GDF Suez

New:  Company, name and logo

Launched:  Announced September 3, 2007; launched July 16, 2008 , when shareholders  approved merger effective July 22.

Story in brief:
Pieces of Europe, again, coming together  --  historically Belgian Suez, merging with state-controlled Gaz de France -- "Rediscovering Energy" by joining to achieve leadership in sourcing and distributing energy in Europe and then beyond.

To make this a purer play in energy, the Suez heritage businesses in water  and waste management will be spun out as "Suez Environment," thus sharing the Suez brand among essentially unrelated businesses.

Although this has all been planned for years and was announced last September 3, the two chairmen might easily have made the name and design decisions, without benefit of counsel, in two minutes. At September's announcement we saw the combination wordmark, adding Suez to "GDF." Ten months later all that's changed is that a soft sea-green horizon line has been added, to further integrate the two heritage names.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Gérard Mestrallet, Chairman and CEO
Identity design -  Carré Noir
 

First Impressions:
Both strategy and design: What a waste. A new brand could so easily have expressed a confident future, rather than merely these two histories. The imposition of initials on us (as if we should know and care) is offensive, and the retention of the Suez letterforms (associated originally with its origins in the water business, less appropriate for electric power) is puzzling. In everyday use, GDF Suez will easily become Suez. We now wait to see how Suez Environment will deal with the resulting challenge, the creation of a new old Suez.

Other Comments:
 

Corporate Brand Matrix (est.) ratings:  
100% structural,  0% strategic,  0% functional