If you’ve been perusing the online newspace recently, then I’m sure you’ve heard of Twitter’s rebrand to “X”. No longer wanting to associate with birds, Musk himself has flown the coop and headed into unknown business territory, confusing investors, marketers and most crucially, users on his intentions for the company. His fixation on the 24th number of the alphabet has ranged from his previous ventures to donning his own children with the unusual consonant. For the average person, you could say the sky would be the limit but for Musk, we know that the sky is an uncharted frontier that he also plans to colonize (whoops, we meant capitalize) on.

Why bother talking about him? Because it’s a fascinating, dumpster fire of a case study that will inevitably be studied by future business and marketing professionals on what NOT to do.

X misses the mark

If you’re not familiar with the history of Musk, you may not know that he has attempted to use X as a business name in the past. What is now PayPal.com was formerly known as “X.com”. His other ventures include SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla. Generally speaking, users don’t like changes to their social media experiences. Meta (aka Facebook) is a prime example of a business that has experienced pushback from users regarding its name change and extreme push to get them interested in the “Metaverse”. Mark Zuckerberg’s push into Meta, is a modern-day Icarus story where he flew too close to the sun, but instead of a sun, replace that idea with a social media mega monopoly. When changes are implemented without notifying users, this breeds distrust and frustration among them.

When branding flies out the window

Twitter, with its eponymous bluebird didn’t actually start with the bird as the face of the company. For about a year in its infancy, the platform didn’t have its own official logo until a designer named Simon Oxley, created the iconic blue bird logo which he based on the famous basketball player, Larry Bird. Around the same time in 2007, Jack Dorsey coined the term “tweet” which is to refer to a short message that one posts on the platform. Throughout its history, there have been several changes to the Twitter platform, including the increase of 140 characters to 280. This past July in 2023, Musk claimed that the platform will change be changed to X and the tweets themselves will be referred to X or Xs as well. There was a brief period where Musk was crowdsourcing ideas on potential new logos, but he seemed to eschew it for his most recent brand choice. The X itself is a basic white, simple font that may or may not be a copy of an established Unicode by the Monotype company. It’s clean in presentation, but is this going to be the memorable X company of Musk’s dreams? Debatable. Ruffling feathers in the tech space It appears that Musk can’t go more than a week without encountering challenges on his relentless journey to own the letter ‘X’. Recent legal woes have him not only in hot water with Microsoft, but also his unofficial tech nemesis, Mark Zuckerberg, and Zuckerberg’s trademark within the Metaverse. One of the more recent developments that has occurred at Musk’s headquarters was the removal of his enormous, illuminant ‘X’ in San Francisco due to being erected without a permit. The installation of the sign garnered numerous complaints from surrounding residents regarding safety and light pollution concerns. The city of San Francisco is open to negotiations and resurrecting the sign, pending the proper permits being acquired and amendments being made prior to the reinstallation.

Winging it – will it fly or fail?

Will this rebrand be a positive move for the company? The jury is still out, but with confusing policies and inconsistent branding, the changes may have users seeking news sources and online social networking elsewhere. For marketers and branding experts, Musk’s handling of the Twitter rebrand serves as a cautionary tale. His impulsive decisions and disregard for originality not only question the authenticity of the new identity of his company but also highlight his tendency to be a marketer’s worst nightmare. The rushed rollout of the X logo and its close resemblance to an existing Unicode character demonstrates a lack of strategic planning and foresight, qualities that are crucial for successful marketing campaigns.

The Ideal Client vs. Elon Musk

In stark contrast to Mr. Musk, our ideal clients understand the value of well-thought-out marketing strategies. Sword and Spark’s mission is to empower business owners with education on marketing best practices and industry standards. We aim to build trust with our clients by providing several options such as marketing strategy roadmaps to a la carte (done for you) in-house services.

By connecting our clients with vetted marketing professionals and advocating for business owners’ interests, we want to showcase the importance of long-term and genuine partnerships to highlight a company’s voice and steer them away from impulsive brand messaging that may turn off their customer base. Unlike the turn-and-churn model adopted by many companies targeting short-term gains, Sword and Spark focuses on supporting our clients for sustainable growth and success in the long run.

Conclusion

Elon Musk’s X logo fiasco serves as a reminder to marketers that even the most influential and innovative personalities can sometimes fall short in their branding endeavors. As the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve, it becomes increasingly vital for businesses to partner with trusted and strategic advisors. Sword and Spark adheres to industry best practices and advocates for their client’s best interests; we will continue to foster marketing partnerships on the pillars they should be built on – trust, authenticity, and a vision for long-term success. No foul play with us…(okay we’re done with the bird puns).