Toblerone, forced to remove the mountain from its logo. Why?
After 115 years, the brand is forced to modify its logo.
Las leyes suizas obligarán a la mítica marca a modificar el logotipo para eliminar el mítico monte Cervino de su packaging.
Brand and packaging lovers are mixed up these days. The reason? One of the most recognizable packaging in the world will have to eliminate an essential part of its corporate identity. We are talking about nothing more and nothing less than the mountain of the Toblerone logo.
The reason for the change is the relocation of the company’s production, which is moving from Switzerland to Slovakia. A fact that clashes squarely with the Swissness law. But, what does this law consist of and why can it modify the corporate image of a brand?
Toblerone is a Swiss chocolate brand created in 1908 by Theodor Tobler. He created a product in his confectionery in Bern that combined chocolate with almond nougat and honey. The differential characteristic was that he presented it with a triangular mold so that portions of chocolate could be broken. This decision endowed the brand with its own personality that has lasted to this day.
The design of that packaging contained an illustration of Mount Matterhorn, the most famous mountain in the Alps for its pyramid shape. Its 4,478 meters high make it the fifth highest peak of the mountain range located on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The combination of triangle-shaped packaging and the striking mount gave the brand an image recognizable throughout the world.
Over time, the brand ended up forming part of the American multinational Mondelez, which was making decisions to improve the economic performance of the product. One of them has been to relocate production from Switzerland to Slovakia and with it, stop complying with the Swissness law.
What is the Swissness law?
Switzerland protects its brand as a country. And to make sure of this, he created a law in 2017 that prohibits companies that do not make their product with Swiss materials and labor from using national symbols.
The Swissness law establishes that, for a product to be able to say that it has been made in the Swiss country, it must have 80% of the raw materials from the territory. In the case of milk and derivatives, 100% of the raw materials. This law prohibits, for example, the use of Swiss icons on industrial, food and service products. These icons can be the Swiss flag or… the Matterhorn.
If Toblerone has decided to leave the country, you will not be able to use the Mount Cervino in your logo, so you must opt for a redesign of it. The brand has advanced in a statement: “The mountain logo will be modernized and streamlined to align with the geometric and triangular aesthetic. Another change is that from now on, Toblerone will be “established in Switzerland” instead of ” Made in Switzerland.”
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