A strong and well-known brand is essential to the success of a company. Its brand, represented by its logo that acts as the first thing that consumers see, is meant to capture their attention, and provoke any existing or new feelings and ideas surrounding the product. Having a stable representation of a brand for any product is essential to how it is positioned in the consumer’s mind.

As described in my classmate Anita Facundo’s blog post earlier last month (https://blogs.ubc.ca/anitafacundo/) , the popular retailer for outdoor gear, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), had changed its logo from its traditional mountain symbol that has lasted 40 years, to one that simple shows “MEC” in a green box. This re-branding of MEC was to incorporate the fact that the company’s products have diversified into sports directed towards urban consumers such as yoga, cycling, and running.

Despite understanding the company’s motives to change the logo, I agree with Anita’s views on this change. Changing the logo that has been representing the large and trusted brand for 40 years may disturb customers and have them question what they knew about the company. Furthermore, the new logo seems to have even less to do with the core values of the brand. Removing the mountain image from the original logo and not having a replacement it in the new logo to represent the products of the company seems to take away from the outdoorsy and adventurous values the company used to portray. Even though MEC is trying to provide equipment for more urban activities, it is still providing equipment for these adventurous activities.

The new logo seems too generic and unspecified for this highly specialized market. It no longer captures the nature of MEC and will take a lot of extra marketing and promotion to build its strength to represent this long-time running brand.