• D: All Things Digital, Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:15 PM

This sounds familiar: Kara Swisher reports that Yahoo is working on a massive overhaul to its brand in order to focus on "what defines Yahoo." The initiative is being spearheaded by new CMO Elisa Steele, who has hired brand consulting firm Landor Associates as well as another outside consultant to turn Yahoo's brand around. The Web giant had been using Ogilvy & Mather and Siegel+Gale to work on strategic branding issues. According to Swisher's sources, Yahoo's rebranding will be built around the latest redesign of its homepage, slated for this fall. Many themes have been considered, but most still center on Yahoo still being a key hub for Internet users. One of the mottos being considered is Yahoo as "your home on the Web."

"Yahoo's branding campaign will certainly have to be a big deal, given it is one of the top Internet sites in the world and has massive name recognition," Swisher says. In an interview with CEO Carol Bartz earlier this year, Swisher asked how Bartz planned to revive Yahoo's brand. "The best way to change the perception is to do a good job and then talk about it," she said. "We just have to get our story out there; we have to continue to appeal to the people that come to us, and frankly, at some point people get sick of having us as the underdog and say, 'Thank God, Yahoo's back.'"

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