Some Notes on Rebranding a Team
Juve’s rebranding has been welcomed amidst very mixed reactions. We analyze the operation from a design perspective, to reveal what it says about the club’s aspirations. Not only as a team.
As you probably heard, Juventus F.C. recently launched their new branding identity, courtesy of Interbrand. The reactions were varied, most people hated it, but such is the case with most rebrandings. A few that think it is a refreshing approach, but it’s implications go way deeper than just the club’s image. Both in design terms and for its lack of respect to the heritage it was a complete red card, but it does tell us a lot of where the “brand” Juventus is heading.
Rebrandings are a usual sign of a brand’s change of direction — or management changes. Football teams have since long turned into multi-million dollar companies, and are no strangers to updates to their identities and crests. Any change is an inherently risky operation, as they change perception of the team, and they dictate where the team’s brand wants to go in terms of business. Many people unfamiliar with the design industry are usually shocked to know how much money goes into a simple crest rebrand, but the reality is that any change must be thoroughly considered and has the potential to backfire horribly.
Heritage
First of all, football teams have become brands, but that’s not how they started. Fans around the world have a special attachment to the roots, heritage to football teams and to their crests. Supporter loyalty is what separates teams from brands. Especially considering that most of the major European teams date back to the 1850s. Heritage plays a huge role when you talk about teams like Juventus, Real Madrid, Manchester United, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, etc. The loyalty of these clubs’ has literal family ties. Supporters are either born and raised by supporter parents or fall in love with their team’s history, iconic players and team milestones. It is very rare to find ‘traditional’ football supporters that love teams because of their branding or because of their cool logos. But things are changing. With the globalization of the sport, millions of new fans are approaching the teams, in far away places that have absolutely no football tradition. They face the challenge of choosing a team. It is essentially the similar dynamic of choosing a product. Similar consumer behavior warrants the use of similar marketing techniques, that also apply to other products.
Identity
Let’s think of what might have been the reason why Juventus thought it needed a rebrand in the first place. By updating its logo, Juventus lost a considerable part of identity and personality, but more importantly, heritage. Amidst an already long list of scandals, and with the Agnelli family accused of allegedly meeting with organized crime that controlled ticketing, was there any need to stir the fan community? As with any new crest, there were considerable protests from fans, and this must have been a well considered factor. Juve is Serie A’s most popular team (some stats say over 30% of total Italians support the bianconeri), but upsetting a team’s fan base is never a wanted consequence of any team’s rebranding. But Juventus didn’t just turn away from its own visual tradition, its new identity sets it brutally apart from the rest of Serie A.
This strategy can sometimes pay off when it comes to design, and it’s clear that the whole of the league is badly in need of design intervention, if not design thinking altogether. Juventus management described the rebranding as ‘the bravest ever’, showing a that a degree of thought on its drawbacks was put into it. This was probably part of the rationale behind the job. But if Interbrand and Juventus leaped so far from its last identity, what was the main goal? I mean, how can you call a team with this logo “Vecchia Signora”? It does seem something out of an MBA textbook more than old-fashioned football design.
Alienation
One of the worst and riskiest features of the rebrand is the complete alienation from not only the team’s heritage, but from football itself. Of course, this doesn’t mean there should be an actual football on every team’s logo, but the new “J” semi-shield seems generic and feels like a lame attempt at engaging new millennial supporters (this sentence alone makes me want to punch myself in the face) through lifestyle merchandise and so-called ‘hispter’ branding and marketing.
Interbrand’s release statement recites:
Juventus has crafted a revolutionary growth plan — launched during the inaugural “Black and White and More” event and sustained by a new brand strategy and identity. Juventus aims to distil its essence into far-reaching experiences which can appeal to the football fan while being highly relevant to entertainment enthusiasts who are further away from football as a sport. The new logo is iconic and universal. It’s bold enough to make a statement, but flexible enough to appear alongside a wide range of new experiences — in the stadium and beyond.
“More”, “Flexible” are the keywords, and “wide range of new experiences — in the stadium and beyond” are common marketing jargon for broad lifestyle brands.
All evidence leads to the fact that the rebranding brief was focused on turning a football club not into a football brand, but into a lifestyle brand. And if this is the intention, it says loads on Juventus’ strategy for entering new markets and what it thinks itself to be.
One of the things that are most worrying is the complete alienation from not only the team’s heritage we’ve been talking about, but from football itself.
Let’s review the assets (mostly mock-up renderings) they presented in the bombastic launch event. The new logo is displayed and / or used on everything but football or anything associated with the club. There’s sunglasses, jewelry, records, skis, cafes…even a Spotify channel.
JUVE skis. Yup.
IKEA + JUVE cafe
Tifosi in Behance packaging
JUVE shades
Because they needed more mockups.
And because nothing says Juventus like a 40-year old DJ spinning JUVE tunes…
And if you are going for that millennial demographic, why not copy what Ducati has already done and drop one of those very “inspired by” videos:
Photos © Interbrand and UnderConsideration
Designwise
The rationale behind the design is clear. They’re aiming for something cleaner, simple and iconic while maintaining the shield and some of the club’s look with the black and white stripes. However, although theoretically the “JJ” shield could work, it’s very generic and bland. It reminds me of any free or stock icon you can find online.
The concept of an ‘open’ identity is a double-edged sword. Juventus’ new “JJ” shield is so non-descriptive that it can be easily adapted to a large variety of lateral merchandising products. Unfortunately, this means that it can also be confused with any other brand.
As an example, we tried it for size on a coffee house, a tech company, a tire manufacturer, and…the new Jumanji movie!
In conclusion, the market is in huge expansion and Juventus is gearing up to face new challenges. There is always a precise rationale behind any (good) design work, and this is no different. But it’s evident that the new management see Juve as a brand which is not limited to football. The hope is that they’ll find a way to at least be rooted in it.
