Opinion BY Armin

I Yodel, You Yodel, We All Yodel for Yodel

This past May, the UK’s largest home delivery service for packages, Home Delivery Network (HDN), purchased the UK domestic parcel delivery business of DHL Express, which focuses on business-to-business service, to become the second largest delivery service in the UK after the Royal Mail. HDN already has contracts to deliver products sold by Amazon as well as one of the most powerful catalog and online retailers in the UK, Argos. With the purchase of DHL Express, HDN announced that it will be changing its name to Yodel — derived from a few letters of its tagline “Your delivery, your call.” The naming and identity were created by London-based The Clearing.

We defined the brand promise as ‘Take it personally’ to reflect the determination and dedication of everyone within the business to deliver exactly what customers wanted — including tailoring service for individual clients. This turned the industry convention on its head, focusing the promise on people and service rather than purely functional operations.

We created the name Yodel by building on the brand promise and thinking about the service from the perspective of both business and home customers: ‘it’s your delivery’. So Yodel comes directly from the words ‘YOur DELivery’. And because the service is tailored for customers, it’s their call how it works — which perfectly resolves the name.

The name is highly differentiated within the sector — which is flooded with three-letter acronyms and descriptive names. And the personality of the brand overall avoids the usual speed/direction clichés of delivery firms.
— The Clearing project page

The new name is actually quite clever and I really appreciate that it wasn’t just picked because it sounds cool and yodeling is groovy in an ironic kind of way. An explanation is just a stone’s throw away and to a certain degree it works like the FedEx arrow, where it might take an observant consumer a few moments to make the connection between the name and the tagline. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the visual identity, which lacks any surprise or innovation and simply rides the geometric sans serif with bright colors bandwagon. It’s a simple and solid execution but falls way short of making a memorable impact — although I imagine those bright green vans crowding the streets will in the same way the brown trucks of UPS do.

Thanks to Jaiye Elias for the tip.

Benn’s comment is:

That has to be the coolest name for a delivery company…EVER!

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:09 AM

Neil Martin’s comment is:

I can actually quite imagine myself saying to someone “Send it via Yodel”, much moreso than “Send it via Home Delivery Network”.

The logo itself isn’t particularly inspiring, but the *identity* works well, I think. The strong, vibrant green, red, orange and yellow really stand out and I think if you’re looking out of your window and see their van outside, you’ll instantly know who it is, with or without the name in view. And I think that’s the sign of a good identity.

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:15 AM

Loren’s comment is:

Love the name and agree with you, Neil. The logo isn’t inspiring, but works very well like a identity for the company. Sounds very fresh, new and (why not?) very cool.

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:23 AM

Sam’s comment is:

I can see Yodel being used like a verb.

“Yeah, just Yodel it over!”

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:34 AM

Everett’s comment is:

The branding is fine, if overly bland. The name is quite nice, but also implies a hefty promise to its customers for the company to live up to.

(Hopefully, they come up with something a bit more stylish for its uniforms than this unflattering green.)

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:46 AM

Stripeyhorse’s comment is:

The name is great. And the vans look good and will be a lot more eye catching than brown UPS vans and a lot more fun than the usual white FedEx van. But the logo is very forgettable, just looks like not a lot of thought went into it.

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:46 AM

Martin Boath’s comment is:

It’s funny how one day this site is all about the ‘logo’, then another it’s all about the ‘identity’…

Well done to The Clearing on a fantastic job – great stuff for an agency only 3 months old. This is great work; a simple wordmark working brilliantly with a bold, colourful, eye-catching and – most importantly – memorable identity.

It’s painfully simple but as any designer worth their salt will tell you, achieving this sort of simplicity and effectiveness is very difficult. I do, however, wonder if such subtlety will be appreciated on here…

The animation on The Clearing’s site is rather good too – worth checking out.

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:51 AM

Steve’s comment is:

Personally, I think an identity should take a little more than color to make it work. That is the only thing this job has going for it.

I say add this to the already overflowing barrel of uninspired plain-text-as-a-logo logos, and forget about it in a week.

