Goodbye DIRECTV Cyclone Logo

[bobvick]

The cyclone was a memorable logo, like the Chevrolet bow tie, too bad they did away with it. The name will be next, just watch AT&T TV is coming. May be AT&T DirecTV for a while, kind of like after Bell bought ExpressVu in Canada, was Bell ExpressVu for a while, now it's Bell TV.

 

[Claude Greiner]

For the average person, is anyone really going to notice or care?

I absolutely cannot stand the whole psychology behind marketing and rebranding. A group of overpaid stooges in AT&Ts marketing department came to a decision to change the logo. Like when Dish Network dropped the ‘Network’ part, Comcast calling their suite of products Xfinity, Time Warner Cable making their logo thinner after TWC was spun off from Time Warner Inc. The whole idea of rebranding aggravates me too. Radio Shack wanted to be known as ‘The Shack’, that didn’t do much for them. Years ago a regional lower end supermarket chain here in Upstate NY, Tops Markets, tore down 3 or 4 of their existing stores and rebuilt them on the same ground, made them fancier in the inside and renamed the store Martins. A year or two later they rebranded again as Tops. The time, money and effort companies spend on this crap could be better spent in other areas.

I agree. It's as bad as Kentucky fried chicken changing to KFC.

I didn't like the change from Dish Network to Dish either.

The only thing that irritates me about Dish is that they are are trying to trade mark everything that has the word Dish.

 

[EarDemon]

I might be too young, but I never knew KFC as Kentucky Fried Chicken, it's always been KFC, or around here people tend to just called it 'The Colonel'. But I understand what you're saying. Its like all of the TV channels that have moved from their original format and have moved to being known by their initials. AMC, TLC, MTV, etc.

On a side note, the whole patent and trademark system is screwed up. Back in 2007, I wish Cisco Systems would have had some balls and challenged the biggest bully on the planet, Apple, for the trademark for 'iPhone'. Can you imagine the hissy fit ole' Jobs would have had if he couldn't use the name 'iPhone'. I can't believe Cisco, a company that could go toe to toe with Apple conceded.

 

[Jimbo]

Its to do with the worlds idea that you can no longer call something by it's name ... Kentucky Fried Chicken to me, has been Kentucky Fried Chicken Or KFC all my life, but its been both.

The wold just refuses to say the whole sentence and abbreviate it into the smallest available letters ...
Most companies do it, I know the one I work for does it in EVERYTHING they do ... it drives me nuts.

It happens in everyday life all over. sadly.

 

[Marcingak]

The old logo is still in the channel guide.

 

[dodger72]

but it's gone from the reboot screen

 

[DishSubLA]

I might be too young, but I never knew KFC as Kentucky Fried Chicken, it's always been KFC, or around here people tend to just called it 'The Colonel'. But I understand what you're saying. Its like all of the TV channels that have moved from their original format and have moved to being known by their initials. AMC, TLC, MTV, etc.

On a side note, the whole patent and trademark system is screwed up. Back in 2007, I wish Cisco Systems would have had some balls and challenged the biggest bully on the planet, Apple, for the trademark for 'iPhone'. Can you imagine the hissy fit ole' Jobs would have had if he couldn't use the name 'iPhone'. I can't believe Cisco, a company that could go toe to toe with Apple conceded.

It was changed to KFC because the word "Fried" is seen as unhealthy and consumers did avoid it because of that. That was the indisputable marketing data, and Kentucky Fried Chicken was living on borrowed time: is was headed to go out of business before it was rebranded as KFC, and they still mostly sell the same fried food. Keep in mind that these companies pay to have consumers "vote" by way of Focus Groups and determain what consumers like and don't like about their brand or product. Most marketing is good and spot on what the consumer wants, however, sometimes marketing can reach to ridiculous flim-flam that outside marketing firms sell like snake oil to client companies.

I would say that Dish's decision (one good decision of Joe Clayton's) to dump the model numbers for the box identity to a memorable name that can make connections to other images--changing the XiP813 to The Hopper--is an example of excellent marketing (DirecTV soon followed by renaming its product The Genie, which also has all sorts of images and play on words). People I've come into contact just find the model numbers confusing, forgettable, and pure abstractions while a word for the name that makes some sense is far more memorable and makes ordering the correct equipment or system so much easier.

And Cisco probably didn't want to spend money on expensive outside law firms who specialize in copyright cases for YEARS, and get what? The right to use a trade name that they probably did not value? If they had, they would have gone to court. Cheaper to just change the name. TiVo actually got "PVR" trademarked to them when PVR (Personal Video Recorder) was the default term/name for the digital video recorder. Well, all the other companies stopped using "PVR" and switched to using the NOT-trademarked "DVR." Nobody saw the point of challenging TiVo in a years long and very costly court battle to use a term that can easily be switched.

 

[ejb1980]

Its to do with the worlds idea that you can no longer call something by it's name ... Kentucky Fried Chicken to me, has been Kentucky Fried Chicken Or KFC all my life, but its been both.

The wold just refuses to say the whole sentence and abbreviate it into the smallest available letters ...
Most companies do it, I know the one I work for does it in EVERYTHING they do ... it drives me nuts.

It happens in everyday life all over. sadly.

What about the 3rd name... PFK!?!

http://www.pfkquebec.ca/

 

[Jimbo]

What about the 3rd name... PFK!?!

http://www.pfkquebec.ca/

If you hit the Translate button it comes out KFC !

 

[ejb1980]

About the Directv logo: I never knew it was called the "Cyclone" logo until I read the fine print of something and saw "Directv and the cyclone logo are registered trademarks of..." at the bottom. I couldn't find this cyclone, which I always thought was the name for hurricanes in the Indian Ocean or a type of low pressure system, not a tornado that looks more like a D.

 

[andrewj0781]

I think AT&T Direct would sound good

 

[Claude Greiner]

Just changed my phone system today to say "directv now part of the AT&T family"

I'll start changing my signage and business cards tomorrow to include the death star logo.