The Bay is rebranding itself to appeal to the Canadian consumers’ national identity.
COURTESY FACEBOOK.
By Sara Yonis and Shumu Haque
In order to celebrate its Canadian heritage, the Bay is rebranding and returning to its original name, Hudson’s Bay.
“We’ve taken what is a very meaningful two-pronged approach to the redesign: maintaining our heritage while modernizing the new Hudson’s Bay Company. It’s a throwback to our remarkable history and an image for the direction we’re heading in,” the company’s Creative Director Tony Smith said in the press release.
Hudson’s Bay is returning to its original full name with a new font that will be used for all marketing and media materials, online and in-store displays.
There will also be an additional elaborate version
with the company’s coat of arms, which will be be used exclusively for packaging and select materials redrawn by Canadian Mark Summers.
“We’re very proud to say that Hudson’s Bay is continuing to advance in 2013, not only with our new business ventures, but with our updated look,” Smith said.
“I think its interesting that they are going back to the Hudson’s Bay instead of the Bay simply because they have been trying to position themselves in more upper scale in terms of their merchandising,” Christine McCaw, program coordinator of marketing at Humber College said.
“What they are saying is, ‘At the Bay, we are giving you the higher end image, the higher end look at the best possible price,’” McCaw said.
She said that lately a lot of companies have been working at their branding to target or appeal to a specific or larger group of consumers.
“If you look at the new logo, it is very interesting, it is very modern, but at the same time, it does link us back to their heritage of being Canadian. Celebrating the fact that we are Canadian,” McCaw said.
The Hudson’s Bay Company, which also operates Home Outfitters, has been around since 1670.
It is North America’s longest continually operated company.
The new logo will replace the one with the big stylized “B” that has been the company’s signature since 1965.
This rebranding comes as a lot of Canadian retailers are bracing themselves to face an onslaught of various American retailers such as Target and Nordstrom.