Compaq’s New Logo

In 2002, Hewlett-Packard (HP) acquired its rival Compaq Computers generating much controversy inside and outside the company. The US$ 25 billion deal cost the HP’s then CEO, Carly Fiorina, her job. However, buyers found the merger a welcoming change and have since recognized Compaq as a part of HP. But soon after the merger, a new problem was in sight for HP as consumers failed to understand the difference between HP and Compaq PCs.

After five years of unsuccessful tagging of the HP brand on Compaq products, HP recently unveiled a new Compaq logo at the “Making Connections” event in Shanghai. The new Compaq logo was introduced by HP’s Senior Vice President for Global Marketing, Satjiv Chahil, although, the new Compaq logo had already been on many Compaq laptops and PCs. The new Compaq logo is more modernistic in its approach, with a futuristic union of the letters ‘C’ and ‘Q’. In the new Compaq logo, a letter ‘C’ is added in the place of the lettering COMPAQ, with a tail ending of a ‘Q’. According to Chahil, “Just like the ‘swoosh’ does wonders for Nike, we think there are big possibilities for the CQ icon too”. Additionally, the new Compaq logo resembles a lot like a speech bubble, suggesting consumers to fill the Compaq logo with their own ideas and possibilities.

The new Compaq logo is an important brand strategy for the most reputed brand of laptops manufactured by HP. This clear-cut strategy was explained by HP’s Executive Vice President for Personal Systems Group, Todd Bradley, as, “Compaq is the brand you need, HP is the brand you want, Voodoo is the brand you crave for.” Thus, consumers will see the new Compaq logo on all the medium range laptops (Presario), whereas, the HP logo will continue to be displayed on higher-range products like the Pavilion series. On the other hand, Voodoo will take its place on more upper range products (ENVY).

Critics and consumers at the Shanghai “Making Connections” event heartily endorsed the new Compaq logo. All eyes and ears will be on the global computing markets in the coming months to know the initial reaction of HP and Compaq loyalties around the world. On the other hand, the new Compaq logo has successfully done the job for HP by clearing the confusion between the HP and Compaq products.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 2:59 am and is filed under Logo Design News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.