Don't forget the programmes
Brand of gold
This MediaGuardian article on the forthcoming ITV rebrand is a good read if you want an interesting and simultaneously amusing/depressing/frustrating insight into the world of channel branding and marketing. ITV will shortly launch new idents and branding for ITV1, ITV2 and ITV3, and with the changes it hopes to eventually solve its perceived "image crisis".
To quote: "The BBC was Daddy - it produces programmes that are good for you. Channel 4 is the cool brother, home of trendy programmes, American imports and great comedy". But ITV had "no central "hook" or character to provide definition, and a reason to consult the channel". To this observation I have one thing to add: don't forget the programmes.
ITV has a new interest in multichannel audiences and their 'niches' after establishing ITV2, etc., but now faces the dilemma of attracting the audience that has recently defected ITV1 back to its other new channels since these channels are now tailored for them. But the ITV brand is still tarnished for a significant proportion of the audience it wants to attract for ITV3 and ITV4.
Maybe one solution for this problem is for ITV is to rename ITV3 and ITV4 to something that doesn't include the word ITV in the title, but for various other reasons (marketing? vanity?) this approach may be unpalatable. However Men & Motors seems to be doing alright without the ITV brand, though I suspect that this channel will eventually be renamed ITV5. Or ITV6.
These new channels still have the problem in that ITV1 and 2 bring in the major chunk of the ad revenue but many of the programmes don't appeal to the different groups now being targeted by ITV3 and ITV4. At some point it is going to have to invest in significant new content for these channels when the novelty of watching repeats and certain US imports wears thin.
