NORWALK, Conn., Jan. 07, 2008  - (SEE COMMENTS FROM CARY SHERBURNE BELOW) - Xerox today unveiled the most sweeping transformation of its corporate identity in the company's history. The new brand is designed to reflect today's Xerox, a customer-centric company built on a continuing history of innovative ideas, products and services that meet the needs of businesses small to large.
"We have transformed Xerox into a business that connects closely with customers in a content-rich digital marketplace," said Anne M. Mulcahy, Xerox chairman and chief executive officer. "Our new brand reflects who we are, the markets we serve and the innovation that differentiates us in our industry. We have expanded into new markets, created new businesses, acquired new capabilities, developed technologies that launched new industries -- all to ensure we make it easier, faster, and less costly for our customers to share information."
The new Xerox logo is now a lowercase treatment of the Xerox name - in a vibrant red - alongside a sphere-shaped symbol sketched with lines that link to form an illustrative "X," representing Xerox's connections to its customers, partners, industry and innovation, and designed to be more effectively animated for use in multi-media platforms.
"Our brand is one of our most prized assets and the value it brings to our business is immeasurable," added Ursula M. Burns, president, Xerox. "Our customers, our employees and our shareholders connect the most with what the brand stands for -- quality, innovation, customer-focus and a values-rich culture. Today, we're strengthening all our attributes and giving our brand a contemporary look that is more relevant for business today - a bit less formal, a lot more lively with links to our heritage and a nod to the future." Over the past five years, in addition to adding cutting-edge products at unprecedented speeds, the company has moved beyond its printers and copying systems and has made significant investments in software and services. In addition:

• New technology and services are generating billions of dollars in recurring revenue for Xerox. (Through the third quarter of 2007, services deals generated about $2.5 billion in annuity revenue, an 8 percent increase from the prior year.)
• Xerox is doubling its research and development in services-related offerings.
• The company is accelerating the adoption of color printing in office environments through technologies that make color printing affordable and easy to use. Research in color printing represents about 50 percent of the $1.5 billion Xerox and its partner Fuji Xerox invest each year in research and development.
• Office and commercial printing markets are leveraging new technologies like solid ink, color continuous feed, and parallel printing. Xerox has launched more than 100 products in the last three years, creating the broadest product portfolio in the industry and in its history.
• Energy-saving products such as Xerox's multifunction systems, waste-free choices like toner recycling and cartridge-free solid ink orinters, and supplies that are more eco-friendly like High Yield Business Paper™, EA Toner and Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper show that today's Xerox can serve a customer's total document management needs in an environmentally-responsible way.

With a fortified financial position and expanded global distribution, the new brand makes a bold statement about Xerox's strength as the world's leading document management company. Over the past two years, Xerox has reinstated a dividend, repurchased shares, returned to investment grade, and continued delivering value to shareholders through double-digit earnings growth.
"From the outside looking in, I've watched Xerox transition its business from a copier and printer company to a true partner in helping companies better manage information - whether it's digital, paper or both," said Angéle Boyd, group vice president, general manager, Imaging/Output Document Solutions, IDC. "At the same time, Xerox has built a stronger company across the board and attracted new customers through new markets. Changing the brand is a logical next step. Now the face of Xerox matches the tech savvy, innovative company Xerox is today." The company's Web site, www.xerox.com, goes live tonight with the new brand identity and Xerox will now start changing the logo on products, facilities, vehicles, and marketing materials in a transition that is expected to take about 18 months. Fuji Xerox, a joint venture between Xerox and Fujifilm Corporation that markets Xerox systems throughout most of Asia, will transition the Fuji Xerox brand over time.
The redesign is a departure from previous changes to the logo, which were variations on a fixed typeface of the Xerox word. The result of extensive global research conducted with Xerox employees, customers and partners, the new brand was developed by Interbrand. It was unveiled to the company's 57,000 employees today in a global webcast hosted by Mulcahy and Burns.
In addition to the new logo, Xerox's corporate identity now includes a proprietary font and visual elements of its branding using a palette of eight colors that can be applied across a range of media, from print and Web to broadcast and interactive presentations. WhatTheyThink.com Senior Editor Cary Sherburne Comments The new Xerox brand is a dramatic departure from previous brand images.  One objective the company had in designing the brand, according to Vice President of Brand Marketing and Advertising Richard Wergan, was to maintain the power of the Xerox word mark, while delivering a more approachable and human feel to the company.  The word mark and symbol will be used jointly, never separately. The word mark (xerox) was created with a hand-drawn font, and Wergan characterizes the symbol as an "abstract symbol that talks to the connections we make with our customers, partners, the environment and innovation on a daily basis."  The company wanted an identity that could be animated and could speak through animation to what the company stands for. A modern color palette and a custom font also accompany the new brand.
  With drupa around the corner, Xerox plans to use this global event as a launching pad to show more than a visual identity.  Wergan says, "drupa provides an opportunity to provide a brand experience for our customers that is more than the adopton of a new logo and new imagery.  It will be reflected in everything, from the way we communcate with customers and prospects to how we encourage them to see us on the show floor.  We will be using technology, content management solutions and new media to effectively communicate in advance what they can expect to see on the show floor, including animated fly-throughs of the stand, and to deliver an experience during the show that lives up to those expectations."
  The new brand will be rolled out globally over the next 18 months, with everything from the Web site, which goes live tonight, to new business cards, a new look for brochures, and trade dress for equipment.  It will be interesting to watch this unfold and to see how Xerox leverages this new look and feel.
You can read more from Cary Sherburne at WhatTheyThink.com.