2023-07-24 22:16:26
Elon Musk turns Twitter into X. On the web version, the bird in the logo has already been replaced by the letter X. It is yet another sudden change since Musk took over the company. Brand experts call him inimitable.
Sinds maandagochtend verandert Twitter langzaam maar zeker in X. Op het officiële Twitter-account staat de letter al als profielfoto ingesteld en de website X.com leidt je vanzelf naar Twitter. Ook het logo op de webversie van de dienst is al aangepast. “We nemen afscheid van het Twitter-merk en, na verloop van tijd, ook van alle vogels”, schreef Twitter-eigenaar Elon Musk.
De logica is vooralsnog ver te zoeken. “Merkverandering is iets van alledag”, zegt merkendeskundige Paul Moers. “Zo veranderde Nuon in Vattenfall en Smiths werd Lays. Maar dit vind ik wel een heel aparte naamswijziging. Dat vogeltje is ongelooflijk bekend.”
Ook Peeter Verlegh, hoogleraar Marketing aan de Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, probeert er chocola van te maken. “Elon Musk heeft eigen ideeën die niet altijd makkelijk te bevatten zijn”, zegt hij. “Hij houdt zich niet aan reguliere marketingwetten.”
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X becomes more than Twitter, an app for everything
Twitter executive Linda Yaccarino wrote that the name change is important because X needs to become much more than a messaging service. According to her, X is about “unlimited interactivity,” whether it’s audio, video, messaging, or payments. “It will become a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities,” she says. An app for everything.
But the content of the platform has not changed yet. That is why Moers finds it incomprehensible that the brand is already being changed. “The platform is already under pressure. If you don’t come up with a fantastic new plan that will leave consumers stunned, I think: what are you doing?”
Verlegh agrees. “It’s special to do this before you’ve changed the content,” he says. “But Musk is often special.”
A clean slate for Elon Musk
Still, there is something to be said for the brand change if Twitter does indeed get many more options and functions. “Musk probably sees the change as so big that he doesn’t want people to continue to think of his company as it was,” says Verlegh. “This will free the company from the past and show that X is fundamentally different from Twitter.”
In addition, it may act as a clean slate. “Twitter has become a damaged brand,” says Moers. Not just because of the recent changes. “It seems as if there are more and more hate and abuse messages.”
From tweets to x’s
Although the social medium is called X, the name Twitter will continue to be used often. “I just keep saying Twitter”, writes the well-known tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee on the platform. Elon Musk responds succinctly: “Not for long”. If it’s up to him we’ll call tweets x’s from now on.
“The human brain is typically very slow at forgetting and renaming information,” says Verlegh. “Many old brand names still score high on brand awareness. People talked about guilders for a long time after the introduction of the euro. Things need time to get a permanent place in your memory. Twitter as we know it has achieved this through a lot of media attention. Before you have changed that, you may be years further.”
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