MSU - Logo Design Controversy

We have previously discussed just how important a logo design is for brand identity. Recently there had been a debate among the fans of Michigan State University’s Basket ball team over the newly proposed changes to the team’s official logo. While the university officials consider this design change very important for their brand identity campaign, the fans however are not very supportive of the idea.

Fans, students and alumni have protested heavily against the move. Many of them claim that the proposed design changes would change the image of their team. This whole case shows just how strongly people feel about the brands they love even if it is

 their favorite sports team.
While talking to Lansing State Journal Judy Przytulski said:

“This proposed redesign is almost a slap in the face, I feel like it's messing with tradition, and just feels wrong. I don't think I could ever look at the new logo and feel the same level of attachment.”

What we can learn from this controversy that after a while people get associated with a particular brand and the logo is how they perceive their favorite brand’s identity. This association becomes so strong that sometimes changing a logo could affect the custome

r loyalty. Though sometimes a logo could easily be changed for example Pepsi Cola has changed th

eir logo many times while on the other hand their rival company Coca Cola has never changed their logo since more than a century now. Does this mean that people who prefer Pepsi over Coke do not care about their favorite product’s brand identity?

A logo re-design could be profitable or disastrous. You need to know when it is time to go for a redesign and when to revert back if the re-design affects business adversely. We look again at the example of Pepsi, even though they do change their logo often but the changes they make to their logo are sometimes not very noticeable. Instead of building an altogether new logo they basically improvise and 

modernize their existing logo and apparently their customers like that.