The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has just announced that it’s pausing the rollout of a newly redesigned logo introduced earlier this week — the first such redesign in 45 years — following a vocal backlash among some of the organization’s Realtor members.
The announcement on the pause was posted on NAR’s Facebook page on Wednesday evening and signed by CEO Bob Goldberg and President Elizabeth Mendenhall. Read it in full below:
Since we announced the brand evolution and logo redesign, we have received a diversity of opinions that ranged from strong support to outright disapproval. Please know how much we appreciate member input and how seriously we take your feedback.
While the issues that drove this process to evaluate and ultimately evolve the REALTOR® logo still exist, we are pausing its implementation. This extra time will allow us to further examine the enhancement of the REALTOR® brand proposition, including the logo, which means so much to you and your business.
We are a member-centric organization and this decision to postpone the brand transformation demonstrates that your national association is listening.
Elizabeth Mendenhall, President and Bob Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer
After the announcement was made on Monday, there was swift reaction from many Realtors and observers on social media–some comments of support, and some howls of displeasure. A Change.org petition circulated on social media calling for the repeal of the new logo had garnered over 900 signatures by the Wednesday evening announcement.
A particular sticking point for many of the associations’ members was the estimated $250,000 cost, which Goldberg confirmed in a comment on Linkedin. However NAR was not available to comment on Wednesday night as to any additional costs that would be associated with continuing the process.
Originally the new logo — the iconic “R” printed in a bold sans-serif typeface called Montserrat along a tilted blue cube — was set to be phased over the next two years, starting this June. NAR members and associations that used the membership mark were asked to incorporate the new branding by December 2019.
Email Carl Franzen and Patrick Kearns.
