Glowing Twitter logo behind the new X logo
Photo: Canva

The controversial move to rebrand Twitter as “X” is being derided by many as a marketing blunder. Billionaire Elon Musk, who acquired the social media platform last October, insists it’s part of the transformation of Twitter into a “super app” that does much more besides tweeting.

The inspiration for Twitter’s reinvention is believed to come from China-based WeChat, which is used by its 1.3 billion users to do everything from sending text messages, making payments, and playing games to booking flight tickets and hailing cabs.

Musk wrote in a tweet last week, “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video. In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world.”

Skeptics of the move, which included getting rid of the bird logo and the “tweet” and “retweet” words, lamented the loss of brand equity.

“The app itself has become a cultural phenomenon in all sorts of ways,” Mike Proulx, VP, research director at Forrester, told The New York Times. “In one fell sweep, Elon Musk has essentially wiped out 15 years of brand value from Twitter and is now essentially starting from scratch.”

Allen Adamson, co-founder of the marketing and brand consulting group Metaforce, called the change an “ego decision” from Musk. He told Ad Age, “To me, it’s going to go down in history as one of the fastest unwinding of a business and brand ever.”

“This is taking a page out of the ‘New Coke’ branding,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives told the New York Post. “Musk is ripping the Band-Aid off on the iconic birdie and going toward the super-app ‘X’ brand. It’s a head-scratcher from a timing perspective, but makes sense for the long term given his vision.”

Todd Irwin, founder of brand agency Fazer, believes “The Elon brand” may help many forget the Twitter name. He told Bloomberg, “His personal brand might be more powerful than the Twitter brand.”

BrainTrust

“Leveraging the equity would have been a better approach. Something like TwitterX would have been stronger…then he could have shifted to just X once users adapted.”

Lucille DeHart

Principal, MKT Marketing Services/Columbus Consulting


“There’s no doubt some brand equity from the old Twitter has flown the coop, but I’d caution anyone betting against Mr. Musk.”

David Spear

VP, Professional Services, Retail, NCR


“Musk has already gutted Twitter’s content moderation and other tech teams, so the so-called rebranding to “X” is just another blunder.”

Dick Seesel

Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC

Discussion Questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you think Elon Musk made a mistake in changing Twitter to X? Should the rebrand not have been done or been handled differently to align with his broader ambitions for the social platform?

Poll

How would you rate the move to rebrand Twitter as X?

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24 responses to “Did Twitter Bungle Its Rebranding to X?”

  1. Neil Saunders Avatar
    Neil Saunders

    The rebranding is a complete mess, probably because the decision was made on a whim. Like it or loath it, Twitter was a strong brand with recognition and equity. X stands for nothing and while there has been talk of it becoming an ‘everything’ app, other than a word salad of an explanation from the company, it is not clear what that means. The design and implementation are also a farce – a logo that looks like it was knocked together on MS Paint in a few minutes and an interface that still says ‘search twitter’ in the search box and so forth. There is nothing wrong with rebranding or resetting, but it would be nice if some thought and planning went into it!

    1. William Passodelis Avatar
      William Passodelis

      Well Said & I Agree !!!

  2. Lucille DeHart Avatar
    Lucille DeHart

    It is like buying Coke and changing it to New Coke. Seriously, this was a misstep. I applaude Musk’s vision to evolve Twitter, but leveraging the equity would have been a better approach. Something like TwitterX would have been stronger…then he could have shifted to just X once users adapted.

    1. David Naumann Avatar
      David Naumann

      I like your clever suggestion of doing a phased approach of TwitterX as a transition to X. I also agree that X is a poor choice of a name and it seems like they couldn’t come up with a great name and someone said, “why don’t we just call it X.” This is just another move that is deteriorating the success of Twitter. It is truly sad.

  3. Georganne Bender Avatar
    Georganne Bender

    Twitter is my favorite social media and I plan to stick with it, but I’ll still call it Twitter the same way Chicagoians continue to refer to the Willis Tower as the Sears Tower.

    I am trying to ignore that X app on my phone. The logo isn’t pretty and it’s a weird name. It looks like a different kind of app if you know what I mean.

