I received a query this morning from my good friend, Zach Ferres, owner of BounceHost, an IT, web development, and hosting company. Zach is refining his company’s service offerings, and this has led him to re-branding. Zach has sent his design requirements to several designers, and has been having a hard time deciding which logo he should choose. I have been privileged to be included in his decision process, and follows is some of the advice I shared, which you may find useful.
“Hi Zach,
When I design a logo I think of the following things (among others) that may help you in your decision:
- Does the proposed logo strongly relate to your company, products, or services?
- Does it convey the brand image of your company, product, or service in an accurate way?
- How quickly and easily can it be interpreted by the viewer?
- Especially with small companies on a budget, will it reproduce well in black & white for inexpensive printing without losing the idea?
- How will it be used? Web, print, signage, billboards, vehicle signage, t-shirts, hats, etc… Is it simple enough to convey what you do and brand image quickly if it’s on a billboard or vehicle sign, viewed at 50 mph?
- If it might be used on an embroidered shirt or hat, can it be reproduced in that medium easily…without killing your budget?
- Will it detract from the medium it’s used in? Will it complement the message or overtake it?
You are suffering from choice overload. You are going about it the right way, given that you now have so many choices… the process of elimination is important. Narrow it down to 2 or 3, and let the remaining ones lurk on your taskbar or print them out. Walk away. Several hours or a day later, look at them quickly, and see what you gravitate to immediately. Your first impression is probably the best (your customers aren’t going to give it more thought than that).
Cheap Market Research:
Show your choices to others, and take only their very first impression. Email the two options to customers, put them on your Facebook page, take a vote. This will give you opinions and make your customers feel important and invested; you are engaging them, and this is always good!”
If you’re in the same decision process, putting your favorites into a design mock may be very helpful. What does it look like on a business card or on a web page? This can often lead to design considerations you may have overlooked! This will also lend perspective. Remember, your logo is important, but it’s only one part of the marketing materials you will use. Don’t let it get lost, but don’t let it take over and eclipse your message!
Do you want to vote on Zach’s new logo?
Here are my favorites from his choices:
Brand image is a multi-channel process:
- Sensory Cues:
Visual Cues. This is the logo, the look and feel of your marketing materials, including your website and collateral, and if you have a product, the packaging and the product itself. Brands can be heard too! How about the type of music played in your store or on your phone’s hold message? Though visual cues are what we think of most when describing a brand or planning marketing materials, all the senses affect what your customers perceive. Try walking past the Starbucks in the mall. Doesn’t the smell make you want a cup of coffee…or am I that weak?
- Messaging:
What you say and how you say it. If you talk about the longevity of your product (and you back it up), your audience will get the message and see you that way. You’ll have the best success if you use the language your audience speaks. If you have more than one market segment, you may use different messaging to reach each segment. Messaging is delivered in many ways; taglines, brochures, websites, product descriptions, and social media–today’s word on the street.
- Product & Services:
Take away the message, take away the visual cues, the cool logos, the awesome packaging, and you are left with your actual product or service. Think about what you offer, how you offer it, the consistency, the durability, the way it’s delivered. Is it consistent with what you want your customers to think of when they think of you? Do your products deliver on their promise?
- People:
Are your employees providing services representing you in the way you want? Take a job with a retail clothing store, and you’ll find that many have guidelines requiring their staff to wear their apparel. Abercrombie and Fitch targets teens and very young adults. Have you ever seen a fat, balding man on their sales staff? If you show neatly dressed employees on the brochure for your cleaning company and the person who shows up is sloppy, dirty, and rude, your brand wil be perceived differently than you intend. Think of your people as your frontline brand ambassadors.
Even for the smallest of companies, the perception of your brand is important. Conceive and create it carefully. Reinforce that image in everything you do. Consistency counts.
What is a Brand?
First it may be helpful to define what a brand is not. A brand is not a name, though certainly many companies have “brand names.” A brand is not a logo or a trademark, though they can be an important visual part of your brand.
Probably the simplest way to describe a brand is…what your customers thinks, perceives, and experiences when they use your company, products, or services. A company may have many brands; think Proctor and Gamble and the multitude of brand products that make up their offerings.
Wait. It’s what the customer thinks it is? Yes, and your brand may mean different things to different people. Think Nike. To you, the Nike brand may mean quality sportswear that lasts a long time. To someone else, it may conjure up images of famous sports figures, and have an element of authority, capability, or (as I suspect Nike hopes) a “cool factor.”
One of the major pursuits of the marketing process isn’t to define the brand, it’s to try to influence collectively, what people think of it in a way that will spur them to action and buy.
It’s called brand image.