1 min read

TURNER POV: Uber’s Rebrand #Fail

Jessica Reilly : February 8, 2016

Last week, Uber, the San Francisco-based "ride-hail" company, unveiled a radical rebranding – and the response has been overwhelmingly negative. Most found the concept confusing, and ultimately, unnecessary. As a brand enthusiast and UBER user, I can’t help but jump on that bandwagon. The Wired article that tells the story of Uber’s rebranding clearly outlines the problems from the very beginning. UBER’s CEO Travis Kalanick is an engineer by training, yet he insisted on taking the lead on the project, instead of turning to a branding agency. He felt it was too personal to entrust to anyone else. Half a dozen agencies failed at persuading Kalanick otherwise; usually a sign of an unsure client. The Uber team knew change was necessary, but didn’t fully grasp what they wanted to accomplish, and whom it was meant to benefit. In this case, it definitely wasn’t the consumer. The rebrand in total took three years, another red flag in my opinion. Have you ever been working on a project so long, forcing a certain angle, dramatically overthinking every aspect in the process? And then suddenly, a simple idea presents itself that makes you feel foolish for wasting time on a concept so obviously contrived. The Uber theme of bits and atoms, patterns and locally themed colors, it’s all too much. But I’m betting the team felt they were too far gone to turn back and start over. This redesign seems to have been done for the Uber team themselves, not for those that use their services. I could see it possibly resonating more with the original Uber user, the high-end clientele that wouldn’t be caught dead in a taxi. But now, with UberX and UberPool, most people are just trying to get from one place to another as efficiently as possible. And I know when I open the Uber app, I don’t give a hoot about bits and atoms.

WEEKLY DOWNLOAD: Mobile First

Nicolette Cusmano : November 4, 2016

Where digital meets travel + lifestyle … A collection of can’t-miss news from this week. Sign up to get the TURNER Weekly Download in your inbox...

TURNER Weekly Download

2 min read

No Place Like OM: Where To Celebrate National Yoga Month

April Ingle : August 13, 2014

Yogis are everywhere these days (in fact, according to the latest quadrennial Yoga Journal study, more than 20 million people practiced yoga in 2012)...

1 min read

SIMPLY GIVE: TURNER vs. Denver's Weeds

Tyler Wilcox : June 14, 2019

It's been a wet spring in Denver — which means that the Mile High City's Parks and Rec department has been scrambling to keep weeds under control....

simply give