched, not very consistent with some of the other great work that’s been done.

It seems like Uber have had lots of great ideas for this rebrand and have tried to execute on all of them, as is often the temptation. However, the secret to great branding is finding a single great idea and having the guts to stick to it.

The brand strategist’s view

Sorcha Daly, senior strategist

From a proposition perspective, Uber’s new identity is inspired and perfectly timed. Uber’s function has shifted enormously from being ‘everyone’s private driver’ to connecting individuals and places across the globe. Three years ago, Uber was for early adopters, people who were privy to this premium experience, swapping codes and posting pictures of free water on Instagram. As other taxi apps now offer the door-to-door, ‘your driver’s name is…’ and ‘their number plate is…’ service, Uber must stand for something else.

The Uber experience today is differentiated by exactly the word that’s at the heart of their new brand: connections. Look at UberPool — a service that is human over premium, centred on connecting people to provide greater efficiency. Go away to just about any city in the world and you can use Uber. It’s a brand that is familiar, comforting, easy — personal in an accessible way, no longer saved for the early adopters who got their hands on a magic code.

However, some of the brand execution removes that familiarity — where’s the ‘U’ we know so well, a letter that the company practically owns today? It feels like this ‘U’ could also have potentially played a greater role in executing upon a more personal brand. Likewise, the new line, ‘your day belongs to you’, doesn’t provide an elegant manifestation of the great idea — it’s disappointingly fluffy, trying to mean so much but not really meaning anything. So it’s not perfect, but it does speaks at a much more intimate, human scale than Uber used to. And for what is now the world’s local taxi firm, that has to be a good thing.

The old-timer’s view

Mark Wilson, partner

While I understand Uber’s ‘growing up’ rationale, I don’t feel that their response to it has gone in the right direction. Instead of reinforcing the brand presence they’ve built up so far, they’ve instead created an identity that is almost anonymous: it simply throws away everything and starts again. Retaining nothing is brave, but I don’t feel like they needed to take so bold a step.

It’s possible to make almost anything work, but it doesn’t make it right. Some of the world’s most iconic brands have intelligently evolved their identities rather than binning them. Think about how Apple stepped out of its rainbow colours into a simpler expression. Or how Starbucks has progressively distilled its marque into a less fussy form. Or how Twitter has evolved its icon and palette. Uber should have evolved rather than reinvented, refined rather than rethought. It’s a good job they have plenty of capital because they’re going to need to spend big chunks of it in the coming months to use this as a platform for their future in the way they hope to.