PokerStars have changed their logo to create a more consistent appearance across all of their brand names, but in the current climate, will it make much of difference to their customers?
PokerStars has changed their logo.
Phasing in of the new logo (seen below) began January 1. The old one will be annihilated completely by the end of March. The decision to make the change comes because PokerStars are no longer an online poker company. They are an online gambling company.
The new style brand will allow them to have consistency across all platforms such as PokerStars, BetStars and StarsDraft. It makes sense. Each new business will look great with the same logo design. But in the grand scheme of things, taking into account their current dispute with their customers, it reminds me of a piece of writing on branding I read from the amazing Bernadette Jiwa.
The book is called Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers. The chapter this change reminds me of is called Thinking About Your Assets.
Jiwa asks companies to grab a blank sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, you are to write down all of your tangible assets, and intangible assets on the other.
The next stage of the task is to cross out all of the things that your competitors could easily replicate or acquire on both sides of the list.
When Jiwa did this exercise for an example company. Her list looked like this:
Tangible Assets
Stock
Website
Equipment
Cash Balances
Product Lines
Property
Intangible Assets
Brand name
Logos
Trademarks
Patents
Formulas
Customer database
Skills
Reputation
Customer Loyalty
Trust
She then asks a simple question.
An important question.
The only question.
What are you left with?
Do PokerStars customers care about a logo? Or do they care about playing on a site that has an excellent reputation for building products and services that their customer want, a brand that they can trust, and one that they believe is loyal to their needs?
Money.
Time.
Effort.
PokerStars should be channeling all of these things into the assets not crossed off that list.
Or.
To hire people like Jiwa.
The new logo is currently being used in the Cristiano Ronaldo Edition $1 Million Spin & Gos. Players can win a million bucks for as little as $0.50. They can also win a host of non-cash prizes such as Monster headphones, TAG watches and a wide variety of supercars that will cost upwards of $450,000.
