ROME — Getting a rebrand right is a tricky business. Just ask Juventus.
In 2017, fans of the Italian champions unleashed a tirade of fury when the club’s new logo was unveiled: the letter J.
Four years on, Inter Milan have followed suit by producing a stripped-back, minimalist version of their famous crest, to be used from 2021-22 onwards.
The public response to the new badge has been mixed at best, but that is certainly an improvement on the hammering Juve took for their drastic departure from tradition.
Inter removed the letters “FC” and the gold colour in their new badge, leaving a bold white “IM” over a blue background and black trim.
They describe it as “innovative, minimalist, elegant and oriented towards new generations” and pounced on the English wordplay potential of the letters “IM” by producing several tweets saying things like “IM open to the whole world and rooted in one city.”
But back to Juventus. The Turin club broke away from tradition, not only with the badge but subsequently with a kit featuring a red stripe and blocks of black and white rather than the iconic stripes, in order to become a lifestyle brand as well as a football one.
The Old Lady’s chief revenue officer Giorgio Ricci told Bleacher Report in 2019: “The idea of the rebrand was to reposition the club in the wider entertainment industry as a brand that was able to deliver lifestyle experiences.”
The language around Inter’s latest move has been strikingly similar.
On their website, the club wrote that “while maintaining continuity with the original version, the new symbol is a more suitable fit for the age of entertainment”.
The club wanted to “establish itself as an icon of culture as well as sport”.
It comes at a time when Inter are closer than ever to ending Juve’s nine-year stranglehold of the Serie A title – Antonio Conte’s side are 10 points clear of their rivals in first place.
The implicit message seems to be that Inter will chase down their arch-rivals on and off the pitch, even if the rebrand comes at a time of rumblings about the perilous financial state of the club under Chinese owners Suning.
There has been no shortage of opinions about the aesthetic qualities of the new badge.
In news that will surprise no one, the greatest outrage has been saved for the realm of social media, where scores of fans lamented the simplified design and the removal of gold.
Others pointed out its similarity to the Volkswagen logo, while it was also flagged up that removing the letters “FC” to leave an “I” overlapping “M” leaves the badge spelling out the word “TIT”.
Italian television presenter and Inter fan Enrico Mentana mourned the loss of the old badge, writing: “You can’t just throw away this symbol like an old shoe.”
The backlash may not have quite reached Juventus levels, but Inter have certainly been warned about the risks of tampering with tradition as they follow their rivals towards a more marketable future.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3rA6C93
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