Norton (2010)Copied

Norton's 2010 logo is the by-product of an acquisition. In 2010 Symantec bought VeriSign's security business for 1.28 billion dollars, taking over its identity and authentication operations, including SSL certificate services, PKI services, VeriSign Trust Services and the VIP authentication service. With them came the most valuable asset in the deal from a branding point of view: the VeriSign check mark that appears on websites using its certificates.

SecurityWeek reported on 7 October 2010 that Symantec had officially launched a new company logo bringing together the Symantec name with that check mark. It noted the mark was seen over 250 million times a day on more than 100,000 websites in 160 countries, which made integrating it into the corporate identity an obvious move. Chief marketing officer Carine Clark compared it with Nike, saying the check mark would stand for confidence the way the swoosh stands for fitness. The company said the logo symbolised its focus on enabling confidence and simple, secure access to information anywhere. The previous logo had been created in 2000.

Security NEXT in Japan reported the same launch and spelled out the Norton link. The new design combined the check mark and circle that appear on websites using VeriSign's SSL certificates, and it would be rolled out broadly, starting with Norton, the company's flagship product, with the aim of raising Symantec's recognition in the market. For Norton, that meant its own identity now carried the borrowed tick.

Strategically this was smart. A security brand gained a symbol that millions of shoppers already read as safe, and Norton, the name consumers actually knew, got the most visible share of it. The design result was less inspiring. A tick in a circle is one of the most generic marks in existence, used by everything from checklists to certification labels. Comparing it with the Nike swoosh says more about the ambitions of the marketing department than about the drawing. What Norton bought was not a great logo but a habit of trust, and those are worth more than design. It just should not have been sold as a swoosh, and nobody should mistake it for one.