Do logo redesigns help or hurt your brand?
The role of brand commitment
Michael F. Walsh
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA

Karen Page Winterich
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA, and

Vikas Mittal
Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Logos are a critical component of brand aesthetics. Frequently companies redesign their logos, and many redesigns result in more rounded logos. How do such redesigns affect consumers’ brand attitudes? The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of brand commitment on consumer response to logo shape redesign.
Design/methodology/approach – This research uses a field experiment with 632 respondents and examines two athletic shoe brands: New Balance and Adidas.
Findings – The greater the degree of change in the roundedness of a previously angular logo, the more likely it is that strongly committed consumers will evaluate the redesigned logo more negatively (in terms of brand attitude). Such logo evaluations, in turn, mediate the joint effect of logo redesign and commitment on overall brand attitude. Conversely, weakly committed consumers react positively to such changes.
Research limitations/implications – The literature on aesthetics and brand attitude are combined to show that not all consumers view changes in brand elements such as logos similarly. Strongly committed consumers view these changes negatively; weakly committed consumers view them positively. An information-processing approach provides the underlying theory for this finding. Thus, logo evaluation partially mediates this change in brand attitude, but it does not fully explain the change in brand attitude after exposure to logo redesign.
Practical implications – Strong brands gain strength by developing a base of strongly committed customers. Attempts to change brand elements – such as logo