Itella reveals brand rethink ahead of next month’s name change

Finland’s national postal operator Itella has revealed the look of its new brand ahead of its change to the name Posti in the New Year. The company announced back in August that it would revert to its Posti identity, the name still used for its domestic postal service, in January.

The name Itella was first introduced for the company’s information logistics subsidiaries in 2005 before becoming the name of the company as a whole in 2007, in a bid to emphasise its international nature and the service reach it has beyond postal.

But with market research suggesting that 80% of consumers and entrepreneurs prefer the Posti name, Itella said this year that its use of the two brands had not performed as hoped.

Changing to the Posti Group Corporation on 1 January, the company hopes to renew and simplify its outward appearance.

This week Itella unveiled its new branding, which drops its blue colour in favour of orange, the “colour of post and logistics”. Brand design was carried out by Helsinki-based agency N2 Nolla.

Heikki Malinen, the company president and chief executive, said the new branding would link Posti’s long history with its new services.

“The speed line in the logo describes how we make our customers’ everyday lives run smoother with quick, easy-to-use services. The letter “i” in Posti represents a parcel,” he explained. “With the changes, we want to signal that Posti has the ability and desire to renew its services.”

In Swedish, the company will be known as Posti Group Abp.

Strategy

The Itella chief said the change in company branding would indicate not only the change in name, but also the underlying changes in corporate structure, business organisations, service content and culture.

The renewals are part of the strategy published last year, in which the aim is to transform Posti into a modern, customer-oriented, high-quality service company, Itella said.

As it launches the new look from next month, Itella will change its website to develop “more consistent, easy-to-use” services through the Internet. Signage throughout the company and on vehicles will be changed gradually.

The new appearance will also stretch to the company’s network of more than 1,450 service points.

Malinen said the service network has expanded by almost 30% in the last five years to bring the company closer to customers.

“Our goal is to make our customers’ lives run smoother with our services,” he said. “The growing popularity of e-commerce, for example, means that customers expect Posti’s network of service points to provide an even wider range of alternatives for sending and receiving as well as longer opening hours. Traditional mail delivery will become even more diverse, including not only traditional early-morning and basic delivery, but also food deliveries.”