    I don’t think Musk cares much about brand recognition, I think he just enjoys messing with us.

  4. Gary Sankary Avatar
    Gary Sankary

    This rebranding of one of the Internet’s most recognizable icons is just the latest in a series of Musk missteps. This one is particularly egregious as it seems to be nothing but an ego-stroking exercise. Years from now, I expect business schools will have case studies about how to ruin a brand while losing a fortune in equity and cash.

  5. Dick Seesel Avatar
    Dick Seesel

    Musk has already gutted Twitter’s content moderation and other tech teams, so the so-called rebranding to “X” is just another blunder. I’m sure the new CEO recently hired from Comcast must be asking herself why she took this job, since she appears to be the “chief executive” in name only.

    I do very little tweeting but I do follow Twitter as a source for news, sports reporting and opinion. (Twitter’s utility as a way to direct-message consumer companies has diminished.) I would no sooner trust my personal finances to Elon Musk than to a phishing e-mail.

  6. David Spear Avatar
    David Spear

    There’s no doubt some brand equity from the old Twitter has flown the coop, but I’d caution anyone betting against Mr. Musk. He has repeatedly demonstrated a knack for disrupting industries and delivering innovation beyond what most can imagine. The old saying, “X marks the spot”, can be a useful analogy in the context of how Mr. Musk and team commemorate the day in which the company begins a new era of delivering innovative services to its users and partners.

    1. Dick Seesel Avatar
      Dick Seesel

      David, I think it’s debatable whether X will have a bigger audience of users, followers and clicks than Twitter — but I’m completely skeptical about Musk’s ability to turn X into an all-purpose financial hub. Among other things, Musk’s political ramblings and weak content moderation on the site undermine potential users’ trust in the neutrality and predictability they expect from a banking, payment or brokerage app. I think Tesla’s potential audience has lost some faith in Musk’s erratic management style, too — although price cutting is always a good way to sell more cars.

      1. David Spear Avatar
        David Spear

        You make some fair points, Dick, but Mr Musk’s unpredictability and seemingly erratic actions could be the spark that ignites a complete makeover that no one expects. I think history shows that Mr. Jobs had a similar unpredictable, erratic management style that led him to be ousted and brought back to deliver unprecedented new product innovation and profitability for Apple. Can Mr. Musk do the same? Only time will tell.

    2. Craig Sundstrom Avatar
      Craig Sundstrom

      David, I won’t say your assessment is wrong, but it does sound familiar: “Don’t bet against Eddie Lambert. He has proved us ALL WRONG! His brain chip is processing at 3x Pentium speed that the rest of our brains are!” RW 05/04/07
      I’ll leave it to others to decide how much similarity exists.

    3. Brad Halverson Avatar
      Brad Halverson

      Good summary. The reactions on this board are emotional and strong about this change, and about Elon, for sure. Which tells you how people feel about their connection to a brand they’ve known as a well-performing functioning tool to share information, and connect with one another. It did well for the role it was asked to play.

      It’s quite possible X as a rebuilt platform could completely dwarf anything Twitter was ever doing, both in revenue, but also users. And so like you, I’m watching, waiting to see what unfolds.

  7. Bob Amster Avatar
    Bob Amster

    Dear colleagues, you have gotten to the finish line before I did, and you have already captured all of my feelings regarding the rebranding: S-T-U-P-I-D. I am willing to eat my (our) words, should all of us be wrong.

  8. Cathy Hotka Avatar
    Cathy Hotka

    Musk’s spectacular mishandling of Twitter will be studied in business classes going forward. Apparently taking a popular brand, then renaming it and encouraging far-right violent content isn’t a good idea. Many of us have fled to Threads.

  9. Dr. Stephen Needel Avatar
    Dr. Stephen Needel

    Tom asks if this was a mistake – does anyone think it’s not a mistake? And would I bet against Elon Musk – in a heartbeat. You can make a lot of money short-selling his companies.

  10. Gene Detroyer Avatar
    Gene Detroyer

    I don’t use Twitter, and I get annoyed when it pops up on my phone. Therefore I am not the best person to comment.

    But I do use WeChat (only parts of it since I am not a Chinese national). It is a super-app in description and actualization. I wish I could use it completely.

