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Update Your LogoBy Kim T. Gordon Your logo is a visual representation of everything your company stands for. Has it become dated or taken a back seat to other visual images that represent your company’s identity? When you survey your customers and examine your competition, is there confusion about what you do or stand for? A good logo should communicate something about the nature of your business, product or service. So if this vital design component is out of step with your message and customers, it’s time to bring it up to date. There are essentially three kinds of logos. Font-based logos consist primarily of a type treatment. The logos of IBM, Microsoft and Sony, for instance, use type treatments with a twist, some added element that makes them distinctive and unique. There are logos that literally illustrate what a company does, such as when a house painting company uses an illustration of a brush in its logo design. And there are abstract graphic symbols – think of Nike’s "swoosh" – which become linked to a company’s brand. "Such a symbol is meaningless until your company can communicate to consumers what its underlying associations are," says Wharton marketing professor, Americus Reed II, who has conducted research into the triggers that lead consumers to identify with and become loyal to a brand or logo. And building that mental bridge takes time and money. The Nike swoosh has no inherent meaning outside of what’s been created over the years through savvy marketing efforts which, according to Reed, have transformed the logo into an "identity cue" for an athletic lifestyle. Small businesses can rarely afford the millions of dollars and years of effort required to create these associations, so a logo that clearly illustrates what your company stands for or does may be a better choice. Even a type treatment of your company’s name may be too generic, according to New Mexico-based logo designer Gary Priester (www.gwpriester.com), a 35-year design veteran who believes customers should be able to tell what you do just by looking at your logo. Essential Tips Here are three tips to help you create a logo that forges a link between your customers and your company identity. 1. Focus On Your Message Chances are, your core message has evolved significantly over time. So decide what you want to communicate about your company today. Does it have a distinct personality – lighthearted or serious? What makes it unique in relation to your present competition? And what’s the nature of your current target audience? These elements should play an important role in the overall redesign. 2. Make It Clean and Functional Will your revised logo have to work as well on a business card as on the side of a truck? A good logo should be scalable, easy to reproduce, memorable and distinctive. When updating an older black-and-white logo, select colors that match your image and audience. "Red is very aggressive, blue and green are more passive and softer," says Priester, who takes cues from the product or service and the target audience when deciding what the colors should be. 3. Avoid Trendy Looks If you radically redesign a well-known logo, you run the risk of confusing customers – or worse, alienating them. One option is to make your logo change gradual. According to Priester, Quaker Oats modified the Quaker on its package over a ten year period to avoid undermining customer confidence. But don’t expect to make multiple logo changes. Instead, choose a logo that will stay current for 10 to 20 years, perhaps longer. That’s the mark of a good design. When Priester designs a logo, he expects never to see the client again. Get In-depth Coaching on this Topic>>Kim T. Gordon's columns and articles are read by more than 3 million small-business owners each month. She is a small-business expert and the author of four books, including Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars: The Top 50 Ways to Grow Your Small Business. Copyrighted material. May not be reproduced in whole or part without expressed permission from the author. |
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