by Herman Manson (@marklives) Will Absa be changing its corporate colours from red to Barclay’s blue?
That’s the question several social media users, including radio presenter Samantha Cowen, asked earlier this week, following the opening of an Absa concept store sporting a blue Absa logotype alongside Barclay’s famous eagle. However, Absa has now issued a statement, saying the photo is of a concept store opened at Nicolway Shopping Centre in Bryanston, Johannesburg, and that it is being used to experiment with signage, furniture etc.
Well now this is interesting. When did this happen? #ABSAchange #blueeagle pic.twitter.com/Yz7oim6QJz
— samantha cowen (@samcowen) December 9, 2015
Cowen later reported that the blue logo had disappeared and been replaced with the traditional red logo.
In other financial news, this happened. The bluw eagle sign from yesterday is down and replaced with this. Wierd. pic.twitter.com/Cm7zYVSexC
— samantha cowen (@samcowen) December 10, 2015
Absa statement
The statement from Absa reads, “The outlet that we opened at Nicolway Shopping Centre in Bryanston is a proof of concept test store. It has no tellers and neither looks like nor functions like a typical branch. We use the store to experiment with, inter alia, different colour lighting, signage, furniture, technology and configuration. We constantly look for ways of refreshing the Absa brand and we expect that the store will continue to morph as we test a range of ideas and research reaction. There are no plans in place to change the colour of the Absa brand from red to blue.”
Business Day reported earlier today that Absa shelved a project to rebrand its branches into Barclays colours, dubbed Project Serengeti, after deciding that the timing wasn’t yet right. The cost of the rebranding project was rumoured to be anywhere between R1bn and R2bn.
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com. He was the inaugural Vodacom Social Media Journalist of the Year in 2011 and has, over his 20-year-plus career, contributed to numerous journals and websites in South Africa and abroad, including AdVantage magazine, Men’s Health, Computer World and African Communications.
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Interesting the ABSA just updated their website and it is blue. Not a hint of red can be found on it.
I see all the red has been dropped from ABSA’s web site, looking blue :-) and the ABSA logo rather anemic
what a chop sorry missed previous comment, Michael said it better 4 months ago! :-)