    Today product life cycles are shorter than when we were studying them. Musk has an eye for the future and I suspect Twitter is such a small piece of it that he is using it only as a foundation for a future we are not imagining.

    Could he have made this transition more effective? Yes. Lucille has the right idea…TwitterX. Then build the future on the X part.

    (noting: X.com was the first online bank that evolved into PayPal. One of the founders: Elon Musk.)

  11. Michael Zakkour Avatar
    Michael Zakkour

    Did Napolean make a mistake invading Russia? Was New Coke a bad idea? Was my trying jump over 4 of my friends on my bike in 3rd grade ill thought out?

  12. BenedictEnterprisesLLC Avatar
    BenedictEnterprisesLLC

    Elon Musk’s entire involvement in Twitter will be the stuff of Harvard Business School case studies for years to come…but not the “good” kind.

    The rebranding is just the latest in a long line of bungled moves by someone we all thought was so very smart, based on the growth of Tesla and SpaceX. The catastrophic loss of advertisers and users (including me) is dumbfounding to anyone who manages a business. The most significant remaining asset, in the view of most brand marketers, was the name and brand equity of the Twitter brand and logo. Why would you dispose of such a valuable asset as a globally recognized brand?

    It continues to seem like the only logical conclusion to this story is Chapter 11. What a way to blow more than $40 billion.

  13. Doug Garnett Avatar
    Doug Garnett

    Just as I still go to Kinko’s 20 years after FedEx changed the names on all locations to FedEx Office, Twitter will continue to be Twitter for decades.

    it’s a waste of money and effort doing this. It won’t destroy Twitter but it certainly isn’t helping.

  14. Joan Treistman Avatar
    Joan Treistman

    I think it’s a mistake. But then again, I never foresaw the viability in the long brand name, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!”. That came out in 1979 and I was convinced young adults never grew up with butter so they wouldn’t understand the concept. Oh well!

  15. Craig Sundstrom Avatar
    Craig Sundstrom

    How ’bout three thumbs down..four ??
    I don’t really see any point to analyze this like it was a business decision, becasue IMHO it was just an eccentric whim. Just like everything else connected with Twitter….pardon me, “X”.

  16. Brad Halverson Avatar
    Brad Halverson

    To classic marketers, the rebrand is a mess and doesn’t leverage the many years of brand equity created.

    But the reality is Twitter (X) is being completely rebuilt into something else. Social media conversations/news looks to only a small part of the new company. And so Elon ripping off the band-aid looks to be a better move than a slow or confusing half new brand, half old brand sort of thing.

    Ultimately, we have to wait, as the jury is out on the rebrand decision for several years.

  17. Rachelle King Avatar
    Rachelle King

    Goodbye Twitter, Tweet, Retweet and Twitterverse. Hello iconically bad decision. Everything that has happened with Twitter over the past several months reminds me of an old saying: “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

  18. Kai Clarke Avatar
    Kai Clarke

    Elon Musk is many things, but a successful corporate executive managing a corporate takeover, is not one of them. There are better people who should be managing Twitter, and Musk needs to appoint them, empower them, and then get out of their way. Apple, Microsoft, and so many others have recognized this and have become more successful because of it. The rebranding of Twitter shows this. So does the bungled roll-out of the Cybertruck, and many others. Elon Musk did many good things in the past, but that does not mean that he can do all of the things well in today’s environment.

24 Comments
oldest
newest
Neil Saunders
Neil Saunders
7 days ago

The rebranding is a complete mess, probably because the decision was made on a whim. Like it or loath it, Twitter was a strong brand with recognition and equity. X stands for nothing and while there has been talk of it becoming an ‘everything’ app, other than a word salad of an explanation from the company, it is not clear what that means. The design and implementation are also a farce – a logo that looks like it was knocked together on MS Paint in a few minutes and an interface that still says ‘search twitter’ in the search box and so forth. There is nothing wrong with rebranding or resetting, but it would be nice if some thought and planning went into it!

William Passodelis
William Passodelis
  Neil Saunders
6 days ago

Well Said & I Agree !!!

