[jlgreco]

With all of their "analytics, surveys, and strategy", where they anticipating the backlash they have received?

If not, then they clearly did something wrong, so why should we give any weight to the rest of their conclusions? If so, why are they acting so shocked?

[taligent]

Firstly we don't know if they have done something wrong. The target audience for the branding change is going to be the NEXT generation of students not the current or past ones. And definitely not the general public. And I personally can't speak for 18-20 year olds and what they think of the logo. I would imagine that if the agency did their homework then it would be more appealing and commercially successful than the previous one.

As for them being shocked. It is always surprising when people become so passionate about a brand.

[gknoy]

People become absolutely RABID about their college brand, however. Can you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if Tennessee were to change their emblem from the T to something ... else? Heads would roll.

As a UC alumnus, I certainly saw that new logo and thought "what the hell is this??" -- GREAT point about the color bring wrong, for example. If it were better communicated that it wasn't meant to replace the seal, I might have liked it better, but it already seemed ugly to me, even before I read about what it was intended for.

[jlgreco]

If they did not anticipate the backlash, then they did something wrong.

If they anticipated the backlash, but decided not to care (because their target audience is the NEXT generation, as you suggest), then why are they surprised that this generation is responding poorly. They saw it coming and decided not to care.