Aston Martin reinvents itself

Aston Martin is repositioning its brand for the first time in nearly 20 years, a move marked by a re-design of its famous winged badge. The new wings are simpler, bolder and, if I can count correctly, have 21 instead of 22 ‘feathers’.

The Aston Martin name appears to be bigger and comes with thicker, more prominent lettering. If this creates the impression of a new found dynamism for the brand, it will have done its job.

For no longer is Aston Martin the marque whose defining characterics are ‘Power, Beauty, Soul.’ Oh no, when you think of Aston Martin in future, the catchphrase its big cheeses would like to spring most readily to mind is: ‘Intensity. Driven’ with, yes, a full stop between the two words. It is, says Aston Martin, ‘a strategic repositioning to accelerate the brand’s growth and appeal to a wider audience.’

I don’t want to spend too long quoting the press release, but it’s interesting also to note that this repositioning marks ‘the reinjection of its performance DNA’, as if to suggest this component of Aston Martin-ness had been somewhat missing in action of late. And if you look at its latest products, the DBX 707 and V12 Vantage – harder-edged machines, basically – you can see clearly the direction the company wants to be seen to be heading in.

Which is clearly good news. I don’t know how effective these corporate re-branding exercises are and there’s part of me that wishes that whatever amount was spent tweaking the badge and inventing new catchphrases had gone on the product instead. That said, I like the new wings and understand that ‘Power, Beauty, Soul’ probably doesn’t resonate with the young as much as old codgers like me.

But what do you think, and which company has the best logo? There are plenty of contenders: from brands that still exist I’ve always liked the BMW emblem, Ferrari’s horse and McLaren’s tick until they got rid of it. But Alfa Romeo’s logo remains my favourite, even if it does include a bloke being eaten by a serpent. From times gone by? Gordon Keeble’s intentionally ironic tortoise, easily.

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