Lucille DeHart
Lucille DeHart
7 days ago

It is like buying Coke and changing it to New Coke. Seriously, this was a misstep. I applaude Musk’s vision to evolve Twitter, but leveraging the equity would have been a better approach. Something like TwitterX would have been stronger…then he could have shifted to just X once users adapted.

David Naumann
David Naumann
  Lucille DeHart
7 days ago

I like your clever suggestion of doing a phased approach of TwitterX as a transition to X. I also agree that X is a poor choice of a name and it seems like they couldn’t come up with a great name and someone said, “why don’t we just call it X.” This is just another move that is deteriorating the success of Twitter. It is truly sad.

Georganne Bender
Georganne Bender
7 days ago

Twitter is my favorite social media and I plan to stick with it, but I’ll still call it Twitter the same way Chicagoians continue to refer to the Willis Tower as the Sears Tower.

I am trying to ignore that X app on my phone. The logo isn’t pretty and it’s a weird name. It looks like a different kind of app if you know what I mean.

I don’t think Musk cares much about brand recognition, I think he just enjoys messing with us.

Gary Sankary
Gary Sankary
7 days ago

This rebranding of one of the Internet’s most recognizable icons is just the latest in a series of Musk missteps. This one is particularly egregious as it seems to be nothing but an ego-stroking exercise. Years from now, I expect business schools will have case studies about how to ruin a brand while losing a fortune in equity and cash.

Dick Seesel
Dick Seesel
7 days ago

Musk has already gutted Twitter’s content moderation and other tech teams, so the so-called rebranding to “X” is just another blunder. I’m sure the new CEO recently hired from Comcast must be asking herself why she took this job, since she appears to be the “chief executive” in name only.

I do very little tweeting but I do follow Twitter as a source for news, sports reporting and opinion. (Twitter’s utility as a way to direct-message consumer companies has diminished.) I would no sooner trust my personal finances to Elon Musk than to a phishing e-mail.

David Spear
David Spear
7 days ago

There’s no doubt some brand equity from the old Twitter has flown the coop, but I’d caution anyone betting against Mr. Musk. He has repeatedly demonstrated a knack for disrupting industries and delivering innovation beyond what most can imagine. The old saying, “X marks the spot”, can be a useful analogy in the context of how Mr. Musk and team commemorate the day in which the company begins a new era of delivering innovative services to its users and partners.

Dick Seesel
Dick Seesel
  David Spear
7 days ago

David, I think it’s debatable whether X will have a bigger audience of users, followers and clicks than Twitter — but I’m completely skeptical about Musk’s ability to turn X into an all-purpose financial hub. Among other things, Musk’s political ramblings and weak content moderation on the site undermine potential users’ trust in the neutrality and predictability they expect from a banking, payment or brokerage app. I think Tesla’s potential audience has lost some faith in Musk’s erratic management style, too — although price cutting is always a good way to sell more cars.

David Spear
David Spear
  Dick Seesel
7 days ago

You make some fair points, Dick, but Mr Musk’s unpredictability and seemingly erratic actions could be the spark that ignites a complete makeover that no one expects. I think history shows that Mr. Jobs had a similar unpredictable, erratic management style that led him to be ousted and brought back to deliver unprecedented new product innovation and profitability for Apple. Can Mr. Musk do the same? Only time will tell.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
  David Spear
7 days ago

David, I won’t say your assessment is wrong, but it does sound familiar: “Don’t bet against Eddie Lambert. He has proved us ALL WRONG! His brain chip is processing at 3x Pentium speed that the rest of our brains are!” RW 05/04/07
I’ll leave it to others to decide how much similarity exists.

Brad Halverson
Brad Halverson
  David Spear
7 days ago

Good summary. The reactions on this board are emotional and strong about this change, and about Elon, for sure. Which tells you how people feel about their connection to a brand they’ve known as a well-performing functioning tool to share information, and connect with one another. It did well for the role it was asked to play.

It’s quite possible X as a rebuilt platform could completely dwarf anything Twitter was ever doing, both in revenue, but also users. And so like you, I’m watching, waiting to see what unfolds.

