We used Tucows since it was a huge online repository of shareware in the early 1990s. It was where every reputable company would upload their updated programs, such as Netscape Navigator.
The transition of the company from a software archive to a multi-function corporation managing domain names took several years.
The stylized writing of “two cows” explained the brand easily by including two cow heads, until the Canadian company decided to rebrand.
But is it a good rebranding or a weak one?
Tucows has a new logo, with zero cows
Looking at the logo it’s almost like “tuco.ws” and guess what, that domain is available to register for $35 dollars a year. The visual representation of the cows is no more, and that’s the main problem.
The brand is no longer linked to the mooing animals producing milk, and it needs a new name pronto, as there is no abstraction of the cows. Perhaps, they should have added a modern version of two cow silhouettes alongside the wordmark instead, keeping the history and the name’s explanation intact.
For now, it looks like tucows enters an ongoing repository of “failed brands” in our opinion.
