From 1993 to mid-1996, Digital Equipment Corporation spent $100M per year on advertising while public awareness of DEC dropped from 45% to 23%. Since DEC was hemorrhaging employees as well as advertising dollars, management decided that brand triage was in order, and gave their in-house team eight weeks to cure their corporate identity problems. Working with an outside consultant, they excised the clutter of graphic elements smothering their logo, developed the DIGITAL logotype as an overbrand, established design consistency across all media, developed and enforced guidelines, and watched the patient’s vital signs improve.