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:56 AM

BlueEyedPeas’s comment is:

Yo, yo, this delivery is cool!

Now, the logo represents either a lack of creativity or a deliberate desire to retain seriousness in contrast to the brand personality. Makes me yonder.

On Jun.28.2010 at 08:33 AM

Paj’s comment is:

The colour and name is lovely, but I cant help thinking it would have been enhanced slightly with some sort of subtle graphical flourish. This type only treatment isnt interesting enough on its own.

On Jun.28.2010 at 08:42 AM

Andrew’s comment is:

Is the typeface used for Yodel the same as the one used for The Clearing?

On Jun.28.2010 at 09:11 AM

Joel’s comment is:

Again, This isn’t a logo, it’s type. the colors are cool and I’d get excited when the Yodel truck pulled up to my house, but the logo isn’t super fantastic.

Their drivers should be re required to “yodel” upon arriving at the recipient’s home.

On Jun.28.2010 at 09:21 AM

John Mindiola III’s comment is:

@Sam: I can definitely see this being used as a verb.

@Benn: Yes, the coolest company name I’ve heard in a while! I’m happy that it was derived from a slogan, and not just the word yodel. I wonder if yodeling will appear in any commercials (if they will have any).

On Jun.28.2010 at 09:58 AM

Nate’s comment is:

If we want to get into semantics, I suppose the identity would be called a logotype or a wordmark. Nevertheless, it seems to work.

With such a powerful name, I wish they had incorporated an exclamation point to the name YODEL! Would’ve fit perfectly in the negative space of the L.

On Jun.28.2010 at 09:59 AM

Q. Pheevr’s comment is:

I don’t like the way the letters in the ODEL sequence get progressively narrower—even though each character, taken individually, is a perfectly appropriate width, this particular combination makes it look as if someone was running out of room on the line.

On Jun.28.2010 at 10:27 AM

Impossibly Stupid’s comment is:

Echoing some of the other observations, it is definitely bold and recognizable. It works in a retro-70s kind of way; I could almost see a flower being splatted on top of that van.

It probably isn’t distinctive enough to age well, though. It’ll only stand out as long as there are no copycat colorists; you’d have to pick a color like brown to avoid that fate. :-)

Still, Yodel is a catchy enough name that they can update the look in a few years without troubles. But please, please, PLEASE don’t ever go with an ad campaign that features people actually yodeling.

On Jun.28.2010 at 11:36 AM

cody’s comment is:

ok, so the logo is a little boring, but everything else just works. I’m willing to excuse the logo for that brand video alone… and the vans are just pure awesomeness.

Also the name is nice and clever. Reminds me of Yahoo and their “do you yahoo?” tagline. I find myself wanting to say “do you Yodel?”

On Jun.28.2010 at 11:57 AM

Req’s comment is:

Well I’m glad HDN are disappearing. That logo’s always caused me to have an inner critique of it when I find myself stuck behind one in the car. Would much rather be stuck behind one of these, and a different colour each time!

It’s a bit of an uninspired wordmark but I’m glad it’s not shouty. I wouldn’t like an exclamation mark as someone suggested. I don’t need another Yahoo!

On Jun.28.2010 at 12:24 PM

Julia’s comment is:

I agree with the praise of the brand video, but the color scheme looks more suited for a florist delivery truck or an ice cream van than a delivery service. The identity could benefit from including a custom pattern in some applications. It would give the identity a little more variety and help them set their tone a little more specifically.

On Jun.28.2010 at 12:43 PM

Joshua’s comment is:

Love the name. A little disappointed that the arrow wasn’t retained somehow (maybe part of the D or something).

On Jun.28.2010 at 01:03 PM

Cindy Gombert’s comment is:

Yodel identity: First off, LOVE the name, kudos for that. From an identity perspective, however, it seems they are relying quite a bit on color and interesting placement of the trucks, etc. through photography to make intersting color patterns. This is effective for this purpose, but I wonder how this will play out in their day to day branding persona. I am interested to see if they push this a bit more. Right now, it doesn’t seem to have legs long term as shown. Hoping for more. Let’s see where this goes.

