Our say | A furious backlash beats quiet indifference

Most people would struggle to articulate what they want to see in a brand or a logo, but can tell you in an instant if they like something or hate it.

And, in a social media world, the first reaction of most is usually the latter, so any organisation planning to rebrand itself or renew its logo needs to buckle up for a bumpy ride.

Bathurst Regional Council found just that in 2017 when it was forced to abandon the "Forever Young" tagline that had been proposed to sit beneath a new logo as part of a marketing rebranding following a furious backlash from councillors and residents, particularly online.

After months of wrangling council finally kept the new logo design but changed the tagline to "Step Beyond" which was hardly loved, but at least it was much less loathed.

Now Charles Sturt University has also put itself through the rebranding wringer, with similar results.

First, CSU endured blazing controversy after it was revealed late last year that the executive was considering a name change, with either Wiradyuri or plain Sturt (without the Charles) put forward as possibilities.

At the time, the message coming out of CSU was that the university was working on a "refresh for our brand, to ensure we speak clearly and consistently to our students, staff and members of the public".

Social media quickly lit up as former students, in particular, defended the traditions of their alma mater and demanded the original name remain.

That furore ended with CSU deciding that Charles Sturt University was a perfectly good name, after all, but the university was determined to push ahead with other aspects of the rebranding including "changes to our visual identity, logo and our marketing approach".

Now we've seen the results of that as well, with a new logo launched on Wednesday that is the university's third official logo in just a decade.

Again, it has drawn passionate responses and, again, most are negative.

But, as this newspaper said following CSU's on again-off again name change debacle, at least the reaction shows that people care.

Again, it would have been much worse news for CSU if changing its logo was met with quiet indifference rather than furious opposition. At least all those storm clouds have had a silver lining.