Jul 16
New Morrisons logo
Morrisons - the UK’s fourth largest supermarket chain - is an odd one.
Reports in the media have long suggested that Ken Morrison - who recently stepped down as Chairman - believed in the supremacy of all things Yorkshire. From the sounds of it, he knew what he liked and liked what he knew. Fair enough.
Perhaps that’s why Morrisons mostly sells pies and really fresh veg. Love the veg, hate the pies and the poor quality own brand range. It probably also explains why the standard format for a Morrisons store features fake market stalls, Oh, and the miserable staff (ha, joke - I’m half Yorkshire and Yorkshire people are proud of how blunt they are, so I’m only living up to my heritage, or something).
So, along with the pies, the crap own brand stuff and the weird Disneyland-style grocery section, Morrisons has a pretty naff logo. Big black typewriter-font M on a yellow oval, on a black square. Nice.
With the announcement of the new chairman came the promise of a new brand identity. The years-old slogan “More reasons to shop at Morrisons” - genius - was out, so was the Tyne and Wear Metro tribute logo.
Well, it seems that the new logo and slogan are creeping into use. In true Yorkshire-fashion, they’re not making a fuss; instead, they’re just gonna pop the new logo on anything they print from now on.
I had high hopes for the new logo. I love to watch a new brand take shape. According to a Morrisons press release the new slogan is:
Fresh for you every day.
To use a chic term: meh. It could be worse but it’s certainly no equivalent to “More reasons to…”
But it’s the logo where Morrisons have really pulled one out of the bag, to use another cliche. Look:
July 18th, 2007 at 7:08 am
The new logo seems to remind me of the Somerfield logo.
I think it’s strange that a business puts so much effort into promoting a tagline (’More reasons to shop at…’) and then drops it.
_Everyone_ has heard that tagline, and associates it with Morrisons - why ditch it? do they think it no longer works? If only you could migrate people from one tag line to the next.
I’d be inclined to think they should fix the content they sell instore first. The only good things about Morrisons are :
1) The bread selection (probably ‘inherited’ from Safeway)
2) Pies (Kat made me eat one the other day, and it actually had chunks of meat in it!)
3) Err…
I don’t think their vegetables are any better than any other supermaket - although perhaps our local Morrisons is just small/shit.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:18 am
The colours are similar to the Somerfield logo, certainly.
You’re right that they need to fix what goes on in their stores rather than window-dress. Apparently, they’re going to simplify their stores, which I presume means they’ll get rid of the fake market stalls. I also had one of their premium own brand microwave curries yesterday and that seemed quite good, so maybe they’re addressing their crap own-brand range.
I take your point that they make good pies but have you noticed how almost everything they do is somehow pie-based? I wouldn’t be surprised to see a trifle and kidney pie.
They have their own slaughter-houses, which is one reason they have so many pies.
I’ve always found the veg to be good in original Morrisons stores. I don’t really have any experience of the Safeway conversions.
As for dropping the slogan, it’s all to do with trying to distinguish themselves from the competition. Asda’s the cheap supermarket, Sainsbury’s would like to think it’s the slightly upmarket supermarket (but their stores are so hit and miss) and Tesco has good prices plus a pervasive presence. So, what’s left for Morrisons? Apparently, they’ve decided to position themselves as the place for fresh food, perhaps building on their reputation for good veg.
It’d be dangerous to try to compete on price because Tesco and Asda can almost always win that battle. Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have the quality end sown up and it’d take too much work to convince people that Morrisons is posh, plus they’d have to ditch much of their existing customerbase. So, what are they left? Well, if they’re going on price, then they have to go with some kind of quality proposition. They can’t go with posh quality, so they’ve chosen honest quality, fitting their Yorkshire roots.
Also, “More reasons…” is associate with Morrisons of old, so perhaps they want to break with “pies and not a lot else” image. I don’t think they can be that serious about it, though, with that dreadful logo.
Anyway, there’s better analysis from proper retail-types elsewhere, I should think.
July 24th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
what a let doewn the old one is a lot better
July 25th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Perhaps Morrison’s should address their customer service issues before rolling out an alleged ‘re-brand’…. [having blatantly ruined my £300 coat in their dry cleaners they had the audacity to deny responsibility!!].
This new logo is typical of their usual half-assed attempt to do anything!!
August 1st, 2007 at 9:25 am
Market Street has always been a great innovation and set the original stores above the competition. Safeway conversions inevitably put a makeshift Market Street in place. The new logo is something of a surprise - and disappointment. For so many years the firm stood out with a solid logo created using the most odd colours. The yellow and black became as distinctive for Morrisons as the turquoise for Heinz beans and the Cadbury purple. To ditch this will be a great expense, not from the design firm of course but the alterations at stores, products, wagons etc.
The new one is so plain and as stated above, most like the Somerfield one but with strains of the Safeway colours brought back. It looks more suited to Metro bus stops now than before. Would Sir Ken approve? We wish it well.
