Meredith Corporation

New:  Logo and visual system;  PBUs, and nomenclature

Launched:  August 10, 2009

Story in brief:
Call this "a coming of age" for this heartland American media company, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, where in 1902, E.T. Meredith launched his company with the publication of Successful Farming magazine. Many magazines followed, most notably Fruit, Home and Garden in 1922 (wisely renamed Better Homes & Gardens in 1924). From 1948 on, local and regional TV stations were added as well, as Meredith patiently built a two-Group media company (Publishing and Broadcasting) that could ultimately claim leadership in "serving American women," supported by "a database of 85 million unduplicated customers." In 2005, with the acquisition of Family Circle, Parents, Child, and Fitness magazines from Gruner + Jahr, Meredith significantly expanded its scale. In more recent years, Meredith has also created a portfolio of marketing and media services businesses, that leverage its diverse segment knowledge and creative/production skills. In addition, the company has been a leader in creation and acquisition of digital assets, with some 77 interactive Web sites.

Nancy Weber came on board in 2005, in the new position Chief Marketing Officer; Steve Lacy became CEO in 2006, and by 2007 they began to focus seriously on Meredith's identity problem: its reality, to say nothing of its aspirations, had significantly outgrown its magazine-based image. The two 'boxes,' Publishing and Broadcasting were far too confining (they could contain neither the digital businesses, nor the business services initiatives). As a result, growth aspirations, expectations and thus resources (both human and financial) were potentially weaker than they should be. A rebranding could easily fix this problem.

Thus Meredith's rebranding, advised by Lippincott, serves several strategic goals. The first is to break away from a magazine-dominated image, to be better appreciated as multi-media (in today's term, multi-platform). A related goal is to increase the visibility of the newer service businesses. Another goal is communicate more effectively Meredith's expanded scale and visible presence, and at the same time to replace its boring, dated and somewhat provincial corporate presence with one far more vital, creative and energized... that of a contemporary world-class corporation. Employees, as well as external publics, were very much a target of these desired perception changes.

Lippincott provided a symbol-based design solution that achieves these goals. The symbol, essentially a monogram of red, blue, green and orange M's, forms a globe-like shape that conveys multiplicity and diversity, yet with a sense of control. "These new colors are fresh and welcoming" said CMO Weber, "and are a far better reflection of the DNA of our editorial content." The symbol is simple but fresh, balanced nicely with a calm and confident wordmark.

Another rebranding tool that Lacy used was the reconfiguration, repositioning and renaming of the PBUs (principal business units). The former two groups, Publishing and Broadcasting, were redefined and renamed, and a third defining unit was created to contain a portfolio of service businesses. Thus there are are now three PBUs:
- National Media Brands
- Local Media Brands
- Marketing Solutions

Lippincott suggested that each of these PBUs have a color, taken from the symbol. Thus National is blue, Local is red and Marketing Solutions is green; these became the color of their names, on business cards and other signature applications. (The fourth symbol color, orange, can be considered both as representing the corporate parent, and in reserve for a fourth PBU). This unit color-coding adds resonance to the symbol itself as a message of richness of content, delivered across distribution platforms to multiple touch points.

The new identity was launched Monday August 10, with full page ads in principal business publications. Over the weekend, office doors in Des Moines and New York had been re-skinned with decals of the new logo (see below). The Web site home page was redesigned (entered by a logo animation), and a new corporate brochure was produced.

Immediate reports are that Meredith employees love their new brand. (It has also received consistently positive reviews from the branding and design communities.)
 

Credits:
C.E.O. - Steve Lacy, President and CEO
C.M.O. - Nancy Weber
Identity counsel and design - Lippincott

First Impressions:
Strategy:  Difficult to tell which is the cart and which the horse -- strategic reinvention, or a new leader (Lacy assumed command in 2006). In either case he is to be credited for seeing an aggressive rebranding as a powerful leadership tool.
Design:  Designer-friends are all saying "I wish I did it," high praise indeed.  The lower-case m is a particularly elegant touch.

Decals greeted employees on Monday morning

Other Comments:
Note that the old logo, with its M descender, seemed incomplete without an appendage (whether tagline, or entity designator). We can hope the new mark's space will be respected.

William Agush:  In my book, right up there with the Carbone Smolan elegant wrapped globe for Assurant and the BP flower/sun by Landor. As close to id perfection as I've seen in a long time. Memorable symbol and great use of color. Unlike many of the designs created by non-id firms, this Lippincott beauty has all the fine tweaking of letter-spacing and font geometry that it deserves.

Corporate Brand Matrix ratings:  
0% structural,  100% strategic,  0% functional (est.)