Will Change of Logo help Microsoft Regain its Throne as U.S.’s Largest Company

Microsoft has enjoyed the status of U.S.’s largest company for long but alas!
 lost it to Apple and within a week of losing the throne, comes a heavenly change, a new logo for the company in 25 years’ time. The more colourful logo is revealed during launch of Boston store, the 23rd Microsoft store. It will also appear Thursday at the Seattle and Bellevue Microsoft stores, as well as on the microsoft.com home page.

The new logo, which incorporates a multicolored Windows symbol in 
addition to the "Microsoft" name in straightforward, lighter type, is intended to "signal the heritage but also signal the future — a newness and freshness," said Jeff Hansen, Microsoft's general manager of brand strategy.

The change came at a crucial time when Microsoft is trying to regain its lost throne to Apple through introduction of new or significantly updated versions of nearly every one of its products, from Windows to Windows Phone to Office.

Hansen has said: "we felt it was a good time to express the newness in the
Microsoft logo as well."The new logo features the name "Microsoft" in the Segoe font — a font Microsoft owns and has used in its products and marketing for several years. The font also figures prominently in the new Windows 8 user interface.

The "f" and "t" in the name "Microsoft" are connected in the new logo, just as they were in the old. "It was one of the subtleties we thought we could bring forward," Hansen said.

For the first time, the company's logo will also include a symbol: In this case, a square formed by four multicolored square tiles — reminiscent of the company's multihued Windows logo in years past. The colors in the squares — blue, orange, green and yellow — are those long associated with Microsoft and from which the company's product brands draw.

A lot is at stake when a company changes its logo. A logo is the instant communication of a brand, said Barbara Kahn, professor of marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "It's what is seen time and time again," she said.

A strong logo, she said, needs to be "distinctive, clearly identified with the brand and consistently used over time."

The new logo marks the fifth time Redmond-based Microsoft has changed it since the company was founded in 1975 and only the second time since Microsoft went public in 1986.

The new logo will also be used on a new wave of TV commercials in the next few weeks and on the new products being released this fall and into the holiday season.

"The majority of the items that people see from the company — websites, marketing, communications — people will be seeing the new logo pretty quickly," Hansen said.