Samsung No Logo

Samsung is currently a company concerned with technology not brands. What can Samsung do to become a contemporary brand? The quickest and most intelligent way forward is to remove the Samsung logo (badge) from all its products. Through negation of the logo, the Samsung brand becomes sophisticated and understated, like a designer clothing brand who chooses to remove the ‘1990’s designer’ logo from the outside, and very subtly suggests the brand through quality and use of materials. Samsung would still brand its advertising, retail outlets, packaging etc. but all its goods would be de-badged.

What does this say? As Naomi Klien discussed in her book ‘No Logo’, multi-national corporations need to improve their brands not through clever use of logos, but by genuinely making better products. There are examples of large companies where quality and function have defined a brand, Muji and Marks & Spencer, both sell unbranded goods, and both have a strong brand identity through the quality and simplicity of their products. Could Samsung make Sony and other market leaders look dated and old fashioned in the same way clothing brands with logos and motifs on the pockets do today? Samsung without a logo would become the only non branded appliance manufacture. A refreshing thought, a home without logos.

Last thought: When I was a about 10 or 11 my Dad bought a brand new Mark 1 Golf GTI in red. On the day he took deliver, he drove the car back home, carefully removed all the badges from the front grill and boot lid, filled the holes, masked the area and re sprayed the panel. Nobody knew what model he drove. I think Mercedes know charge customers extra for doing exactly the same thing.

An additional last thought emailed from my Dad: ‘On your subject of branding, Armani does an interesting job on his jeans collection, on his cheap jeans he plasters his logo all over, on his middle range it's more discreet and on his top range there’s nothing visible on the outside.’