Facebook re-branded itself from ‘facebook’ to Facebook on the 4th of November and surprised everyone with the announcement. For a brand, that has been battered and bruised for the past two years over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its role in manipulating the US Presidential elections in 2016, the latest outrage over Facebook’s re-branding exercise and logo change seems rather trivial.

The Motive

In a motive to distinguish the parent company from its subsidiaries, Facebook re-branding set to an all-caps treatment for the logo tying all its child brands under the same umbrella and giving credibility to new brands that come under its wing. Apps like Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, tech-company Oculus, collaboration app Workplace, video calling service Portal and Calibra, which is set to launch next year to provides financial services are the child apps of Facebook and the new logo has been juxtaposed with them and yet let them shine. 

The FACEBOOK logo re-design

The new logo of Facebook comes with a new capitalization and typography format and a shifting color scheme that highlights Instagram’s purple gradient and WhatsApp’s green tint. However, the friendliness of the social networking app featuring soft, round and lowercase typography is differentiated with the company’s identity through its neutral approach, showcasing FACEBOOK as a multifaceted conglomerate. 

The brand name will be now positioned on its child apps reflecting the same colors as the apps’ pages to state a clear relationship between the company and its subsidiaries. 

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Beyond Facebook Re-branding 

Some observe Facebook as preemptively mounting a safeguard against the antitrust issues. Beyond Rebranding, it’s dealing with making Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct a unified interoperable and encoded informing framework where clients can chat across the social media platforms. Building them all on a unified framework could make Facebook harder to separate. 

However, from another point of view, facebook re-branding endeavors feel ham-handed and pretentious. Facebook likely benefits from the fact that most people don’t know it owns Instagram and WhatsApp.

A recent Pew study found only 29% of Americans correctly named the two as companies owned by Facebook. Given Facebook’s rash of data security, developer platform, election interference, and ongoing privacy scandals, it’s probably better off if people think they can escape the toxicity by using Instagram. The acquisitions effectively acted as a brand lifeboat for Facebook.

The big problem for Facebook, beyond government regulation? If current/potential talent views Facebook as choking the potential of its subsidiaries, top workers might be hesitant to join or stay at the family of social networks.