Sony Ericsson - new and vibrant brand look connects with the individual

Coinciding with its 5th anniversary celebration, Sony Ericsson today unveils a new look for its global mobile phone brand. Based on a simple core concept and a new colourful execution, the company’s famous green logo, known as the liquid identity, is wrapped within a message that focuses on the individual and their feelings for what Sony Ericsson’s products, accessories and applications enable them to do. The result is an engaging new brand treatment that will differentiate Sony Ericsson, and project the full attributes of the company’s innovative mobile phones.  Designed by leading global brand consultancy Wolff Olins, the new look will be rolled out from this month.
“Sony Ericsson is entering a phase of aggressive growth and to succeed it is important that people everywhere can connect with us at every level,” says Miles Flint, President of Sony Ericsson. “Over the past five years our brand has become established in the minds of our consumers.  Now it is time for us to appeal to both the minds and the hearts of consumers. The mobile device will become increasingly central to our lives in many different ways and as this happens it is vital that our brand stands out above others with energy, passion and excitement,” he adds.
The brand identity includes a new range of vibrant colours, deliberately selected to stand out from the white, grey, black and blue tones used by most technology brands today. In addition to the new colours, there is a strong central concept comprising two key elements – a worded message and the portrayal of sentiment around the Sony Ericsson liquid identity.
The rules are simple: the message always starts with ‘I’, the individual, followed by the liquid identity and then a message relating to the things the individual loves, cares about or is inspired by. This framework can be applied in any number of ways, in any language, connecting with the audience visually and instantly.
Mr Flint explains how the identity is designed to connect with its audience:  “As soon as you see this there is immediate engagement between you and the Sony Ericsson brand. The message is that it is treating you as an individual – it is not telling you what to think about Sony Ericsson, it is reflecting what you think. This is not just a traditional, static brand identity. We plan to increase our use of interactive media to build a dialogue with consumers around the world and effectively start co-creating our brand messages with them.”
“People want to know how our products can add to their life - how connected they can be, how much fun they can have, how much better they can work, and more. Our new brand identity relates our products to the things people care about in a very simple way. It is focused less on what’s inside the products and more on what consumers get out of them,” said Husni El-Assi, General Manager of Sony Ericsson, Middle East and North Africa.
Simplicity is the underlying principle that runs through every aspect of Sony Ericsson’s business, from product design to marketing, so the new brand look will further strengthen the company’s commitment to this approach.
Mr El-Assi concludes: “We are developing a distinctive global brand that is flexible enough to embrace local differences, speaking directly to people about what they want and what the love doing.”
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications serves the global communications market with innovative and feature-rich mobile phones, accessories and PC-cards. Established as a joint venture by Sony and Ericsson in 2001, with global corporate functions located in London, the company employs over 7,000 people worldwide, including R&D sites in Europe, Japan, China and America. Sony Ericsson celebrates the 5th anniversary of the start of the joint venture on 1st October, 2006.
Sony Ericsson is the global title sponsor of the Women's Tennis Association, and works with the Association to promote the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in over 80 cities during the year. The tour culminates at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain, from 7 to 12 November. For more information on Sony Ericsson, please visit www.sonyericsson.com
Wollf Olins are brand experts.  The company reinvents businesses, brands and markets to deliver growth.  It is recognised and sought after for its creativity and cut-through thinking.  Wolff Olins’ clients are Fortune 500 companies, ambitious enterprises and visionary individuals.  www.wolffolins.com.