Forbes did an interesting piece on the hullabaloo arising after the release of AirBnB’s new logo: What Marketers Can Learn From AirBnB’s Rebrand. I don’t know what process AirBnB went through in doing their rebrand — whether they hired an expensive rebranding firm or did it as a scrappy internal project which would be more fitting their company’s organic culture. Either way, it’s surprising that a company with their resources would have missed the fact that it’s almost identical to another company’s logo. And that they would not do enough user testing to discern that people might see a vagina, boobs, or other symbolism in the logo. Of course, all of this is easy to chastise in hindsight. Having been through dozens of rebranding and renaming efforts for many firms, the one consistent point is that the process is HARD. Every stakeholder has opinions (usually never agreeing), everyone is a designer, everyone wants different objectives, and in the end, most folks are not happy. It can be expensive, time consuming, and extremely distracting. Which begs the question, why did AirBnB choose to do this now? The company is dealing with a myriad of ‘legality of rental’ issues in many cities, has regular ugly press of the “nightmare” guest who wrecked/stole/wouldn’t leave, and still has so much growth potential domestically and abroad. The site, though functional, has a variety of quirks that need resolving. And, like Uber being challenged by Lyft, probably has a would be competitor lurking quietly, ready to pounce. To NONE of the above issues is that answer to take the company through a lengthy and distracting rebranding process. Now, at the end of that process, they have a new issue to deal with … fending off the vagina spotters and other detractors. Meanwhile, the competitor lurking in the dark is probably snickering — while adding a few more customers, improving their site, and figuring a way around the legal issues in cities like New York City. Advantage: Competition.
Improvement? Maybe. But at what cost?