YELLOW ROADWAY: Are we still in Kansas, Dorothy?

New: Yellow Roadway, name and logo

Launched: December 11, 2003,
when the merger became official

Story in brief:
Yellow acquired Roadway, to create a $6 billion company holding two strong trucking brands. The name decision was made by the CEOs and their lawyers, and incorporated in the acquisition agreement. Interbrand, retained late in the process, was given just three weeks to design a logo.

Credits:
CEO - Bill Zollars
Identity counsel - apparently none
Design - Interbrand

First Impressions:
I liked the preemptively simple strength of the Roadway brand. "Yellow" was something of a mystery, unless you knew it had started as a taxicab company, so I can sympathize with their desire to add a noun. But doesn't "yellow roadway" take us straight to Oz? (Headquarters, we note, is in Kansas)

The new flag-like symbol makes a dynamic banner of the initials YR... per Interbrand, "symbolic of coming together." It's fun. But it's intended to represent an investment brand only, not an operating brand -- so we won't soon see it on trucks. The design emphasizes symbol over wordmark, the thinking being that the Yellow Roadway name might later be changed, so the symbol would then provide continuity. (But then, why base the symbol on 'YR,' a continuing reference to the Yellow Roadway name?)

The good news is that Interbrand continues to work with Zollars' team on the critical brand architecture issues. After-the-fact identity planning is better than no planning at all.

To me, it is evident that the "Yellow Roadway" identity strategy was a band-aid for just one sore spot, the historic rivalry of two arch-competitors. But it denies the inherent logic of the merger, which for the long pull makes little sense unless there are true logistical and operational synergies. Customers will know this, and will know their true relationship is with a corporate leadership team that owns an integrative common vision.