[Foundation-l] Hypothetical project rebranding Wikimedia

Chris Keating chriskeatingwiki at gmail.com
Thu Sep 8 14:59:46 UTC 2011


> Does rebranding change anything then the "name" or "appearance"?
>
> Or better asked: Does it help to solve any of our real problems?
>
> I might compare this to throwing cat's around. A rather useless feature,
> since anyone knows how to edit and a personal message worth 100% more
> then a template.


Branding, effectively used, can be a very powerful tool (ask McDonalds or
Coca-Cola)

It is interesting that this agency picked up a number of things that I would
tend to agree with;

"The site offers a brilliantly simple user experience, has clear strategic
goals and is driven by the objectives laid out in its Five Pillars. However,
it fails to communicate its own story, its offer and its role in capturing,
building and disseminating global knowledge."

"This work informed the brand narrative, the story at the heart of the brand
that aligned the brand’s offer, vision and moral principals. We looked at
the brand architecture, and how the 8 sister sites could be better
integrated and used to leverage Wikipedia’s potential as the world’s
learning resource.

I would say that the current brand (such as it is) is good at communicating
the value proposition for the reader, but not so much the contributor or the
donor.

However, I thought the logo that the agency came up with sucked. :-)

Chris


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