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BDO is a worldwide network of accounting firms.  With 47,000 employees in 119 countries, and fee income (2010) of $5.28 billion, it ranks at #5.  In 1973 it became "Binder Dijker Otte," and communicatively "BDO." These initials have been used (since 1988) to co-brand the heritage names of its local firms; thus BDO marketed in the UK as BDO Stoy Mayward, and in the US  as BDO Seidman.  But like other rebranders in this category (Grant Thornton in 2008 and PwC in 2010), BDO now feels better represented by a more seamless global identity. Thus it has imposed radical name surgery, replacing all its units' heritage names with country names... BDO Albania, BDO United Kingdom etc.  

The switch from local-heritage unit names to country-defined unit names required in some cases a form of reorganization, not merely nomenclature change. The rebrandings took place between Sepotember 2009 and March 2010.

The global communicative name BDO and the BDO logo, however, remained unchanged. "We now get more and more rebranding jobs whose brief begins with 'don't change the logo'" says Simon Case, creative director of the design firm Greentarget. True; we have seen significant rebrandings using tools other than the logo (such as nomenclature, brand architecture and  visual systems), and the Matrix must take note of them. 

While the backbone of this rebranding is verbal, its face and arguably its primary force is visual:  it is the global imposition of an assertive visual system (including type and color palette), anchored by vertical red lines lifted from the logo. The system's universal presence is a visible manifestation of desired cooperation, coordination and discipline across national and institutional borders, which supports  perception of  "one network, to deliver consistent methodology, services and specialists worldwide."

Because launch timing was controlled by member firms, and took place in a recession climate, there was no global launch event. 

Identity counsel Fairley Associates, design Greentarget

Submitted by: Tony Spaeth, 16/05/2011
Status: Estimated by Tony Spaeth
Category: Accounting/Consulting
Country (HQ): Belgium