Sometimes a little change can produce a big fuss ...

Very recently the brand people at BBC Radio over in Britain decided that it would be a good, strategic idea to rebrand their radio news bulletins by having their presenters on BBC Radio 4 begin their news brief with "BBC news" and end it with "BBC news for Radio 4." The original method involved simply stating the news brief and following it with "BBC Radio 4 news."

While this change seems unnecessary and a bit excessive, it is pretty miniscule so you'd expect no one to notice, let alone care ... right? WRONG. Listeners were PISSED. Angry messages filled the message boards. The change was meant to simplify the BBC new identity and the listener response suggested that it did anything but.

After the poor response the BBC people decided on a different intro/outro phrase that was then criticized by the radio personalities on its remaining lack of simplicity. One employee was even quoted as saying, "I can't believe BBC pays someone to sit around and think about stuff like this."

Wow, I can't can't believe the outraged reactions these people had to such an insignificant change. Really makes branding seem like walking on eggshells.