New logo: Schlecker

Schlecker is a leading German drugstore chain. Although Germany is its clear home market, it also has outlets in other European countries, such as Spain, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, France and Italy. At the end of last year, it started rebranding itself with a new logo. Recently, less than six months after the rebranding was launched, Schlecker is once again altering its logo by adding a colourful symbol.

Schlecker's main competitors are Rossmann and DM. Although Schlecker has long been the market leader and has more outlets, both competitors have fresher brand images and their stores are generally larger and more exciting. Schlecker stores are more omni-present and are smaller with merchandise crammed up to the ceiling, generally looking more boring and cheep.

One iteration of Schlecker's previous logo.

This is also reflected in their corporate identities. Rossmann has long used a stylish wordmark with a distinguished centaur in the O, while DM are using a fresh logo with ribbons that was designed by Landor Associates back in 2000. Schlecker has used heavy sans serif capital letters which has been dragged and squeezed without consistency.

To combat this, Schlecker has launched a repositioning programme called "Fit for Future" to make the chain appear brighter and friendlier. This involves opening bigger and more attractive stores with more light, lower shelves and wider hallways. Another part of the repositioning is the introduction of a new visual identity, which has been created by KW43 in Cologne.

The wordmark which was launched at the beginning of this year.

The new wordmark combines regular block letters and cursive, appearing friendlier than the old capital letters. The blue and white colour scheme is kept, but enhanced with some bright accent colours. KW43 also created a set of icons to signify departments and other uses.

The German media site Werben & Verkuafen reported on the new logo on December 16. The rollout started soon after that, in January.

The new symbol and the wordmark in a vertical lock-up.

Now, some time around May, the company has introduced a new symbol to complement the wordmark. It consists of six differently-coloured squares in a circle. It was probably derived from the set product icons that KW43 created for the relaunch.

Product icons.

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