Rebranding efforts are challenging for even the most successful organisations, like Slack, and seldom meet with widespread approval. Yet, Slack’s new logo is going to be a far larger impact on social media than the firm originally anticipated, with Twitter expressing the least amount of enthusiasm.
For the past 10 days (January 19-28), I’ve been using Awario to track mentions of Slack on Twitter. I’ve been keeping an eye on their English-language brand name (++”Slack”, to ensure that I only get mentions of Slack with a capital S), Twitter account (@SlackHQ), and hashtag (#slack). Let’s take a closer look at some of the tweets and look at some statistics about the mentions.
Intentions implicit in online commentary
It appears that public opinion on the new logo is improving, but is it really so unfavourable? Therefore, let’s analyse the tone of the tweets.
I was surprised not to see more complaints. Slack’s discussions were flooded with complaints 10 days ago, but the mood seems to be improving.
To be sure, not everyone harbours doubts about the logo.
To give you an idea of how Slack stacks up against other office IM applications, we’ve included some comparisons to Telegram and Workplace by Facebook. Slack has nearly twice as many bad references as each of its two main rivals.
To what does Slack refer?
Slack’s new design has been the subject of several tweets, many of which have been unfavourable. The corporation may not feel it is important to respond to each every tweet. The little responses they managed give the impression that they care that we don’t like the new logo, but they have no plans to change it.
Who’s at fault here, Slack or us?
The reaction to Slack’s new logo is not unprecedented. You may recall that a few months ago, Uber unveiled a new logo. No one liked it.
In 2015, Spotify made a minor adjustment to their logo by switching the colour of the Spotify logo to a new shade of green.
In fact, those are just a few examples among many. Users of Snapchat have begun to shift once the app’s logo was updated. online petition to reinstate the previous logo. Around a million people showed their support for it.
The majority of people are not pleased when a regularly used app undergoes a significant redesign. But pause and reflect: why do we let ourselves get so worked up about something so trivial? Just how significant may an image be?
Our aversion to these sorts of transitions seems to have little to do with aesthetic preferences. We are resistant to change in general, but especially when it involves organisations we hold in high regard and over which we have little control. When a company redesigns its logo—the visual representation of its brand identity—consumers may assume the company is also undergoing a transformation.
This research suggests that our unfavourable reactions to a business’s logo redesign are proportional to how closely we identify with that brand. Researchers polled 632 college students on their opinions on updated versions of the Adidas and New Balance logos created by professionals. Students who reported less emotional attachment to the companies were more likely to positively respond to the changes than those who reported stronger relationships.
The studies conclude that
With this in mind, the social media backlash over Slack’s new look may not indicate what it looks to… That may indicate that users have developed deep emotional ties to the Slack platform.