Cigna

New:   Industry definition, logo, and name decapitalization

Launched:  September 19, 2011

Story in brief:
While politicians whine ("Obamacare"), business leaders anticipate and act.

Cigna, formerly CIGNA, was formed by the 1983 merger of Connecticut General and Insurance Company of North America (CG plus INA, creatively rearranged as CIGNA). Like other health insurers, who have sold primarily through employers, for years Cigna has seen that rising health care costs would inevitably shift responsibility (and thus choice) to the individual.  Indeed Obamacare, "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" passed in 2010 (which will increasingly require millions more Americans to buy individual health coverage), in a sense merely confirms that reality.

Planning ahead, David Cordani, since 2005  president of CIGNA's HealthCare unit, has led a corporate strategic repositioning initiative, to shift Cigna's culture from "Insurance" to "HealthCare," and from wholesale, in effect, to retail. In December 2009, Cordani became the parent's CEO but even earlier, when in June 2008  he was named COO, he had quickly called for an identity review.  Claude Singer's "BrandSinger" won the identity assignment (being long on experienced strategists, according to Claude, while short on overhead). Cordani also recruited  an experienced consumer marketer, Benjy Karsch, as Chief Marketing Officer; the rebranding became one of Karsch's day-one assignments.

The new identity would launch not quite three years later. That's an unusually long gestation period, Karsch agrees; it allowed for team-building and vision alignment, worldwide testing of successive rounds of creative exploration, and most importantly, putting in place operational capabilities (like personal health teams and 24/7/365 global access) that would support the aspirational position goal  "World's leading global health services company."

Design director Jerry Kuyper was a key member of the winning BrandSinger team. When the project expanded to include logo revitalization, he assembled a world-class team of designers. For scope and depth, Jerry suggests, the resulting explorations could constitute a master class in logo design. He adds that "the client deserves significant credit for creating the new Cigna brand identity. Cordani and Karsch personally provided key strategic and creative directions, guiding the process hands-on from the beginning through the launch. The skills I used were patience, listening and persistence which enabled me to synthesize all their observations and insights into the logo design they selected."

Design exploration was driven by Cigna's desire to signal change and to communicate the new focus both on the individual, and on Cigna's growing global presence. The new symbol establishes a bright, friendly palette of blue, green and orange. The "tree of life" idea (and equity) are retained, conveying strength and security, but the tree is now dominated by a human figure in a universal posture of joyful well-being. The radiating leaves, Jerry notes, "reinforce the concept of achieving one's full potential." A touch of horizon is added, suggesting global scope. That's a lot of content for one small image.

 The new wordmark treats Cigna as a word, a proper name, no longer an all-caps acronym. As the consultants recommended, this change has been made in text, too.  As Karsch notes "We always used an all-caps CIGNA, but with the rebranding we have changed to the softer Cigna."  (I was pleased to hear that in support of this recommendation, Jerry cited my post "How Not to Punctuate Corporate Names".)

An aggressive ad campaign launches the new brand; its tag line "GO YOU" positions Cigna as the individual customer's champion, coach and cheerleader.
 

Credits:
C.E.O. - David Cordani
C.M.O. - Benjy Karsch
Identity counsel & design - BrandSinger...
Consultant Claude Singer (with Jessica Ohlin and Ernie Mills);
Design direction Jerry Kuyper (with contributions from Joe Finocchiaro, Bob Wolf, Juan Carlos Fernández and Aleanna Luethi-Garrecht)
 

First Impressions:
Strategy:  Right on. If I must choose an insurer, I much prefer one that thinks it is a health care company than a financial services company.
Design:  In my review of 1993 rebrandings in the Conference Board magazine ("Do Logos Really Matter?"), for its creativity and classic beauty I called Landor's 1993 CIGNA (directed by, Lindon Leader, designed by Michael Collins) "a clear contender for the year's best identity change." So with regret, a fond farewell to that elegant fruited tree (and its folk art heritage).  This is one of those marketing-driven instances where communications content outvotes elegance. They're called clichés for a reason; they communicate. Where trees more likely go to "finance," joyful figures take us to "health." Esthetic loss –  marketing win.

 
Other Comments:
Oddly, at launch neither the Cigna website nor the GO YOU print ads show the new logo in color. Much less do they support the Cigna brand's bright new visual identity; indeed the print ads assert quite another palette, dominated by a hostile magenta and jarringly dissonant.  In my world, effective advertising supports the brand.

 

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