Bonnier's New Look

By now, you’ve noticed that Bonnier.com got a major facelift, but we haven’t just improved the Web site—Bonnier has also changed its overall graphical profile to reflect the company’s newly invigorated branding strategy.

The branding mission began in Fall, 2008, when Bonnier’s top management reviewed the company’s core values, mission and vision statements, logo, and colors.

“The last time we sat down and tried to define ourselves, our situation and the strategy for going forward was in the late nineties,” says Jonas Bonnier, President of Bonnier AB. “Since then, Bonnier has been transformed to a different media company. This, we thought, should also appear visually.”

Some might find the idea of a Bonnier trademark a bit puzzling. We have lots of strong brands in all possible areas, but is Bonnier really a brand of its own?

“When you talk about trademarks, you must distinguish between consumer brands and corporate brands,” says Sara Öhrvall, director Research & Development, and one of the leaders of the branding project at Bonnier.

“Consumer brands are addressed directly to the people buying products, for example, Popular Science, Dagens Industri or TV4. Bonnier is a corporate brand, and people have an image of Bonnier, a view that was built by their connection with our company, how we present ourselves at conferences and events, our products, our communication and our visual approach,” Öhrvall explains. “Of course we shall try to complete the picture by highlighting what we are proud of. We all use the Bonnier brand on different occasions, and each time we do that we either build something positive, or we miss an opportunity.”

So why did Bonnier need to revise its trademark, and what are the goals of the new branding strategy? The three leaders of the project, Sara Öhrvall, CEO of Bonnier Business Press Casten Almqvist and Jonas Bonnier—as well as the new head of corporate communications, Mårten Lyth—gave us a full download on the philosophy behind the update in the following roundtable Q&A:


Bonnier.com: What’s the purpose of the new Bonnier platform?

Sara Öhrvall: First and foremost, it’s about how Bonnier can contribute to brand-level operations around the world. How can we help Transworld in the U.S., MTV Media in Finland, Diena in Latvia and all the other Bonnier companies. It’s about professionalism, to be perceived as a credible and attractive partner when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent, to make attractive companies choose to partner with us instead of our competitors, and of course it’s about how Bonnier is perceived in the community.

Bonnier.com: Sara, you’ve worked in branding for other big companies—what are Bonnier’s unique selling points?

Sara Öhrvall: The most fascinating thing was to discover that Bonnier’s brand platform is built on a strong foundation. There are exciting and inspiring events in our history, lots of stories about strong, successful individuals, and a unique corporate culture.

Bonnier.com: How would you like Bonnier to be perceived?

Sara Öhrvall: As an innovative and creative media group that constantly pushes forward the boundaries of publishing, and stands on a solid platform of a family firm’s values and long-term thinking. I believe that our corporate culture, with powerful individuals who are opinionated and colorful, is attractive to many, and I believe that our knowledge and passion for publishing will give us great opportunities to be strong also in new media channels.

Bonnier.com: Casten, how did you work with the brand platform?

Casten Almqvist: We started with a number of hypotheses about the brand that we wanted to test. These have been challenged and developed throughout the entire project. The most valuable input came from employees and shareholders in the form of interviews and workshops. In the final stage, we took the help of skilled consultants, including Stockholm Design Lab and the brand consultancy, Prophet.

Bonnier.com: What was the biggest challenge?

Casten Almqvist: To dare to look backward to look forward. To try not to invent new characteristics of the company in the search for a modern appearance. It took a while before we realized that the solution lay before our very eyes in the form of our rich history. Then it was just about diving into the archives in search of everything from core values to the font. Finally, we picked apart everything we’d found and reassembled it in a new and forward-looking manner.

Bonnier.com: There are over 200 years of history to consider and draw inspiration from—was there anything you found that surprised you?

Casten Almqvist: That we, in the middle of the extreme development our industry is currently undergoing—not least technically, could find all the building blocks of the modern Bonnier brand by picking from our history. For example, in 1937, Karl Otto Bonnier was already talking about the importance of giving individual employees greater freedom, in order for a company to perform at its best. Today, this is one of our four core values. Another example is that the 19th-century definition of the word “publishing” feels just as relevant in 2009. This is the driving idea behind our updated mission: We create, select and refine a world of knowledge and stories.

Bonnier.com: Now a question for Jonas Bonnier. There are many companies and brands that have “Bonnier” in their names, both in Sweden and internationally, and many have their own logos. Will you streamline the graphical profile so that all the Bonnier trademarks eventually look the same?

Jonas Bonnier: Yes, we’re going to coordinate all the graphical profiles, but it’s a long-term project and we have to be practical about it. However, we do want the name “Bonnier” to look the same no matter where in the world or in the field we are. But, once again, “Bonnier” is very rarely our most important brand.”
 
Bonnier.com: So, the next step is to let people know about the Bonnier brand. And that’s the job of the communication department. Mårten, how do you think we’ll accomplish that?

Mårten Lyth: The next step is that all Bonnier employees will get to know the platform and begin to make use of the brand identity. The platform needs to be lived with and developed over time. We’ll strengthen and improve it both with major activities and in our daily work. For me, this will be a very exciting way to get to know Bonnier.