NEW YORK – This week, GE announced the future brand identities for the planned separation of its portfolio of healthcare, energy, and aviation businesses into three independent, industry-leading, investment-grade public companies.
The new companies—GE HealthCare, GE Vernova, and GE Aerospace—will bring greater focus and flexibility to meet the most urgent challenges facing their respective industries: from delivering precision patient care for a growing global population, to leading the transition to a sustainable energy future for our planet, to inventing the future of flight for generations to come.
The decision to separate the businesses, announced last November marked a defining moment in the history of the iconic GE brand It also raised a pivotal question around what role the GE brand should play in setting each future company on its surest path to success.
To help answer this question, GE partnered with Interbrand on a six-month collaborative research and design process, with the goal of determining the optimal brand identity and positioning for each future company. “Right from the start, we held firm the perspective that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to determine the future of a 130-year-old, multi-billion-dollar brand with an unrivaled history and legacy”, said Linda Boff, CMO at GE. “Immediately, we thought of Interbrand as the experienced and expert partner of choice to help lead us through this journey.”
Through a customer-led, data-driven research plan that engaged over 2,200 industry practitioners and nearly 3000 GE employees, Interbrand set out to understand the intrinsic value of the GE brand and its alignment to the future vision for each company “We entered this assignment with no pre-determined solutions in mind”, said Daniel Binns, CEO of Interbrand New York. “All possibilities for how best to brand each company were carefully considered—from retaining the GE brand as-is, to combining GE with a new name, to creating a wholly new independent brand.”
“Based on data and analysis drawn from thousands of conversations, it became clear that the GE name and Monogram represent an iconic legacy of innovation, a symbol of trust for global customers, a source of pride for our teams, and a talent magnet for future leaders”, said Boff. “We’re proud these future businesses will be able to build on GE’s DNA of innovation as a springboard to their own future growth and success.”
While all three companies will retain the GE Monogram as a symbol of their shared heritage, their new visual identities and strategic positioning will serve to communicate the separate pathways that each brand will follow in their separation from the GE we know today. This distinction is conveyed by the new signature colors selected for each brand: “atmosphere blue” for GE Aerospace, inspired by upper limits of the horizon; “evergreen” for GE Vernova, blending the blues and greens of the Earth; and “compassion purple” for GE Healthcare, reflecting the humanity and warmth of connected patient care.
“We firmly believe that this outcome will enable the best of the GE brand to live on, signaling a new beginning for each company that will more fully reflect their unique visions for the future, while building on the strong brand equity already in place today,” said Linda Boff, GE CMO.