Retail giant Argos (not the Peloponnesian city)  is one business who is no stranger to investing in promotional products such as branded mugs. Tomorrow the Home Retail Group-owned business is to launch a new logo and shift in tone of voice over the coming weeks, beginning with its spring/summer 2010 catalogue – and lots of branded mugs.

Argos hired branding consultancy The Brand Union, to create an identity which would help to “modernise perceptions” of the brand. In other words, to stop Argos’s current association with chavs. Their new identity will roll out to its 750 stores over a three-year period.

Siobhan Fitzpatrick, head of brand marketing at Argos, said over the past 30 years the retailer had developed an extremely loyal customer base with its focus on “value, choice and convenience” but the time had come for a change. The last time their branding was looked at back in 1999 when Argos hired consultancy Interbrand Newell and Sorrell, to create a visual identity to reflect its new “brighter shopping” marketing strategy.