Solar Photovoltaic company Rebrandings hit new High

Are commercials at the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, and Superbowl next?

I had just noticed a few solar photovoltaic company rebrandings earlier this week when I read the Phönix SonnenStrom AG (FRA:PS4) Annual General Meeting news on the DGAP ad hoc service (English, Deutsch). Heavens Goethe, Phönix SonnenStrom has decided to rename the company Phoenix Solar AG and change their internet address to www.PhoenixSolar.com (not active at post time and old logo shown). There is already a Chinese company, Taizhou phoenix solar Co., Ltd., parked at http://www.phoenixsolar.net/.

Number two on the list is Evergreen Solar Launches Broad New Branding Campaign with an expensive multicolored logo and Think Beyond. tagline shown above to the left. The timing for this Evergreen Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESLR) branding campaign was after the ill received Evergreen Solar Announces First Quarter 2007 Results and about one month before Evergreen Solar Announces Public Offering of Common Stock and Evergreen Solar Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock at $8.25 per share.

Completing the trio is ersol with new corporate design. ersol Solar Energy AG (FRA:ES6), a company known for its thriftiness, has also gone the rainbow colored logo route with the tagline ersol. Right from the start. The new logo shown left above has been rolled out across the ersol Group business segments as ersol Silicon, ersol Wafers, ersol Solar Cells, and ersol Modules. And yes, I noticed the new ersol branding while researching an Oerlikon Solar post about ersol Thin Film GmbH.

In the end, I believe solar photovoltaics is a commodity industry. If times get tough in the years ahead, these multicolored logos could be the first victims of aggressive corporate cost cutting measures.

I am thinking about jumping into the rebranding game. Maybe I should change the red and black GUNTHER Portfolio logo to orange and gray? Or perhaps green and gray? I will need to discuss this with my business card printer doing business as the Canon PIXMA iP1500. Even if my company name were in German, I would favor a dual language logo with Chinese translation a la Suntech Power instead of selling out my native tongue.

(Full disclosure: I still own some shares of ESLR stock).
Of course, all logos are the property of their respective holders.