 |
 |
The Sprint-Nextel merger included a design platform redo for Sprint, the go-to-market name for the combined organization. What's interesting to me is that they chose Sprint as the combined business name, but then chose the yellow best known as Nextel for the visuals. For as long as I have known Sprint, I have associated it with red, so the change in branding really threw me off. Clearly they wanted to "combine" the two brands by keeping the name of one and the color of the other. Sprint says:
"Combining the Sprint name with the visual power of the Nextel yellow and black on the new “going forward” symbol pulls through the strong equity and spirit of the Nextel brand, while creating a differentiated visual platform."
But it's not working for me. Yellow to me says Nextel, DHL or Nikon, not Sprint, which in my internal brand association should be red. The new ads and signs are definitely different. Sprint does have a nice FAQ on its Web site addressing the branding change, and even a Web site dedicated to its new ads, although the home page interestingly still has the old Sprint visuals.
Update (9/24/2005): Joseph Jaffe picked Sprint as his loser of the week in episode three of Across the Sound.
