bye bye Gaastra

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Stuthepirate said..

GA.
Sails for the Y Generation

in short GAY sails ?

Quick Robin to the batboards.the wind's up.

I'm going to be a voice in the wilderness here but I don't mind the new logo. Its funny how things eventually grow on you. And its pretty normal for people to respond like this to a change. Not that I didn't like the old logo, I did, but I do think it was getting a bit tired. Sort of like an 80's video game icon.

Companies rebrand all the time. What's important for Gaastra / GA is that the sails perform well. If they're bad sails, they're in trouble. If they're good sails, the brand will take on this success.

Here's a little company you might know who've rebranded pretty successfully a few times.





Be interested in success / failure stories from rebranding.

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stehsegler said..

AUS1023 said..

^^^ absolutely agree. The 2014 sails are fantastic which is probably the most important thing

you do realise that the 2014 sails were probably developed around the end of 2012 / beginning of 2013. Way before the re-brand happened?

Not sure of your point here. The 2014 sails may have been developed before the brand, but they're being released with the rebrand. Isn't that kind of the point?

Happy to be corrected if I've misunderstood you though.

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da vecta said..

Can I purchase the old Gaastra brand name and logo trademark?

Well yes, you could but you would have to talk to a Dutch company which owns the rights for the name and logo.
==> It is also used for a clothing brand.

Considering that the name change is very sudden and within a model year (2014 wave sails are still Gaastra but the new race sails are GA Sails) let me think that they either forgot to renew the license or the cost for the renewal was simple too high.

Maybe GA Sails can't sell 2014 wave sails anymore because of the naming license but this is only available to the distributors.

Has anyone seen the slalom sail test from the French Planchemag magazine? They tested the 2014 Vapor and said it does require a Flex-top mast, similar to what NeilPryde is using. Kind of interesting, also the mast bend seems to have changed completely.

~Shinobi

look to the designers for change in mast preference.

Gaastra suffer through choice of distributors, a market with excessive choice, internal issues & marketing- not the kind of logo re-branding type marketing though.

GA sails, poor move wont change a single thing except make the company go backwards- why would you buy on this vs one of the few brands that has the pedrigree of winning at the top level.

Logo itself sucks, i hate all this modern graphic design sh**

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AUS1023 said..

Sputnik11 said...

AUS1023 said..

Sputnik11 said...

stehsegler said..

AUS1023 said..

^^^ absolutely agree. The 2014 sails are fantastic which is probably the most important thing

you do realise that the 2014 sails were probably developed around the end of 2012 / beginning of 2013. Way before the re-brand happened?

Not sure of your point here. The 2014 sails may have been developed before the brand, but they're being released with the rebrand. Isn't that kind of the point?

Happy to be corrected if I've misunderstood you though.

Not sure either about what your point is ?

And your point is?

Sorry Sputnik 11 for the misunderstanding I was agreeing with you in not understanding the comments of stehsegler. All I was trying to suggest in my initial post was that IMHO the 2014 gaastra sails that I own are brilliant and I would buy them again even if they are branded GA , FA or NFI's

No worries AUS, I saw your earlier post so knew where you were coming from. I was just messing around. I still think the logo is OK, but the proof of the pudding is in the sail performance. I bet all those who hate the logo will be lining up to buy one if they win all the big races and are sailed by their favourite sailors. I mean seriously, if you've got it in for a brand because of their logo, isn't there something a tad wrong?

The smaller top triangle isn't even lined up in the middle with the outer triangles (god soo many triangles) of the logo. As the identification of a brand this suggests they're not one for attention to detail. This makes me not so interested in their product...so I would say yes, the identity and image they put out IS important alongside have a quality product that performs. The photos of the sails in new regalia also look a bit shonky unfortunately.
If you're going to chuck out your old history then a rebrand should be an opportunity to do something exciting, refreshing and new. This doesn't say that to me

I suppose if one was the marketing manager for a sail company it would be pretty hard to come up with a new party trick.
Bigger wind range ,more stable,etc etc has been done to the death.
Then someone suggests a new logo and you have GA,I think I get it.

Just found an old CD and noticed the artist also had a GA logo as well.

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stehsegler said..

Sorry Sputnik 11 for the misunderstanding I was agreeing with you in not understanding the comments of stehsegler. All I was trying to suggest in my initial post was that IMHO the 2014 gaastra sails that I own are brilliant and I would buy them again even if they are branded GA , FA or NFI's

The point is if they put so little thought in their new branding it makes you wonder what their 2015/ 2016 sails will be like.

Oh ok, I get it. So your line of argument is...they didn't really think hard about their logo, they just whipped one up. Therefore, they won't think much about their sails, they will just whip some up. OK, got it.

Another not so successfull logo change:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Network

I agree that the new logo compared to the old is not very good but to think there is any relevance between a logo and sail design is pretty unrealistic.

I first heard about the new branding here

philswindsurfingblog.blogspot.com/

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da vecta said..

apforsyth said..

This change is not marketing - at all. it is the complete absence of marketing strategy and execution, the death knell of a company underinvesting in it's brand, which typically accounts for 30% plus of the value of a company. This value literally just went up in smoke.

An expensive mistake, but not irreversible, if they move quickly.

Ah, but if there was NO change and this was all just (very clever) marketing spin (and hopefully it is), then what a brilliant strategy it is. They would have instantly added value to the original brand. This could be a world first.

Da vecta, You may indeed be onto something as Gaastra's website mentions nothing of the rebranding / name change. Maybe some very clever marketing! I sort of agree with Steghesler re: compromising even "simple" things like logos etc may flow onto compromising the product itself. That said a great logo or aesthetically looking sail doesn't make it go any faster (or vice versa)

EDIT - just translated from the French website.

Founded in 1897, but renowned windsurfing among the market leaders since the 80s, Gaastra has announced a change of visual identity in a statement evening fell. So ended the mythical castle has adorned the veils of Robby Naish, Pete Cabrinha, Pascal Maka, Robert Teriitehau, Matt and Kevin Pritchard in the exploits that made ??them famous. GA sails up now, even if the brand managers announce an unchanged philosophy. This more "modern", but which it will take some time to get used logo, mark the statement the beginning of a new era for the brand with more freshness to better address new markets. It will likely be 2015 before seeing this change on products in shops.
Source: International Gaastra