Kathmandu treks the re-brand trail
By Design Daily Team,
If you’re the outdoorsy, travel-type, any day now you should start noticing some changes at clothing and equipment retail chain Kathmandu. Over the past year the folks at Strategy Design & Advertising have been working on a re-brand for the company, after Kathmandu asked it to help deliver its brand forward. Gone is the green, yellow and red-framed logo with numerous peaks underneath. The multi-coloured arrangement of the past has been replaced with a block-lettered white logo featuring two small mountain-like shapes on top.
The logo may be new, but its typface isn’t. Designed by
Adrian Frutiger, the aptly called ‘Frutiger’ typeface was commissioned in 1968
before being released in 1975. It was chosen for the Kathmandu logo to give it
a timeless feel. As for the stripping back of the mountains, Strategy said the
new look still reflects the mountain inspiration of the previous logo, but
makes it easier to translate to zip pulls and other product branding.
The new logo was tested on customers and the Kathmandu board, while its translation in billboards and shop displays was also considered.
But Strategy said the re-brand involves a lot more than a logo and is the result of a thorough investigation into the strengths of the entire brand.
“Successful retail brands evolve over time to ensure they remain relevant and compelling to their customers,” said Kathmandu managing director Peter Halkett, adding the company sought to “refresh the brand, align the brand across all aspects of the business, reflect our design philosophy and most importantly capture the spirit of ‘inspiring adventure’”.
Kathmandu is one of the few large outdoors brands that still does all of its design in-house. But while the company’s design philosophy finds strength at the product design level, the philosophy has failed to have the same reach for the rest of the company or its customers. Strategy said the challenge was to bring to light the strengths of the Kathmandu brand and then empower the company to effectively communicate those strengths to its staff and customers.
Next, the design agency looked at all the different ways the brand would be implemented and set up a overarching design council to make sure that each of those branches of the company were working to the same specifications. This resulted in a detailed brand architecture being drawn up.
“What we’ve learned is that brand architecture should be organic systems,” said Strategy creative director Guy Pask. “If a system is too rigid, it will break. A brand is theoretical at the beginning. It has to be applied and reviewed and then guidelines can be put in place.”
Strategy said the re-brand has brought out the existing value of the brand and helped to permeate that through the staff, where it will flow on to the customer.
The re-brand is being rolled out this month with newly branded product following suit in the next six to nine months.
It's a goner
Comments
Lisa Simpson
Outdoorsy? Muah ha ha! No 'outdoorsy' person with two brain cells to rub together would touch this with a 10-foot barge pole and a sterilized tramping boot on the end. Kathmandu's product quality is horrific and their technical gear unreliable to say the kindest… Customer service is the worst of all.
They can rebrand all they like but until they get the Jan Cameron ethos back, it's never going to be taken seriously … except by those wanting 'holiday fashion' to wear on the plane en route to Thailand for a safe beachside holiday.
Der_Golem
I can't help but wonder what this will do for the brand, as there appears to have been no work done of the products themselves.
The new logo is kind of piece a of bland internationalist design and has definitely lost it's (admittedly dated and a bit cheesy) recognisability.
Um, fail?
Troy McClure
I image the holiday fashion market is about five million times larger than the tramping geek market.
Lisa Simpson
Tramping geeks are infinitely more knowledgeable and smart than Holiday Fashion Fools. So nyer, McClure.
Bryn
Assumptions will be the death of any form of success. I believe it would be ignorant to assume this re-branding a failure, of course Kathmandu have clear and calculated marketing intentions.. 'knowledgeable and smart' traits do not equate to purchasing power - hence appealing to 'holiday fashion fools'. Let's be realistic Lisa, why should the company not broaden their target market? Core values of outdoors are still present, the mountain depictions can surely not be considered worse that the triangles they replaced?
The new image is definitely more unified and formal.
Mummys boy
Looks good to me, positions the brand towards a more significant global market, and moves away from the thankfully niche hairy, unwashed tramping crowd.
Vincent Heeringa
Lisa, just like your namesake, you seem to assume that authenticity is the paramount virtue. In fact, the ultimate in post-modern marketing is the opposite, knowingly mimicking the real thing but being genuinely fake.
I'm talking about SUVs, boat shoes, spoilers on cars, Illicit t-shirts and BB guns.
So long as Kathmandu looks like outdoor gear, with a logo that ticks all the boxes, I reckon they'll cream it.
Just keep your tramping to the mean streets of Karori.
Lisa Simpson
No Vincent, authenticity isn't the paramount virtue, but the gear's ability to live through at least one trip without falling to pieces definitely is. Unfortunately Kathmandu has a lot of work to do before it can get to that stage.
Kathmandu thrasher
Lisa - beg to differ on the quality of Kathmandu gear. Have used it for years and never let me down. (although not yet tested on a Thai beach holiday) e.g. One pair of MTB shorts, ridden on untold number of trails, driven into the ground too many times to remember, ground through more muddy washes than your average rugby jersey. For 15 Years. Only just replaced them. With another pair of Kathmandu shorts.
Nice one Kathmandu. Keep up the good stuff, and be proud of your new logo. Feels a lot stronger and sure of itself.
Lisa Simpson
Yes Mr Thrasher, anything you bought from Kathmandu 15 years ago is fantastic. Anything you bought from Kathmandu 15 months ago is not. There is a difference.
Vincent Heeringa
I see a tramping expose coming on.
Anyone up for putting Kathmandu, Icebreaker and Macpac to the ultimate test?
Lisa Simpson
Done that already Vincent. Macpac is the winner, Icebreaker breaks down if you do anything more than a gentle walk around Auckland city, and Kathmandu won't even make it out of your front door before it breaks.
Vincent Heeringa
Idealabs - I like it. What else can we test?
Public transport systems? I see a research trip to the world's capital coming up. Any takers?
Lisa Simpson
Let's smash some gnomes to test their resilience.
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