Labour branding – what’s going on?

1997 marked the high point. Labour’s brand was strong, the message right for the times. The Mandelson-inspired red square, new Labour, new Britain marked a decisive step forward in UK political marketing – Labour had developed its brand (left image). Things had to become a little more sober from then onwards as Labour entered into a mire of spin; the traditional rose with the new font was the result (second image).

With the impending election of a new leader in 2007, I think the party assumed a new image was required. The third image shown was the result from May through until June this year – a slightly amended rose, but the same font style. When Brown was elected, the logo mysteriously changed to the fourth image shown, using a new font that was the same as the one used for the Gordon Brown for Britain campaign – more rounded and smooth. A new slogan has also appeared – new Labour for Britain – and an accompanying horrible header graphic on the Labour website (shown below).

Something is really wrong here – it is just not acceptable for the imagery of something as important as the Labour Party to be messed about in this way.

[UPDATE – 22.03.08]
If you search for ‘Labour brand guidelines’ in Google UK you end up on this page. Second result is for brand guidelines for Irish Labour – now that’s more like it. Why can’t Labour in the UK learn from Ireland?