New Pepsi logo worth millions?

Obviously no one at Pepsi has ever heard the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Recently the brand announced they will be undertaking a multi-year companywide transformation, including the introduction of a new logo. So for your viewing pleasure, here it is:

Yeah, that was my reaction too. Too plain (almost vintage but not as cool) and I don’t see that much difference from previous designs other than the lowercase writing. The kicker is the new logo was developed at a cost of more than $1 million dollars (wow, next time call me up, I’ll do it at a discount of $500k) and it will likely cost hundreds of millions more to roll it out worldwide.

As someone in the marketing field, I’m all for branding but I do wonder if Pepsi is second-guessing their decision to re-brand now that the economy is in the toilet. Currently, their stock is down more than 33% from the same time last year, and while that’s not a complete indicator of company financials I would wager most businesses are shunning all but the most vital expenditures this year. And while I’m not part of Pepsi, I wouldn’t exactly call this new boring logo vital.

At this point, Pepsi can’t turn back the clock but hopefully this doesn’t turn out to be one of the costliest (literally and figuratively) logos in Pepsi history.

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