August 9th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Shame no-one did any ‘proper’ consultaion on this one anyone with a sight loss needs print to be bold black on yellow LIKE BEFORE! What waste!
August 13th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
The New Logo is very poor.The colour is completely wrong for the partially sighted as black on yellow is the colour that the partially sighted regognise the best.Were the RNIB CONSULTED ON THIS ONE I DOUBT IT.Why change the colour scheme which was very good and was at least distinctiveI will be consulting with the RNIB toseek their views.The new logo colours are a complete waste of time and money
August 15th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Morrison’s has always been a great place, the proper market street is a nice innovation which if looked after by proud staff is a nice place to be. In bristol it has been a tale of 2 stores. Both stores were bought from Safeway. The first one was bought soon after Safeway started to build it and ran into financial difficulties and I get the feeling that it was changed into a Morrisons at the last possible moment as the market street has not got the usual sole that I have associated with Morrisons of old.
The market street should be an adventure where every corner brings a new item and thats what I liked about it. The Cribbs causeway market street is too spread out and just does not suck you in like it should. The upkeep of the stalls has much to be desired sometimes. One evening the Apple cart that greets you should have had rosy red apples on it, but instead the staff on duty had not removed the card dividers, staff need to be a little less lazy and start taking a pride in the store.
The original Safeway in Bristol is a smaller store but it has the right feel to it, but the market street is not right either, i feel that Ken was cost cutting by this point and was just doing the minimum to get it up and running.
The Logo should be left well alone and the slogan
“More reasons….” is pure genius and the new logos should be supporting this.
The bakery, butchers, fishmonger and the pie counter have always been superb. Before the takeover the company was much better as you could always get something that was on offer on the shelf, no matter what it was you could get it. This is not the case now I think they are still feeling the strain of useless Safeway.
Ken remember has bought a Safeway that was many times bigger than him, something has to give somewhere, there is a lot of work to do to get back to where he was prievious, they are on the right track, but please keep the original logo and slogan and use the new ones to back up the business.
August 17th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Wasn’t impressed by the logo at first - but a store has recently opened nearby (Johnstone) with the new branding in place and it looks pretty clean and fresh in reality. Not only is the logo changed, but also the format of the signage along “market street”. For those citing colour problems, the logo on pakaging is a white/black siloheutte so maybe this will address some problems.
People who say Morrisons cannot compete on price with Tesco and possibly Asda are wrong - Tesco achieve their reputation through tricks, such as the current half price fruit and veg scheme where they sell products at “Half Price” which are in fact more expensive than the equivalent Morrisons product. They double the price of many items in the promotion a couple of weeks before hand.
Also they place large price tickets beside loose produce with a price per kilo - fair enough. But nearby they price pre-packaged goods for the actual price to make them appear cheaper. However they are up to 2.5 times as expensive per unit weight!! Morrisons have started to address this with price checks of their own, one showing their fresh produce to be cheaper than Asda and one showing the prices in general to be better than Sainsburys. A Tesco comparison will surely follow. I think this re-branding is well thought out and will be succesful.
August 19th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Personally, I think the logo suggests Morrisons are down to earth and mean what they say but it doesn’t give the impression a lot of thought has gone in to it! I was quite surprised when I saw it for the first time. Enigmatic and not what one expected.
As for the old logo, I don’t like primary colours splashed around on buildings. The combination on the old logo of bright yellow and jet black (which is one of the most contrasting colour combinations, normally used for warning signs) did not impress me that much.
In Britain, we tend to let things go a bit so we end up with shopping streets with logos and signage everywhere using aggressive bright triadic or complimentary colour schemes, rather like the sort of colours young children like. When I walk up the high street, I am conscious of Victorian, Georgian and older gothic buildings covered with garish coloured signage. I feel the anger swelling up.
A test for a logo is to see whether it would look acceptable on an historic building, and whether someone with poor eye sight can read it.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:01 am
The combination on the old logo of bright yellow and jet black (which is one of the most contrasting colour combinations, normally used for warning signs) did not impress me that much.
In Britain, we tend to let things go a bit so we end up with shopping streets with logos and signage everywhere using aggressive bright triadic or complimentary colour schemes, rather like the sort of colours young children like. When I walk up the high street, I am conscious of buildings,older than any of the people walking past, covered with garish coloured signage. I feel the anger swelling up.
A test for a logo might be to see whether it would look acceptable on an historic building, and whether someone with poor eye sight can read it
September 1st, 2007 at 6:22 am
I have shopped at morrisons and have seen many changes over the years.
The logo being biggest change of all. No I don’t like it. It ’s plain and boring and dosn’t jump at you like the old one. It does resemble the sommerfield logo too.
All the packaging now looks rather cheaply done and i’ve heard that staff are getting new uniform. So no doubt the prices will be going up and up!
Don’t get me wrong I enjoy shopping at morrisons.I usually finish with a hot chocolate in the resturaunt before getting a taxi home.
But I ofen find that staff moral is low and there is alot of stress.There dosn’t seem to be any managers about whens its busy, not like at ASDA where they are always doing their bit.
