Month: August 2023

The New Air India logo. Does it really fly?

/ sellingtothesoul / 10 Comments

I hope you have already seen the new Air India logo by now.

So how does it rate compared to the old logo?

Here are the 4 S’s of logo assessment that we use at the monks:

  1. Symbolism:
    In the old logo, the flying swan symbolized the lightness and grace of flight, freedom, and independence. The Konark wheel inside the swan is a symbol of Indian culture and represented the wheel of time, the solar symbol.
    The new logo on the other hand is inspired by the peak of the gold window frame, signifying limitless possibilities, progressiveness, and the airline’s bold, confident outlook for the future.
    My Score: Old logo – 6/10, New logo – 5/10
  2. Story:
    The Old Logo talked about the tradition and culture of India.
    The New Logo tells the story of a country proud of its past yet confident about its future.
    My Score: Old logo – 7/10, New logo – 7/10
  3. Script:
    The old logo used an outdated font in its effort to appear traditional.
    For the new logo, a customised font has been created which beautifully captures the past and future aspects. (The font has been named Air India Sans)
    My Score: Old logo – 3/10, New logo – 8/10
  4. Simplicity: This is perhaps the most important aspect to look for in a logo. This is where the power of design comes from. The simpler the design, the more powerful it is.
    The Old Logo had more than one graphic elements put together. It was almost as if a committee had sat on it and arrived at a compromise solution to please 2 different demands (I won’t be surprised, if that actually was the case, it being a government held entity at that time.)
    The New Logo talks about 2 things (past and future). But it does so elegantly and simply with a single graphic of half a window (would that be counted as half a graphic?). This makes it pack an extra punch
    My Score: Old logo – 4/10, New logo – 9/10

    Final Score as per me
    Old logo: 5/10
    New logo: 7.25/10

    What’s your take on this? Do comment below.

How many options should your brand offer?

/ sellingtothesoul / Leave a comment

Yesterday, I was watching a Ted Talk by Barry Schwartz – The Paradox of Choice. In it, he bursts one of the most closely held beliefs of the Western Society – Welfare and happiness of people can come from giving them more choice. He points to evidence that runs counter to it.

He quotes a case study of the big mutual fund company Vanguard. It has about a million employees and about 2,000 different workplaces. It was found that for every 10 mutual funds the employer offered, rate of participation went down two percent. If 50 funds were offered, 10 percent fewer employees participated than if only five were offered. Why? Because with 50 funds to choose from, it’s so damn hard to decide which fund to choose, that the employees just put it off till tomorrow. Foregoing the matching contribution by the employer and all the benefits of the mutual fund, any mutual fund they might have chosen.

Counter-intuitively, more choice can also lead to less happy customer. Whereas with fewer choices, even in the odd chance that the choice proved wrong, he could always blame the company or quality or just plain luck. With a plethora of choices, if the choice proves wrong, he only has himself to blame. And if it proves good, he will still be left with a nagging feeling that perhaps there was an even better choice out there.

My take is that unless you’re in the fashion business and you NEED to stock a whole range of styles to suit personal tastes, take a leaf out of the book of iPhone – offer a handful of choices with clear distinction between them. iPhone not only offers few choices, they also have another trick up their sleeve – the price these choices in such a way that the customer chooses the option that the company wants them to… But that’s another blogpost.

(Do like, comment and share this post. It keeps me going.)