Revitalising London’s great institution

The launch of a new market focusing on technology shares provided a prime opportunity for the London Stock Exchange to revitalise its brand and keep it at the forefront of the world’s ferociously competitive stock markets. The new market was to be only the first of a series of new initiatives. We were asked to create a naming system for the technology market itself and the others to follow and an identity system and visual style in just nine weeks. Facing strong criticism from other international players and newer exchanges like NASDAQ, the Exchange had faced criticism for its apparent lack of forward-thinking and competitive response. The identity system for the new markets needed to challenge attitudes and set a whole new style for the Exchange, moving away the traditional and ‘institutional’, but still capable of ‘living’ with the corporate identity of the exchange. The name for the new market had to be instantly comprehensible internationally, and most important of all to become rapidly part of everyday language in the financial world.

Challenging criteria

The starting point was to explore with the senior team at the Exchange the potential scope of proposed new initiatives and the extent to which they needed to be inter-related. We also had to test how far they wanted to stretch the visual style. We generated a long list of names and assessed their ability to stretch into other new markets and their performance in practical application. The MARK system was chosen as being instantly recognisable and capable of the right degree of stretch. The requirements for the identity were also challenging. The approach had to work in different ways: as lead for the index and in short form for press listings, as an endorsement on the stationery, literature and advertising for listed companies and as an accompaniment to the London Stock Exchange badge.

Unique focus on innovation

The first mark launched, techMARK, which set the style for others to follow. It was all about confidence, vision and pace with the emphasis on the people and the calibre of the relationships built through the Exchange, not the institution itself. It continues to be unique among exchanges in putting a focus on innovative technology companies.