The Chameleon Brand

So, have you folks seen a brand that changes colors, from blue to green, to orange, to pink. Quite colorful indeed! Yes, we are talking about 'Go Air'.

I can't quite recall what color was Go Air then when I first flew it in '06, or if it was multi-colored at all, but my last stint quite amazed me. I happened to pick-up a pink luggage tag for my hand-bag, and when in the departure lounge, obviously went looking for 'the' counter, rather kiosk, with a pink 'Go Air' signage. I took a walk across the length of the lounge, and found no pink-s, except for a baby dressed in a pink frock and some pink lipsticks. I strolled again, walking back to from where I'd started, and found no other pink. It was then that I started reading those signages, and found one in green with 'Go Air'. I had done a course in marketing, but it was my common sense that told me that 'this' cannnot be 'this' 'Go Air'. After all, pink and green were disctinctly disctinct colors. But after some enquiries, I settled for otherwise, only to find out later that the plane bore a blue 'Go Air' and its interiors had an orange 'Go Air' branding. Isn't this a strong case against consistency in communication of a brand. An utter abuse of Visual Identity!

To violate the Visual Identity of a brand is equilavent to raping it, I insist. Its not a lesser sin than having several names to refer to the same brand in the same market. And it just creates more clutter for brand, in the already saturated market in the minds of their target audience. True, brands are re-christened, but it follows all the customary fanfare. And they are given yet another, new, but unique name. Infact, companies spend crores on re-branding exercises. Reliance-ADA Group, I know for sure, had spent a good 70-crores only on a single day, when they first re-launched the new brand, internally, for the employees, and boy, what delicious cake I'd savored then.

Jokes apart, I can't stress upon the importance of a logo more than what I did in my previous post (use label: Brand), and a 'Go Air' typeface on blue is by no means similar to the one on pink or green or orange. Not because their RGB or CMYK constitution is different, but also because the human-eye perceives them as distinctly distinct color. Because even if the visual can't speak a thousand words, it does draw attention, and well, recognition. Probably just like the first thing you noticed in this post may have been the visual . And also because someone as illiterate as me, or as read as me, would first cast a quick glance to locate the brand visually, and not literally ;)

- Namrta Batra