BHP dumps Billiton in Australian identity push – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – May 15, 2017)

 

http://www.afr.com/

BHP Billiton will seek to reclaim its Australian identity through a major rebranding exercise after conceding that it and other big companies were losing the trust of communities around the world.

The resources giant will today begin a $10 million advertising campaign that heralds the end of the “three blobs” logo and double-barrel name the company has used since the merger of BHP and Billiton in 2001.

The campaign refers to the company simply as BHP rather than BHP Billiton, and will eventually be followed by a change of the company’s official registered name to “BHP Limited”. The slim, lower-case letters in BHP’s existing logo will gradually be replaced by the bold, capital-letter logo BHP used prior to the merger.

The rebranding comes after a torrid decade in which BHP’s reputation has been battered by the Samarco dam disaster, a corruption investigation into hospitality provided at the Beijing Olympic Games and a high-profile dispute with the Australian Taxation Office over its Singapore marketing hub. It was recently threatened with a mining tax in Western Australia.

BHP’s chief external affairs officer, Geoff Healy, said the campaign was designed to rebuild trust and respect within the community. “To be successful we absolutely need the support of our communities and our stakeholders and the reality is we need permission to operate at all different levels,” Mr Healy said.

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