Today LendingTree launched their new logo and website.
The new logo, which uses the same font and image of the Tree.com logo, is a far cry from the traditional looking logo of the past. A logo that used to conjure up thoughts of tradition, quality and trust as been swapped out for a cool, young and techie logo. Currently, it appears as though they have even ditched the “When banks compete, you win” slogan, however I am sure a new slogan will appear over time.
After all the discussions over the new Pepsi Logo and how people think the story, cost and explanation behind it is crazy, the question has to be asked – Did LendingTree make the right decision with this new look? Frankly, I think its pretty boring and almost too basic. It seems as though it is trying to hard to be cool. I just don’t get the font they used for some reason. It seems cold and too techie, if that makes any sense, and looks like the futuristic fonts of the 90’s. The great news is that a logo is as good as the marketing strategy and product/service behind it. That means the logo may work great with LendingTree’s new messaging. We will have to wait to see if that is the case, however we can take a look at the new site, which in my opinion is a big improvement from the old site.
The new site really hits the mark, in my opinion, with multiple call to actions, tools, resources and articles that are nicely broken out into 3 columns that give a very clean look. Its always difficult to create a home page that includes as much information as mortgage related sites typically do and not make it look cluttered and messy and I think they did a very good job.
Take a look at the before and after:
http://blog.leadcritic.com/wp-content/uploads/LTold.jpg
http://blog.leadcritic.com/wp-content/uploads/LTNew.jpg
(For some reason the images were not posting into the article, sorry)
Comparing the two I think you can easily see the big improvement, regardless of your logo preference.
So what are your thoughts? Put your marketing hats on and give me your two cents on the new logo, website and the fact that they may be even ditching the “When banks compete…” slogan. Will it work for the next 10 years?
Update:
The new LendingTree slogan will be “You to the Rescue”. Why? Via Darren Beck, CMO of LendingTree, AdAge Q&A
“It’s exactly that — when you need help in this day and age. People have been disillusioned by what they thought were trustworthy, reliable or very solid institutions or advisors they were relying on. People are becoming much more aware that they need to take control of their own financial situation, and really take an active role and be involved. “You to the Rescue” just echoes that sentiment for us.
It’s not a question of anyone being an expert, it’s a question of knowing that you have someone like LendingTree on your side providing a lot of the information to help you boil things down into bite-size pieces, and make sure you’re getting the best deal.”
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Thanks for the candid feedback, as always. Personally I love the new LendingTree logo. Admittedly I was involved in the selection process though, so of course I love it. Yes, the LendingTree logo is changing, but then our whole business is changing as well. Perhaps the old logo felt a little more traditional, but in today’s tumultuous world, I’m not so sure that “tradition” is necessarily what people care about.
The recent economic chaos has left us all a little confused, uncertain, and even angry. Huge financial institutions with lots of tradition have crumbled around us, and nobody is exactly sure who to trust with their finances. At LendingTree we feel the best person to trust is really yourself, and we are relaunching LendingTree to be your ally with the advice, tools, and products to take control of your financial life.
And to clarify your quote from the Ad Age article, “You to the Rescue” is simply a caption in our new tv advertising campaign that will launch next week. It is not a new tag line for the company.
I get that they are trying to redefine their brand. But frankly their old logo was one of the most powerful on the net. Even though consumers have gotten smarter and have a sour taste in their mouth about shady lending, I believe consumers very much trust LendingTree and don’t associate them with the mortgage meltdown. Straying so far from that classic design is a big mistake because they lose all the equity that literally hundreds of millions of dollars took to build.
I think LT has a good shot at going back on top, but I think this new logo is a step in the wrong direction.
mrbuyer,
I tend to agree. As I referenced the Pepsi logo debate I will use it for comparison again. The Pepsi logo, which has a long history and a long history of changing their messaging and image, kept much of it the same. The colors, circular dimision, etc, but LT truly stepped out of the box and redefined itself here, which I think is definitely takes on more risk.
I am not convinced, nor do I need to be
that a logo change was needed. Maybe it could have been reworked and touched up a bit, but the overhauled look is in question.
But again, I think the website was much needed and looks great and will probably perform much better.
LT gets blasted for its Logo redesign in the comments of this post. Appears to be a lot of opinions out there. http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/a_lendingtree_grows_in_the_web.php
whats interesting is there is an example of the old logo with color changes, in the comments, that looks exactly what I would have expected a logo change to look like for LT.