The current technological and social landscape has been shaken by the rebranding recently announced by the website formerly known as ‘’Twitter’’. Good old reliable ‘’Twitter’’, after being a part of our internet routine for well over a decade, is turning the page according to its owner, Elon Musk. The iconic blue bird will no longer be the trademark of the popular platform, as Musk aims to turn his recently acquired multibillion asset into something more than it currently is. Twitter will be changing its name to ‘’X’’, and their brand new logo, as revealed in the announcement, is a minimal design of, well, you guessed it, the letter ‘‘X’’.
It is, of course, too early to tell whether everything will go according to plan or not, but it is interesting to take a look at this rebranding from a marketing standpoint. ‘’X’’’s new direction has been met with mixed feelings by marketing experts from all over the world.
Skepticism
Several marketing executives and industry experts have questioned the very basis of this unexpected move as they consider it to be highly irregular. Why does a brand name as established as Twitter need to go through a rebranding process of any kind? Users are familiar with Twitter and trust it. Said trust has now gone out of the window, in lieu of an ominous-looking logo and brand name combination. While it is obvious that Musk was looking to appeal to the allure of the mysterious ‘’X’’ to generate buzz, it is safe to say that buzz does not equal an influx of subscribers. At the moment, the world is definitely taking notice of ‘’X’’, but from a cautious, awkward distance for the most part.
This phenomenon unwinds even further when it comes to advertisers, aka ‘’Twitt..’’X’’’s main source of revenue. Advertisers won’t trust their business to an unknown site with questionable branding and that is evident by the monumental 50% decrease in advertising revenue ‘’X’’ has registered since its acquisition by Elon Musk.
Another marketing sin this transition has been guilty of is sloppiness. According to brand consultant, Helen Edwards, what this rebranding lacks is a clean change across all platforms. At the time of Musk’s announcement, ‘’X’’’s google results and website were all over the place, as the only visible change was the replacement of the blue bird. However, everything else that made ‘’Twitter’’ so recognizable was still there, creating a confusing mish-mash of two eras.
Finally, questions have been raised not just about the rebrand itself, but its general direction too. To put it plainly, it is not just the idea of rebranding such a household name that deterred professionals globally, but what it is being rebranded into. Alphabet letters (X included) are amongst the most popular trademark registers in the United States, and will be extremely hard for ‘‘X’’ to differentiate its logo from the competition (namely Microsoft and Meta) and avoid legal implications.
Possible Explanations Behind the Decision
As we mentioned earlier, Elon Musk has been put under extreme scrutiny for his unexpected decision to turn ‘’Twitter’’ into ‘’X’’, literally overnight. However, apart from some well-justified criticism, we should actually ask ourselves ‘’why?’’ Why this? And why so abruptly? Obviously, there has to be some plan behind this move and several different speculations have been thrown around lately.
Recently, Meta launched ‘’Threads’’ a direct competitor to ‘’Twitter’’, one that was promoted as the solution to Musk’s reign over ‘’Twitter’’ which was not exactly welcomed by users and advertisers alike. Many have theorized that ‘’X’s’’ launch was an attempt to divert attention from ‘’Threads’’. If that was the case, and the abruptness of the announcement was a marketing trick to generate as much buzz as possible, it could be argued that it was a successful effort on ‘’X’s’’ side.
Ultimately, another reason that could explain this rebranding attempt, which has been heavily criticized, would be that of a total reset for the platform. It is possible that Elon Musk is going for a clean slate, after his acquisition has caused ‘’X’s’’ popularity to dwindle dramatically. Therefore, rebranding would stop people from comparing the platform to what it used to be. At least to a certain extent.
