Case Study
Der Spiegel
Rebranding Europe’s most important news publication
DER SPIEGEL is Europes largest weekly news publication. Popular for its independent investigative journalism the magazine is fighting for democracy and freedom of speech since 1947. As the publication has been around for more than 70 years, the editorial team, as well as the portfolio, have developed and grown immensely. Many labels and sub-brands in print, digital and broadcast have emerged since. It was time for a restructuring and a rebranding of their corporate brand. The market demanded a transformation of the brand and we consulted the media house through this transformational process. Time to ask questions about brand and portfolio management, not from an inside-out approach but taking readers’ brand perception into account. We accompanied this process, facilitated workshops, and narrowed down solutions.
DNA and research
To envision the future of the DER SPIEGEL brand, it was crucial to understand how readers perceive the publication and what’s considered part of the DNA from a reader perspective as well as from an employee perspective. Comprehensive research was conducted to better understand these angles. One important outcome was this: DER SPIEGEL is perceived as the source of all subbrands, even the large ones like SPIEGEL ONLINE and SPIEGEL TV. Internal research showed that there was a need amongst employees for a new vision, melting the online and the offline brand as well as the different editorial teams together as one.
Brand mission statement
The new brand mission statement, or as the Germans call it Markenleitbild stood at the end of an exciting road on which we consulted the media house through workshops and creative sessions towards finding the core of their raison d’être. This new mission statement was divided into the purpose, the promise, the positioning, and the personality. All distilled into a few, powerful words that felt right. The brand mission statement was first presented internally to support the change to a merged online/offline editorial team.
Brand Architecture and Corporate Design
The big decision was to commit to one umbrella brand, being SPIEGEL. One brand from now on forward. Every new or old sub-brand or product has to fit into that value proposition. We started restructuring the brand portfolio with the newly found direction of the brand. What we arrived at is a clear umbrella brand with several layers underneath.
"Edenspiekermann has helped us enormously to compress results, to reformulate our brand core, and to use this as a basis for strategically restructuring our portfolio."
A brand always contains the actual content combined with the expression of that content - so we also worked on the corporate branding for DER SPIEGEL.
Working with DER SPIEGEL was a friendly reminder about how a company fighting for democracy for 70 years is a living and breathing testimony to the exact values they are fighting for. We investigated the brand from every angle, took all stakeholders into account and reached final decisions through democratic votes. We were inspired by the process, the project and the team.