Whirlpool: Revamping Their Logo to Reflect the Expansion of Their Horizons

Whirlpool Corporation is an American company and one of the world’s best-known multinational manufacturers of electronic home appliances. It currently boasts of revenue figures well above $20 billion per annum.

As a matter of fact, the organization itself has constantly been striving to come up with ‘state of the art’ domestic appliances that will be able to improve the living standards of the people who buy Whirlpool products. In keeping with a mindset that inspires such innovation, Whirlpool has over 70 research centers that are located all over the world.

But all products and brands have a particular life cycle regardless of how well known and accepted they are amongst their target audience. Here, Whirlpool is certainly no exception to this rule. This is indeed precisely why back in 2010, the Whirlpool Corporation made the critical decision to modify its logo design. They changed the original font type to sans serif. Apart from that, they also altered the hook around the text. Finally, they also changed the ‘whirl’ in their ‘Whirlpool,’ as well.

It is pertinent to note that a logo is the visible face of a brand. And any changes to a logo means that the perception of the target audience will also change in line with the vision and the mission around which the brand coalesces and operates.

Whirlpool: Ushering in an Age of Large-Scale Expansion

Keeping this factor in mind, people at Whirlpool decided to reflect their massive expansion plans in their logo too. And the best way forward was to solidify their identity in their chosen target market with a well-crafted logo design that would easily reflect their expansion process in many different categories. Especially since they are going for both horizontal growth and depth in their product portfolio.

Whirlpool’s new logo design is in stark contrast to the old one. While it may not seem to be very different to the layman’s eyes but when the two are juxtaposed together, it is easy to see that it is a far more straightforward than its older counterpart.

As a matter of fact, the main design idea for this radical shift in identity has a lot to do with reinforcing the twin notions of elegance and novelty. The two traits for which the Whirlpool logo and by extension, the brand itself is renowned for, the world over.

If we were to study the logo more carefully, we could easily see that the brand has also shifted the concept of customer orientation very nicely in their new Whirlpool logo.

In a nutshell, the easily recognized loop centered around the middle of the typographical arrangement has been consciously and deliberated altered to a continuous and concentric circle. In marketing parlance, this is known as the “Ring of the Promise.” This ring, in fact, depicts the continuous commitment of the Whirlpool brand to their customers. This commitment is in the form of a promise to provide highly improved quality and integrity in all of their electronic products. This unspoken promise to the end consumer bears mute testimony to the extremely high standards for which this brand is justifiably renowned.

The Graphical Aspect of The Whirlpool Logo

From a purely graphical point of view, the elaborate “Swirl” in the logo that is located directly above the alphabet “W” was itself an addition dating back to the early 1960s. It was supposed to denote the fact that the brand manufactures laundry products for the discerning consumer.

Perhaps, this is why the very name ‘whirlpool’ was almost synonymous with top-end washing machines and several other laundry products. However, this swirl has been completely removed from the logo because the company has diversified both its target market as well as its products portfolio.

These days, they manufacture an extensive range of large and small electronic household appliances that they distribute pretty much all over the world. Actually, the brand was able to capitalize on the core values of their original product line and the goodwill it had generated for them, for so many decades.

Building on Customer Trust

Their end consumers implicitly trusted the Whirlpool brand, and this meant that this trust and goodwill was directly transferred to the new products that they developed and launched into the target market.

And now the brand is one of the leading producers of all manners of household appliances and has effectively overtaken many of the original top brands in this field.

Keeping the above in retrospect, we can see how it also applies to the development of the Whirlpool logo as well. Here, the graphical and visual balance of the current logo is far more appealing than its older counterpart. This has a lot to do with its light minimalist touch. Not only is the logo both more precise and refined, but it is also far more readable as well. In fact, it is entirely in keeping with the brand’s latest and most modern and topographical illustration.

Many of the alphabets in this logo have made the transformation from 3D to a flatter 2D look. Apart from the alphabets, the ring that is the cornerstone of the logo has been effectively transformed into a 3D objet d’art. The selection of the color follows a neutral scheme marking. This is done to ensure that its esthetics legibility and readability remain constant.

Conclusion

In light of the above, we can safely deduce that Whirlpool has quite successfully met both its customer-oriented as well as its expansion-oriented goals in this all-new logo design.