It would be nice to walk ito a more relaxed store when I go shopping.I’m not bothered about a new logo.It’s not going to make me buy more.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
As a morrisons employee i can put everyones minds at rest i hope. First off, we wont be getting new uniform because they spent too much money on rebranding and the adverts with Denise Van Outen.
And yes, i hate the new logo, I much prefered the old one. It just a lot of money blown down the drain while we toil away for barely above minimum wage and get rubbish from customers- thats why we have low morale!
Also management treat you like complete rubbish, they dont accept when your sick, they almost force you into coming into work and your meant to keep a 4% sickness level, mines at 4.3% and i got hauled upstairs and told off for being .3% over the average!
And yes, as for management theyre all huddled in a corner talking away instead of actually doing something that theyre getting paid for, which is to work, if we have to then its only right, lead by example is what i say!.
End of rant.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Well words fail me , perhaps the black and yellow paint cost more who knows?. As an employee i really thought the old signs were bold and meaningful,the new ones are in my opinion a complete waste of time and profit at a time when we are all doing are upmost under extreme pressure and low morale to bring the place to the top after some hard slog.I think in future they may like to do a little more consultation with shoppers and staff, and save on whoever sat in the loo and had the yellow and green brainwave lol.If the man at the top needs a fresh approach we will all be happy to help,fresh being a lot less clutter in the aisles,just lets say a dozen extra staff to keep the place full and as clean as is taught.Most of us i know have faith in what we are trying to achieve so a little less politics and more communication between the ranks would be welcome.And give me the callouts every 20 minutes and it would be more reasons every time Enough said .
September 26th, 2007 at 9:16 am
what types of quallifications do you need to be come a fish monger
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:53 am
wats de point dey used 2 be dem colours in de 1st place until morrison’s took over safeways and den it went black and white denback 2 de normal colours y is dis
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:55 am
i think they’s colours are crap they can keep them the same colours as it is only a supermarket after all
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
i think the new logo is very similiar to the somerfield bt only in use of colour.
They have tried to almost modernise it as they thought the old logo was probably dated, because i certainly thought so.
I think he new logo colours are maybe to bright and need something deeper to relate it back to the old logo, and the bold text serif ‘M’ needs to be brought back, but modernise it a lil bit by just giving it a slight italic (slant).
October 20th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
New logo is a total waste of time and money,Over the years Morrisons has offered good value for money but in my opinion(and i`m not the only one) have always had a problem with organising everything in the stores.What I mean by this is trying to cram too much into a small space especially in the areas around the checkouts.It doesnt seem to matter what format they try they seem to fall back into the same trap everytime.
Right now as I write this my local store on Mayo Avenue in Bradford is undergoing a “facelift” internally and now that it is 99% complete I have decided(along with many many more customers)that they have finally lost the plot.Some aisles with even less space than before,some aisles that are twice as wide as others of which these aisles seem to be dedicated to an ever expanding attempt at getting customers into stores to buy anything but food(electrical goods,cushions,garden furniture,cd`s,books etc,etc) and even less space in and around the checkout area`s and finally to add insult to injury they have removed approx 6 checkouts!!!!,have they gone completely mad whoever came up with this complete no brainer.Standing at the checkouts now is now even more frustrating and time consuming than ever with people trying to get past you constantly,longer queues(due to lees checkouts),less space(due to more unneded things in the aisles and far too close to the checkouts).I`m not surprised that staff morale is so low when some idiot(s) come up with ideas like this.
Drag yourself into the 21st century and quickly for everyone`s sake,get back to basics and become a supermarket again concentrating solely on good value and good quality foods and stop trying to be something you are not which is a superstore type of company which has no soul or time for it`s customers.
We dont want electrical goods,cushions,garden furniture and the rest in Morrisons(if I need that then I`ll go to the appropriate shop to buy it.Remove the unwanted clutter,free up the space in the aisles for good quality foods,open up the checkout areas and give us back our checkouts that you removed,it`s gonna be great trying to shop there at christmas!!!!! I think not!!!
Finally give us a quicker route to contact you(e-mail) rather than just snail mail,whats the matter Morrisons are you running scared and take a leaf out of other people`s books and introduce on-line shopping,after all you`ll need to soon as there wont be any checkots left at this rate so we`ll need to shop on-line.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Hi Everyone im also a Morrisons employee and i was told we would get new uniforms please say this is not true as i like my uniform its the uniform we have always had. And yes i hate the new logo buy as employees what can we do about it? not much i bet
December 24th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Dont no if anyone else has noticed, but the stlye of font that Morrisons are now using, is the old, old font used by Safeway (before project ‘2000′.) The old Safeway slogan ‘lightening the load’ has the same font, maybe Morrisons have finally reached the year 1995, except staying in 1985 by the look of some of their stores!
March 24th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I’m quite impressed with Morrisons usually
but not after using their dry cleaners. They want you to
sign so many disclaimers its not worth depositing your
garments. They have shreddedmy Laura Ashley throw and
deny responsibility!