Xerox unveils new logo to highlight improvements
"There has been a perception gap in the marketplace," said Richard Wergan, vice president of worldwide brand marketing and advertising at the Norwalk-based office equipment manufacturer. "Xerox is still perceived incorrectly as a copier company. We do not make copiers."
The all-capitalized corporate name in red, which has been in service in different versions for 14 years, has been replaced with a lowercase version. It also sports a red sphere marked by a white "X" laced with silver stripes.
In addition to the new logo, Xerox will use a variety of colors in marketing across numerous media, from print and Web to broadcast and interactive presentations.
Wergan would not say how much the research for the new logo cost, but said it was a "significant multimillion-dollar marketing investment."
Ursula Burns, president of Xerox, said in a statement that the new logo gives the Xerox brand a "contemporary look that is more relevant for business today" by being livelier and less formal.
Angele Boyd, a Xerox analyst and group vice president and general manager of Document Solutions at IDC in Framingham, Mass., said a brand change is "only a big deal if it's matched with some other core change the company is making."
"They have made significant changes in the last several years. Packaging and branding have not kept pace," she said.
Companies are responding to increasingly personal technology represented by networking sites, blogs, social media and other forms of communication, Boyd said.
"It's all about being much more connected to customers," she said.
Xerox has markedly improved its balance sheet and returned to investment grade since 2001, when it was pulled down by billions in debt and an accounting scandal. It has introduced 100 new products in the past three years, made key acquisitions, paid down debt and repurchased stock.
And it has picked up speed in the use of color printing, with research there representing about half of the $1.5 billion Xerox and its partner Fuji Xerox invest each year in research and development.
Shares of Xerox closed down 1 cent a share, at $15.10 Monday, near the low end of a 52-week range of $15.08 to $20.18.
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