What's in a Brand
"Guys, I've got to be honest, we don't really have good brand recognition." Mike said in what would be the last meeting before Christmas break.
You and George both looked at each other, the both of you feeling a mixture of both confusion and insult, you look back to Mike, "Okay...and?" George asked absently.
"It's not a life or death thing for the company at this moment, and we sure as hell are leaving our mark on the industry even with no films released yet, but I'm doing some strategizing for Star Wars and Rocky marketing, and it's going to be really hard to establish box office turnout on name alone, so we'd have to rely on both being extremely good for turnout." Mike pointed out.
"George made Graffiti, Carrie made some Nights, and I starred in MASH; I think we can get enough people to show up for opening weekend and from there let word of mouth spread, especially once we have good trailer footage." You said.
"Yes, enough, but I don't want enough Bruce, I want as much as possible. The good thing is, we got two-ish years to plan, and there's a number of ways we can work well with public relations. The first and easiest thing we can do is our brand imagery, I want a new company logo." Mike requested.
"What's wrong with Lucasfilms Unlimited?" George asked with caution. You gave Mike the evil eye with the man pulling his hands up disarmingly.
"I'm not saying I want to change the company name at all, I just want a new logo to represent us before the opening credits of our film plays." Mike explains, calming you and George down a bit.
"What's wrong with what we got?" You asked.
"Cause it's bland and boring. It's just green text on a black screen with no sound or musical backdrop, that doesn't leave a lasting impression and it doesn't sell us to anyone." Mike informed, something you and George didn't fight back on. "Think about all the other studios and you got something iconic with the name. 20th Century Fox, you got the orchestra and Hollywood lights. MGM, you got the lion. Disney, you got Mickey and the magic castle. Paramount, you got the stars. Universal, you got the globe. We need to recreate something like that with Lucasfilms. It may not seem like much, but good logos can come a hell of a long way. People eat KFC because they got the Colonel on the bucket, we need that reaction." Mike said.
It was...actually something you completely agreed with when you thought about it. Whenever you sat down to watch a Fox movie, just hearing the Trumpets got you pretty hyped for the movie and seeing any Disney iconography got you warm fuzzy feelings and made you motivated to buy a ticket even with their recent lineup of stinkers. Hell, you couldn't even stay too mad with Warner Bros after THX cause they were the people who made the Looney Tunes. If you were to be the company behind Star Wars, Rocky, Kung Fu Kid, and many more, you definitely needed a strong brand that would click well with it.
At Mike's explanation, George actually got quite giddy and a little hyped, "Oh, this is actually pretty great. I've been thinking about doing something similar for quite a while, but I thought we would only need to do so right before Star Wars. If we're talking about it now, then I'd love to shift our logo." George said in a rare tone of excitement.
"Well alright George, let's hear it." Mike requested. You leaned forward, eager to see what new masterpiece George had in mind.
"Okay, so here's the scene. It's pitch black, then a blue rectangle appears.
There's a soft sound that appears, it's a whir like an air raid siren. About 15 to 20 seconds go by and it keeps on rising in intensity, ending in a very loud and triumphant brass roar with Lucasfilms appearing in bright bold silver." George pitched excitedly.
Both Mike and you stared at George in bafflement, "George, how loud are we talking here?" Mike asked.
"Loud enough to have the whole theater shaking, I'm talking a boom that can be heard in the next one over." George said rather eagerly.
"And you described it as an air raid siren, one that's going to be playing before our family friendly films?" You questioned.
Looking between you and Mike and realizing that he was outnumbered, George crossed his arms with a rather childish pout, "You'll see, I'll find a way." He protested.
Shaking your head, you ventured with a more rational idea, "Any way we can incorporate THX or Graffiti? The Thunderbird smashing through the drive-in is pretty iconic."
"Well I would love to go with that, if we had the rights that is. Unfortunately even though you two are the creators, if we do anything beyond vague and harmless references legal is going to fighting lawsuits left and right." Mike said, with George releasing a heavy sigh at the reminder that his first two beloved children were owned by other companies.
"Well what about Star Wars? Something with the hyperspace transition could be pretty neat." You offered.
"I guess, but I want something more neutral to show we're a diverse production studio." Mike pondered.
The three of you then debated possible logos for the next ten minutes, but nothing seemed to click. You were starting to come back around to contentment with the green text until George offered a compromise.
"How about we outsource and let the employees decide?"
"Really?" You asked, surprised he was willing to leave such a big part of his company's imagery to the workers.
George shrugged, "Why not, they're part of the family and doing something like this can raise morale and foster a sense of unity. We can give a little bonus as incentive, and some lucky employee will forever be part of Lucasfilms history."
You nod your head in concession as it wasn't the first or last time an organization's iconography was decided via contest and clearly the rest of you didn't have any ideas.
"I guess it's worth a shot. But we need to have a stipulation for the possibility of rejecting it altogether if the submissions are garbage, though let's give a bonus to whoever comes up with the best of the worst if that happens. If all else fails, let's bring Ralph in and have him come up with something." Mike offered, with you and George nodding your head.
For the next several weeks an atmosphere of excitement filled the Lucasfilms halls with discussions about the contest. A majority of employees didn't participate for lack of artistic talent and ideas, but those that did have both worked eagerly in their off hours to contribute their part to company history and get that sweet bonus.
On the eve of leaving for Tunisia, you and George looked over the submissions. Most were meh or barely passable, but a few brilliant ones shone through. In the end, the winner would be Farah and Feet who came with a simple and elegant design of the Lucasfilm logo in a bright green silhouette with it then shining as the interior of the letters were painted to a bright silver, and then shined in bright gold. Farah explained that it was symbolic of Lucasfilms' productions with the green highlight showing the concept that was born, then becoming reality through hard labor of silver steel, and once finished shined brightly as gold.
As loathe as you were to concede to the intelligence of a Bostonite, it was really simple and brilliant. Perhaps not as flashy or powerful as 20th Century or the MGM Lion, but classy and left a decent impression. George was deeply in love and you both gave a seal of approval.
While you weren't able to add the logo to Seven Samurai, it turned out to be a potentially good thing as George was able to get John Williams to work on a small sound byte to go with the logo, which in the end resulted in a
triumphant and bold brass introduction.
Hopefully by the end of the decade whenever audiences saw the Lucasfilms flash, they would be hyped for some of cinema's greatest.