On Jun.28.2010 at 01:14 PM

Mary Shu’s comment is:

Great name.

Nice simple, unadorned, logotype (reminds me a little of FICO, http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/fair_sans_serif.php#comments)
Agree with Martin, simple is not easy.

The only part I question is the color palette. Seem more suited to the food and beverage industry. I could see people mistaking those vans for a juice or yogurt company.

Nice work.

On Jun.28.2010 at 01:38 PM

Daniel’s comment is:

I’m not as excited about the name so much… but I do really like the identity. I think it took equal parts courage and restraint to do this. The color, IMHO, is just about perfect - and will, no doubt, immediately achieve iconic status on par with UPS brown, DHL yellow, and FedEx white. But way more fun than all of those.

(def same typeface as The Clearing’s typeface… unethical or simply appropriate? Pretty, whatever it is.)

On Jun.28.2010 at 01:52 PM

Andrew Sabatier’s comment is:

This is branding you can’t really argue with – without appearing a little foolish or naive.

Not only is the identity pragmatic and straightforward on the surface but it is evocative beyond the call of duty, on further contemplation. This is clearly work from seasoned creatives who’ve seen it all before and who know what really matters.

(Yo)ur (Del)ivery as a language-based concept draws on the contemporary understanding that brands cannot not be consumer-centric to be successful, without this idea as a conceptual end-point.

Beyond the ‘does-what-it-says-on-the-can’ rationale is the obviously intended and appropriate ‘yodel’, a mountain call. This is a call that not only evokes the space of an epic mountain range but, considering this is a delivery service, suggests that mountains can be moved with minimum fuss.

Also, considering the identity appears prominently at the point of contact, the delivery vehicles constantly advertise what the brand does and so no other graphic devices or information cues are necessary. This gimmick-free identity creates an impression of a serious brand that understands the value of evocative and meaningfully directed brand ideas.

For me, this brand identity brilliantly demonstrates British pragmatism at its language-oriented and cynic-proof best. Yodel and the creative people behind the brand deserve to go the distance.

OUT-BLOODY-STANDING, I say.

A.

Permalink

On Jun.28.2010 at 04:03 PM

obse.’s comment is:

Totally agree with Martin Boath. This kind of work isn’t much appreciated here.
I love it.

Anyway, I must admit that all this colorfulness and joy make me unsure about ever sending my packages into those animated jumping vans.

It’s a beautiful brand, but, for real, I’m sticking with the seriousness of either DHL or FedEx.

PS: The green in the website looks a little darker, there, it doesn’t look as good as here…

On Jun.28.2010 at 05:00 PM

Tim Gengler’s comment is:

I like this identity a great deal. The colors are distinctive and the name is catchy. That delivery van would be instantly recognizable, and, as others have mentioned, Yodel it seems like it would catch on naturally.

If there were some sort of graphic element to be had, I’d give ‘The Clearing’ even more credit. I can understand how the process might gravitate toward the client suggesting “Well, we like your company’s font, why don’t you guys just use that for us too?” but it seems a little uninspired when, in both cases, the font is the logo.

The color combinations are well done for each brand, and it’s all handled very professionally, but I can’t help but want something a little extra. Nonetheless, it’s incredibly solid and attractive.

On Jun.28.2010 at 05:17 PM

Lucas’s comment is:

Do the different accent colors on the vans represent different types or classes of service?

On Jun.28.2010 at 06:55 PM

Leeroy’s comment is:

Like it BUT the Vans remind me of a Juice Company!

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:51 PM

Jerry Kuyper’s comment is:

Logo Lite - about as interesting as FedEx without the amazing colors and the secret arrow.

The vehicles would more effective with the green and one color logo. Flexible color systems tend to look best when tightly controlled (such as the photo of the vehicles). In practice flexible systems tend to blend into and add to the urban chaos.

Remember the “wonderful” colors GE adopted for their monogram in 2004. I predicted then that it would devolve into blue, check out the current GE site.

