Leave it – The Hut

Apparently Pizza Hut, in an effort to turn itself around in this economy is re-branding itself as “The Hut” with a new logo.

See: http://www.idsgn.org/posts/pizza-the-hut/

New Logo for "The Hut"

To me, the Hut does not sound like a place to get a great mean.  “Pizza Hut” is marginally better.  Unless the modifications at “The Hut” include a menu that does not focus on pizza, I think this logo, brand, and restaurant are bound to fail.  The Hut sounds like a desperate attempt to be cool and to appeal to youth. Also, the new logo (and old one) have only one image – that of the roof.  Is the building really the best thing about your brand, your food, your restaurant?

Lesson: If you change your brand, do you risk alienating your current customers? What message are you communicating with this change?  To me, the change to “The Hut” communicates desperation and an appeal to youth.

Citi Field logo – leave it

This logo for the new New York Mets stadium fails for several reasons.

- It looks like the Domino pizza logo.

- It conveys nothing about Citi financial services or baseball (OK, I admit it does contain an umbrella and may suggest the shape of a baseball diamond.

- The Citi name is the focus, not the field or the opening of the new stadium, which seems to just scream pure corporate sponsorship (I admit, I am a bit of a baseball purist and in general find too much advertising connected to the games — I know that position is somewhat contrary to my position as a trademark attorney promoting brand development!)

- To me, all it says is: we paid a lot of money to attach the Citi name to this stadium and had to find a way to put our name on the uniforms and everywhere possible to try to justify the investment.

- Last years special Mets logo commemorating the final season at Shea stadium was much more interesting, it features the NYC skyline, some of the stadium, and a much more interesting design.

Lesson: Don’t waste valuable advertising space by failing to communicate a message.