The newly launched Microsoft search engine Bing (sorry, ‘decision engine’ as they call it) seems to have been universally panned in the creative world for its poor logo. Microsoft doesn’t have a good track record in this department anyway, but as this was a crucial re-launch for them we were expecting something more. After all, they have enough money, so why can’t a good logo be achieved? The answer I suspect lies in the decision makers, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Right now, what I’m thinking is:
Can a big brand or business survive (or even prosper) in today’s visual world with such a poor start in it’s brand development?
A logo represents a business or product and if it’s not pleasing to the eye the business can often struggle as a result. This got me thinking. For a service that is trying to take a reasonable chunk away from Google’s dominant market share, will it work? Will it fall flat from bad publicity or indifferent users before it’s gotten started? When they are spending a reported $100million on promotion you really hope not.
The launch was a couple of months ago now, and I’ve been expecting to read about how it’s struggling any day now. But, this doesn’t seem to be the case. In actual fact it seems to be doing OK. I would put this largely down to a few things:
1. Other elements of the brand are actually quite good
They were clever enough to choose an interesting and simple word for the name, to rival the oh so universal ‘Google’. The word is kind of onomatopoeic, which makes it even more memorable and appealing. I’m not saying it’s as good as Google, but it’s on the right track.
The other part that is good is the use of amazing images on the homepage. This is the main touch point of the brand for users and with such a dull logo it could have been a real turn off if they had copied Google’s minimal approach. But no, they made a good decision in focusing your attention on beautiful and dramatic imagery that makes users feel good the moment they are in contact with the brand.
2. Their promotional campaign has actually been quite clever
Facebook is massively popular for photo hosting and to use this to drive a photo competition for the Bing homepage during summer (a peak season for amateur photography) was a clever choice. I’ve no doubt this has helped people sit up and take notice.
3. The service seems to be winning fans
Yes, it seems so. By offering more information and putting search results into more context, they seem to be winning over some people. The image search tool in particular seems to be very popular.
So, will it work? Time will tell, but it does prove that there is more to branding and success than just a logo. The other parts of a brand that a customer experiences are just as important. Having said all that though I’m sure if Bing did have a much more appealing logo it would be a more complete and successful brand.
By the way, for a bit of fun try entering the word “search” into Google and see what comes up top of the results.
Hi Mark,
As you know, I’m a bit of a design terrorist, but I wonder if the Google logo is anymore powerful than the Bing one.
If Google and Bing both launched as new logos today, would either of them earn compliments from designers?
Mark Reply:
August 18th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
A very good point Dave. Google wasn’t competing with a massively dominant market leader when they started though – they were largely ‘trail-blazing’ in an industry that empowered its users like never before. That kind of thing almost builds a brand in itself, regardless of design. By the way, I found this interesting article about the design of the Google logo.