In an ever-evolving world, how does it feel to be inclusive? This was precisely my thought when I learned about Twitter being rebranded to X by its owner Elon Musk. The iconic blue bird has been replaced by a stylized letter X with a hint of black and white. Earlier this month, Meta launched its Twitter rival, Thread. So, it’s safe to assume that the rebranding might be a good plan to steal some limelight away from Meta and generate buzz around Twitter. The change was well foreseen as and when it was taken over by Musk. The platform has gone through abrupt changes since its purchase nine months ago.
History
Musk was toying with the idea of changing the name of Twitter to X.com for a while. X.com, as we know, is a bank that Musk founded back in 1999 with three of his associates, which later got acquired by Paypal. Musk wants to transform Twitter to an “everything app” or a super app, right from social networking to banking all in one place.
Why is Twitter renamed X?
Rebranding is usually a precursor to repositioning a brand. And he probably thought that changing the logo and renaming it to X.com was the quickest way to reposition Twitter from an opinion and analysis platform to something much broader and larger in scope. Says Piali Dasgupta, Senior Vice President – Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities.
The name, logo, UI of an app being the key defining feature of the brand ‘twitter’ are being shaken off in one quick motion to acclimatise the audiences to the revolution that Musk plans to bring in with his stern ideologies of being the end all be all X universe. What he plans to create is a ‘everything app’, now while we may think this is madness and can’t be executed, I’d say we give some benefit of doubt to the man that perfected self driving cars. This is the age of digital revolution, and from a consumer standpoint I am not at all opposed to the vision of one man wanting to bring about massive changes. Says Vaibhav Pathak – Co-Founder & COO, Dot Media
Industry reaction is pretty positive
“The platform has always set a benchmark with its trail-blazing innovations. With evolving times, Twitter is now ready to set the bird free. No frills or fancy designs, just a minimalist X is enough to rattle the many users. While this may divide the community, the timing of this rebranding is crucial. This could signify a significant departure from the platform’s current identity and potentially pave the way for Twitter’s evolution into a more multifaceted and innovative digital space.” Manish Solanki, COO and Co-Founder, TheSmallBigIdea
“With the rebranding move that is breaking the internet, it might look like Elon Musk is aiming to rebrand Twitter as X on the surface level. However, this move signifies more than what meets the eye. With the vision that Musk has for Twitter or X as it is known now, this change in brand implies that we are closer to a massive overhaul of the social media platform than ever before. Musk’s vision to have one social media platform for everything, be it socializing, voicing opinions, or even trading in cryptocurrency, might as well be the next big revolution that shapes the future of the internet. It remains to be seen whether Musk will be able to achieve his ambitious goals for Twitter. However, his vision for the platform is certainly one that is worth keeping an eye on. What’s for sure is that this is not the last we are hearing of X, as we bid adieu to the iconic blue bird.” – Angad Singh Manchanda, CEO & Co-founder, Chimp&z Inc.
“In the world of online learning and social connectivity, Twitter’s new name and logo symbolize an unwavering commitment to innovation and progress. As the co-founder of an EdTech platform, I’m excited to see Twitter rebrand itself as X. I believe that this move reflects Twitter’s commitment to becoming a more open and inclusive platform for learning. I’m particularly excited about the potential for X to become a more powerful tool for educational institutions like Acadzo to connect with students and teachers. We believe that X can be a valuable resource for sharing educational content, engaging in conversations about learning, and building connections with our community.” – Jinal Dedhia, Co-founder, Acadzo.
Effect on Advertisers and Marketers
Any big change in the social diaspora is always taken with a pinch of salt. And yes, that does mean that they stand to incur a backlash from the marketers and advertisers particularly.
https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy now points to https://t.co/AYBszklpkE.
Interim X logo goes live later today.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Just when we got familiar with the blue twitter, a paid blue tick and what not, this bombshell drops. As marketing tools, use and reuse a social platform for the familiar UI and our guaranteed metrics of ROI – take that away and you’re bound to tick people off. However, in the grand scheme of things, as and when they align, the crowd will return, only this time they will return to X. And much like Threads, we will all have opinions – good & bad, eventually we put our money where our mouth is and if Musk is able to regenerate the same numbers on X or more than the original audience, he definitely has a winner on his hands. From a strictly business perspective, it’s a gamble but it’s a gamble worth playing. Speaks Vaibhav Pathak.
Talking on the same context Piali Dasgupta says, most marketers are apprehensive of this sudden rebranding, as they should. Twitter has gone through several changes during the Musk reign already, and this big change obviously does nothing to invoke confidence amongst marketers. Twitter’s ad revenue has dipped by 50% as per Musks’s recent tweet. And it is likely to dip further because marketers would be unsure about what the future holds for this platform, and whether there would be other changes in the future – for example, changes in algorithm, posting formats etc, or will the very nature of the platform change. That would mean change in platform-specific content strategies for marketers, which many may not be ready for or want to invest time and energy into.
Rebranding is a tricky terrain. In the case of Twitter, the blue bird logo stood for opinions and voices to be freely expressed on the platform for over 17 years. The rebranding is a bit abrupt. If one looks at the most effective rebranding case studies – for example, Hutch being rebranded to Vodafone, or more recently, Grofers being rebranded to Blinkit, the success of rebranding exercises lies in how quickly people adopt the new identity of the brand and forget the old one. It’s a bit of a “shedding the skin” exercise for a brand. Only time will tell how soon Twitter loyalists warm up to X.com and forget about the iconic blue bird.
