Best BuyCopied

In May 2018 Best Buy changed its logo for the first time in almost three decades. For most shoppers the logo was the tag: the words Best Buy set in black inside a yellow price tag.

The new version takes the name out. Best Buy still appears in bold black type, but now sits beside the tag rather than inside it, and the tag shrinks to a small yellow mark at the lower right. The company described it as graphic punctuation and a link to its history. Retail Dive noted that the rest of the identity leans on the blue of the employees' shirts, and the launch campaign by documentary maker Errol Morris was shot in black and white with that blue as the only colour. A new tagline, built around the idea of technology enriching lives, replaced the old Expert Service motto.

Chief marketing officer Whit Alexander framed it as modernising the identity while keeping the tag as a nod to history, and the launch campaign put the Blue Shirt staff at the centre. It sat inside chief executive Hubert Joly's Best Buy 2020 strategy, which was built on people and service rather than price. Online, the tag's shrinking drew jokes, and several people pointed out a resemblance to Bud Light's lettering.

Best Buy did the work largely in-house, part of what the Star Tribune described as a wave of in-house creative shops at retailers; coverage noted that agencies such as Grey, Starcom and Red Scout also contributed to the campaign.

Twin Cities Business, drawing on Ad Age, filled in the campaign around the mark. Chief marketing officer Whit Alexander called the company's people its insurmountable advantage, and the blue-shirted staff became the stars of black and white spots directed by Errol Morris. The work took about a year and was largely done in-house, a reversal after the marketing department had been consolidated. The logo kept the bold black wordmark but dropped the yellow tag as a backdrop, shrinking it into a piece of punctuation; Alexander described it as true to the heritage but cleaned up, and it was due to spread from the website and ads to uniforms, bags and signage.

The logo is fine; the strategy is the real story. Moving from a price tag to a blue shirt shifts the brand from cheap to helpful, a sensible pitch for a store whose people were its most visible asset.