Mini: The Return of HBO Max

What do you call a streaming service that can’t sit still? Apparently, HBO Max… again.

In this Soul & Science mini-episode, Jason unpacks why the HBO brand is once again reclaiming its name, and what this says about brand equity, consumer sentiment, and the fine art of knowing when to walk it back. From Gap to Tropicana to the Twitter-that-shall-not-be-named, some branding detours are better left reversed.

Key Takeaways:
✅ Don’t mess with strong brand equity—especially when it’s called “HBO.”
✅ A reversal doesn’t have to be a failure if you own it.
✅ Smart brands listen, learn, and even laugh with their customers.

Backtracking isn’t always a step back. Sometimes, it’s just better branding.

Brought to you by Mekanism.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Soul and Science Podcast is a mini episode
return of HBO Max. So today we want to talk
about HBO Max coming back from the dead, which we
all knew was going to happen when they went away
from HBO to HBO Max and then just to Max.

(00:33):
We knew Max was not as powerful without the HBO,
so we never really let Max kind of stick. We
would always talk about it as HBO Max even after
they dropped the HBO. We've done work on HBO, so
I'm very familiar with the HBO product. We helped them
with HBO Go, which is how it started. Then it

(00:53):
was HBO Now, then it was HBO Max, then just Max,
now back to HBO Max. So in a few short
years they've had I don't know, five or six name changes.
I think it's really dangerous to be playing musical chairs
with your identity like this. Obviously, HBO is such such

(01:14):
a strong brand and it stands for quality content. Max
really doesn't have any brand awareness or brand identity so
to speak of. So HBO on its own would be
stronger than Max on its own, and HBO Max is fine,
that works, but it's still really all about the HBO brands.
That's powerful. So we've seen this happen throughout the years.

(01:39):
Gap in twenty ten revealed a new logo. We actually
were working with Gap at the time. They revealed a
new logo that was met with fierce backlash from customers.
They quickly reverted back to that classic blue Gap logo
because they got such an outcry from their consumers and

(01:59):
from the audience about what a terrible logo it was.
And they only had that logo out there for six days,
so less than a week, and they turned back very quickly.
So that's the power of consumer sentiment and listening to
your audience. Tropicana in two thousand and nine redesigned their packaging.
They got rid of that iconic orange with a straw

(02:19):
image and did sort of more of a clean, minimal look.
Sales plummeted, they really took a hit. They very quickly
after that. I mean, it's a longer cycle when you're
putting a product out there then changing a logo on
a website or changing your name on your streaming platform.
When you're making product, there's a longer turnaround to change

(02:41):
your packaging. But they they as fast as they could.
They went back to their familiar design, and we've all
seen the Twitter to X saga and that rebrand is
still X, but the public overwhelmingly still refers to it
as sending a tweet or as Twitter, and X never
really caught on, just like Max never caught on for HBO.

(03:02):
So I think backtracking is smart and it doesn't mean
you're giving up. It really means you're listening to your audience.
We saw that with Gap Tropicana and now we're seeing
it with Max going back to HBO. I think they're
universally realizing that the HBO is where the value is
and they should not lose that part of their branding.

(03:25):
So anyway, just some insights in the push and pull
of branding and when you have a brand that's very
powerful and strong, whatever you do, keep it and do
not abandon it at all costs.