Elon Musk continues to push ahead with the restructuring of the social network Twitter. In doing so, he does not stop at the core brand values of the company. The latest change affects the brand itself: the app’s blue bird logo, known to users and Twitter insiders as “Larry,” has had to vacate its place in the top-right corner of Twitter’s homepage. Instead, all users will see an X logo there.
Musk is thus consistently continuing what he started at the beginning of the year: he is converting the Twitter brand into a digital company that is as generic as possible.
The X can stand for every conceivable digital service, from communication to payment services to online shopping. But experts warn that Musk is risking the brand value of the entire platform.
Musk had already changed the name of the holding company in March, since then Twitter has been called X Corp in official documents. But it is only now, with the change in brand identity, that the conversion is also reaching the users.
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The impression gets stronger: Musk didn’t buy Twitter as a communication platform, but as a basic construct for a new “Everything App” that already has plenty of users, i.e. a universal application like the one created by the Chinese group Tencent with Wechat.
In addition to serving as a social network, Wechat can also be used for video conferencing, gaming, photo and video sharing, online shopping and banking. Musk has similar plans for Twitter. The platform aims to gain more users through the sale of services and become less dependent on advertisers.
Twitter’s minimalist X logo
The new X logo is as minimalist as possible. Musk simply took the X from a freely available digital font. Apparently he spends as little money as possible on the rebranding. Even his own brand design was obviously too complex for him at first.
In addition, the Twitter homepage has not yet been consistently rebuilt. Instead, the blue bird logo still appears everywhere, for example on the platform’s help pages, on contact forms, even in the terms of use and on the pages for advertisers.
A careful rebranding, which becomes clear from the brand chaos, was not carried out here. Instead, Musk now has a patchwork on his side. And the domain of the platform remains twitter.com. So every time users visit the page, they are reminded of the old name.
Musk could regret such a hasty change because he risks the brand value of the entire platform: “I think the brand has lost a lot of value. Musk is carrying out a strategic reorientation here that is not attractive for large parts of the previous users,” comments Henrik Sattler, Director of the Institute for Marketing and Media at the University of Hamburg and an expert on brand values.
Twitter’s X logo is difficult to protect
“If a brand is completely reoriented, it can make sense to change the logo and brand name completely. However, this carries great risks. Brand managers should be aware of this and do everything they can to communicate with existing users.”
Sattler warns against carrying out a complete reorientation of a media brand like Twitter without preparing the users with accompanying communication measures. Otherwise there is a risk that many users will jump off and switch to the competition. Musk had only announced the change of logo and brand name in a few tweets, for many users the change of logo came as a complete surprise.
From the point of view of the brand expert, the choice of the X logo is also a problem. Because that is difficult to protect under trademark law, a single letter cannot be registered as a word mark. “Normally you would choose something catchy that brings with it a higher recognition value, which can also be registered as a word mark.”
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Musk’s choice of the letter X shows great self-confidence, says Sattler. “You can only do that if you have a vision of a large, dominant company that has such a high recognition value that everyone associates the letter X with it. Only then can something like this work.”
Musk is already successfully using the X in other companies and products, such as his space company “Space X” or the Tesla SUV Model X. But it remains doubtful whether he can claim the X for himself right away. Above all, because the porn industry is already successfully using the letter for its brands on the Internet.
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The new logo initially met with widespread rejection on Twitter itself. Users compared it to the logo of an Eastern European sex club or called it so generic that they would promptly forget it.
“Musk took the cake,” was one dry comment, with many others pointing to the famous “Raider is now Twix” marketing campaign: “I’ll call it TwiX from now on and no one can stop me,” was one of the most shared comments. A valuable brand looks different.
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