Symantec

New:  Logo and signature system

Launched:  October 5, 2010

Story in brief:
In August, Symantec acquired several online security products and businesses from VeriSign, including the "VeriSign Secured" shield shown below. "With the acquisition" the news release said, "Symantec extends its strategy to create the most trusted brand for protection of information and identities online."

My speculation, subsequently confirmed:  CEO Enrique Salem and his marketing team (CMO Carine Clark and VP Mktg Jim Rose) knew that the Symantec logo played "soft and fuzzy" in customer research; they relished the opportunity to replace it with VeriSign's simpler, harder-edged check-mark symbol. "The VeriSign check mark is the most recognized symbol of trust online with up to 250 million impressions every day on more than 100,000 unique websites in 160 countries," Symantec added. Carine Clark hoped the now-Symantec check mark "will stand for confidence, the same way the Nike swoosh stands for fitness."

Given the check-mark decision, the team's identity designers, Kit Hinrichs' firm showed how the yellow-black color equity could be preserved, how bolder typography would work better with the check mark, and how the new symbol could anchor a signature system (to support specialized initiatives and to transition such acquired brands as Norton into the master brand).

Credits:
C.E.O. - Enrique Salem
C.M.O. - Jim Rose
Identity design - Studio Hinrichs (formerly Pentagram SF)

First Impressions:
Strategy:  
Refresh and clarify the brand? Yes. 
Provide a stronger common umbrella toward which sub-brands can migrate? Yes.

Design:  The 2000  Symantec symbol (a disassembled tennis ball?) always struck me as intriguing, almost pretty but -- how to say it -- overdesigned? self-referential? and without conceptual content (though I suppose it was a monogram S, if effectively camouflaged).   The new mark is less pretty, but on purely functional grounds is a far more effective identifier. It makes a simple, positive and appropriate statement. The type replaces elegance with solidity; arguably, the capital S adds a note of institutional stature.

Other Comments:
Does the Nike swoosh really stand for fitness? I though it stood for Nike!
 

Corporate Brand Matrix ratings:  
20% structural,  70% strategic,  10% functional (est.)