Yodel is a fine name. Deriving Yodel from the tagline is mildly interesting but not sure anyone would discover that on their own. FedEx from Federal Express - now that’s understandable.

On Jun.28.2010 at 07:58 PM

horacio hellmanson’s comment is:

that truck shot looks like a banana bunch.. nice, though.

On Jun.28.2010 at 10:26 PM

Daniel’s comment is:

Great name (as agreed with all that I read while browsing comments)! It’s becoming increasingly difficult to create or utilize such words as names that aren’t contrived by some stretched rationalization. This was really quite smart and made me chuckle – and kind of brave, too.

I’m glad they dropped the arrow. FedEx practically owns the arrow in this business segment. Glad they were able to refresh the identity with a new angle.

On Jun.28.2010 at 11:07 PM

Martin Boath’s comment is:

@Daniel – it’s not the same typeface. ‘Yodel’ is in Avant Garde (I’d say) whereas the agency’s typeface is not, absolutely not.

On Jun.29.2010 at 06:54 AM

Daniel’s comment is:

Correct. My point wasn’t about the typeface, it was about the use of an arrow.

On Jun.29.2010 at 08:32 AM

Martin Boath’s comment is:

Must be another Daniel several posts higher who mentioned the typeface… :)

On Jun.29.2010 at 09:32 AM

Huntley Brinkley’s comment is:

Love the name, love the bold color palette. Very disappointed in the bland word mark. Bring back the arrows.

On Jun.29.2010 at 01:25 PM

Dalton Vivona’s comment is:

Perry Mcquinn

On Jun.29.2010 at 05:02 PM

Ryann Dobbratz’s comment is:

Alexis Wethington

On Jun.29.2010 at 05:15 PM

Mark’s comment is:

Coolest name EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice simple and to the point well done!

I like the colors very nice.

On Jun.29.2010 at 06:37 PM

Harrison Pasqua’s comment is:

Mathilda Blunk

On Jun.29.2010 at 11:38 PM

Johnny Socko’s comment is:

I’m surprised that so many people like the name, because to me “Yodel” and yodeling evoke sheer dorkiness. Sure, it’s nice that the brand name has an origin story that is allegedly unrelated to the mountain-shouting or hog-calling activity, but I’ll still think of those things first when I hear the name. And those things are dorky.

On Jun.30.2010 at 04:07 PM

Tori’s comment is:

Great name, fun recognizable colors, but I’m afraid without the colors that logo is awfully boring. Even something slight to indicate movement or motion would be nice.

On Jul.01.2010 at 02:26 AM

MSGDS’s comment is:

Love the name, love the color, but from the visual standpoint, it falls short for being distinctive. There’s no imagination or any type of creativity.

On Jul.02.2010 at 09:01 AM

Bill Dawson’s comment is:

Inspirational. A great concept, beautifully executed. No dumbing it down, or spoon-feeding here. This screams confident entrepreneurial enterprise. WELL DONE!

On Jul.03.2010 at 01:22 PM

Bill Dawson’s comment is:

BTW, @Andrew Sabatier said it much better than I did.

On Jul.03.2010 at 01:25 PM

Bill Dawson (XK9)’s comment is:

With apologies to The Clearing- for all you arrow/home lovers out there.

On Jul.03.2010 at 02:03 PM

Fabian’s comment is:

@Andrew Sabatier…You have nailed it. This is one of those concepts and brands that you just got to sit back and go WOW!

On Jul.06.2010 at 05:35 AM

Jeremy R.’s comment is:

Actually, Armin, you’d be surprised; it took me years before I noticed the FedEx arrow. Straight up blew my mind.

On Jul.16.2010 at 03:35 PM

Anonymous’s comment is:

We defined the brand promise as ‘Take it personally’ to reflect the determination and dedication of everyone within the business to deliver exactly what customers wanted — including tailoring service for individual clients

What a fascinating disconnect between the marketers and the reality of both DHL and Home Delivery Network.

On Jul.17.2010 at 05:32 AM