Bob Amster
Bob Amster
7 days ago

Dear colleagues, you have gotten to the finish line before I did, and you have already captured all of my feelings regarding the rebranding: S-T-U-P-I-D. I am willing to eat my (our) words, should all of us be wrong.

Cathy Hotka
Cathy Hotka
7 days ago

Musk’s spectacular mishandling of Twitter will be studied in business classes going forward. Apparently taking a popular brand, then renaming it and encouraging far-right violent content isn’t a good idea. Many of us have fled to Threads.

Dr. Stephen Needel
Dr. Stephen Needel
7 days ago

Tom asks if this was a mistake – does anyone think it’s not a mistake? And would I bet against Elon Musk – in a heartbeat. You can make a lot of money short-selling his companies.

Gene Detroyer
Gene Detroyer
7 days ago

I don’t use Twitter, and I get annoyed when it pops up on my phone. Therefore I am not the best person to comment.

But I do use WeChat (only parts of it since I am not a Chinese national). It is a super-app in description and actualization. I wish I could use it completely.

Today product life cycles are shorter than when we were studying them. Musk has an eye for the future and I suspect Twitter is such a small piece of it that he is using it only as a foundation for a future we are not imagining.

Could he have made this transition more effective? Yes. Lucille has the right idea…TwitterX. Then build the future on the X part.

(noting: X.com was the first online bank that evolved into PayPal. One of the founders: Elon Musk.)

Michael Zakkour
Michael Zakkour
7 days ago

Did Napolean make a mistake invading Russia? Was New Coke a bad idea? Was my trying jump over 4 of my friends on my bike in 3rd grade ill thought out?

BenedictEnterprisesLLC
BenedictEnterprisesLLC
7 days ago

Elon Musk’s entire involvement in Twitter will be the stuff of Harvard Business School case studies for years to come…but not the “good” kind.

The rebranding is just the latest in a long line of bungled moves by someone we all thought was so very smart, based on the growth of Tesla and SpaceX. The catastrophic loss of advertisers and users (including me) is dumbfounding to anyone who manages a business. The most significant remaining asset, in the view of most brand marketers, was the name and brand equity of the Twitter brand and logo. Why would you dispose of such a valuable asset as a globally recognized brand?

It continues to seem like the only logical conclusion to this story is Chapter 11. What a way to blow more than $40 billion.

Doug Garnett
Doug Garnett
7 days ago

Just as I still go to Kinko’s 20 years after FedEx changed the names on all locations to FedEx Office, Twitter will continue to be Twitter for decades.

it’s a waste of money and effort doing this. It won’t destroy Twitter but it certainly isn’t helping.

Joan Treistman
Joan Treistman
7 days ago

I think it’s a mistake. But then again, I never foresaw the viability in the long brand name, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!”. That came out in 1979 and I was convinced young adults never grew up with butter so they wouldn’t understand the concept. Oh well!

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
7 days ago

How ’bout three thumbs down..four ??
I don’t really see any point to analyze this like it was a business decision, becasue IMHO it was just an eccentric whim. Just like everything else connected with Twitter….pardon me, “X”.

Brad Halverson
Brad Halverson
7 days ago

To classic marketers, the rebrand is a mess and doesn’t leverage the many years of brand equity created.

But the reality is Twitter (X) is being completely rebuilt into something else. Social media conversations/news looks to only a small part of the new company. And so Elon ripping off the band-aid looks to be a better move than a slow or confusing half new brand, half old brand sort of thing.

Ultimately, we have to wait, as the jury is out on the rebrand decision for several years.

Rachelle King
Rachelle King
7 days ago

Goodbye Twitter, Tweet, Retweet and Twitterverse. Hello iconically bad decision. Everything that has happened with Twitter over the past several months reminds me of an old saying: “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

Kai Clarke
Kai Clarke
7 days ago

Elon Musk is many things, but a successful corporate executive managing a corporate takeover, is not one of them. There are better people who should be managing Twitter, and Musk needs to appoint them, empower them, and then get out of their way. Apple, Microsoft, and so many others have recognized this and have become more successful because of it. The rebranding of Twitter shows this. So does the bungled roll-out of the Cybertruck, and many others. Elon Musk did many good things in the past, but that does not mean that he can do all of the things well in today’s environment.