This week’s challenge is a bit different. Find a company who you think needs new branding—and come up with new branding for them.
The challenge is to push every part of your creativity. New logo, new tagline, something they could do to change the public’s perception of them. Don’t just rebrand the area you excel at; you need to create all three.
This is a great exercise for interns and those in college looking for portfolio work—especially junior writers. It can be tough to find a writing assignment that will impress a future boss. Showing you can rebrand a company is a solid choice.
PARTICIPANTS: 1 (you)
TIME: Minimum 2 hours
TOOLS: Graphics software and writing app, or go old school and use a pen and paper
COMPANY: Any company whose brand you aren’t fond of
Remember, you need to come up with three elements:
- A logo
- A tagline
- Some way of marketing them that will change the public’s perception of them.
Here’s who I picked for this challenge
Everyone has a company whose branding they really don’t care for. For me, it’s Morton Salt. I know, the girl with the umbrella is iconic. It’s also horribly outdated. Yes, it was updated a few years ago for their 100th anniversary, but it wasn’t enough, in my opinion.
The good thing is, the image didn’t embarrass the company with negative or stereotyped imagery; a frequent occurrence in the “Good Old (Boy) Days.” Nor is the image sexist, as far as I can tell. It’s just a kid, walking in the rain, pouring salt like a seven-year-old Johnny Appleseed, and killing defenseless slugs wherever she goes.
Like you do.
Now about that tagline…
“When it rains, it pours.” Yawn. Not exactly meme-worthy, like Dune quotes about The Spice. But then, how much can one say about salt? It’s salt.
I’d just like to see a more modern, tagline. This is supposedly a benefits statement. That Morton Salt won’t clump in humidity. I never got that from the messaging until I read about it on a branding site.
I will post my rebranding of Morton Salt here next week. Love to see yours!
