How Does Your Logo Affect Your Business? A logo is for a company what a face is to a human! It is the first impression which a consumer, a client, a vendor or anybody sees of the company. The logo is what makes the statement about the company on who, what, they are, how and what do they do? Each and every business, be it a Fortune 500 company or a garage start-up, require a logo to depict what their values and ideas are in a very simple, everlasting manner. Hence, it can be summarized that the Logo of a company is the most important branding tool for the company. In the following paragraphs, we will see how a logo does affects its consumers?
Let we first see what some of the most famous logos of the world represent: ● ● ● ●
Mercedes – A Tristar – depicting their monopoly over the three surfaces of transport, Road, Sea & Air. Nike – A Swoosh – A wing in the air of Greek Goddess of Victory, representing a victory of athletes Amazon – written name with an arrow beneath – The arrow represents smile and everything from A to Z Tour De France – texts over a yellow circle – The letters form a cyclist with the sun in the background.
Similarly, a logo should represent the essence of the company or business. The core idea behind a business is generally reflected in a logo. A logo should stir emotions inside the person who sees it. It should be the first and foremost picture which comes to mind when the person thinks of that company or that kind of work. For ex.: When you think of burgers, McDonald’s logo
pops up in our head. When we think of sports shoes, Adidas or Nike comes up. This is due to the fact that our brain has associated the products with these logos irrespective of the style, brand, place or requirement. A perfect logo is the one which not only reminds the viewer of your company name but also about your products, and how do you go about on your business. Your appeal to the customer, his first choice amongst the competition, always depends upon the logo. A logo’s shape, size, colour, text, font, and placement everything contributes to impacting the viewer’s mind. We will get to these aspects in detail below: Shape The shape of the logo affects the consumer by making him think of how the company would be working. A business logo with a round or a curvy shape will seem like a soft, caring and feminine, whereas the logo with an angular shape will be seen as firm, rational and masculine. Similar experiments were done for a shoe brand. People were asked about the characteristics of a shoe from a brand which had a circular logo. Most of them perceived it as comfortable. While the same shoe, when depicted with an angular logo, was touted as more durable. Companies like Pepsi, Starbucks Beats feel like more open in their approach and also their products are comfort inducing. Similarly, brands like Gatorade, Mitsubishi, Caterpillar bring a feeling of firmness, rationality in our minds. Colour Each of the colours invokes a different set of emotions in our minds. We associate every colour with different feelings and we feel the same whenever we see that particular colour. ● ● ● ● ●
Red – stands for Excitement, Boldness, Danger, Romance – Coca Cola, 3M, F1, Exxon, Canon, Adobe, Puma Blue – stands for peace, calm, serenity – Unilever, Skype, Boeing, GE Health, Twitter, Nivea Green – environment friendly, nurturing – Heineken, John Deere, Tropicana, Acer, Android, Land Rover Yellow – Fun, energy, exuberance – McDonald’s, Burger King, DHL, Ferrari, IMDb, Ikea, Nikon Black – strength, precision, professionalism – Sony, Mont Blanc, Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Continental.
Texts or Headlines A simple line of text or a headline to a logo impacts the majority of decision on a viewer’s mind. It supersedes the colour and shape of the logo and confirms what the shape and colour of the logo depicts. In a study, it was found that a jacket with a tagline of durability but a circular and yellow coloured logo sold less in compared to the same jacket with the same tagline but with an angular black logo. When a viewer sees a tagline describing the product as exciting or fun, but the colour of the logo comes out to be black, they are very less likely to go for the product. Hence a headline should match the overall vibe of the logo. Symbolism and Imagery Some of the logos use predefined symbols and imagery to depict their values. Such as the eagle in the US Seal depicts Freedom. The presence of a bull in the Lamborghini logo depicts the power and the owner’s love for bullfights. Apart from the visual aspects, there are some other aspects as well which one should keep in mind before designing their logo. A logo should be ● ● ● ● ●
Simple and Easily recognizable by using clear imagery Versatile across all formats and media Relevant to the nature of business or product Memorable so as to keep people connected Enduring to stand the test of time
A logo is capable to induce various areas of a brain and when the right areas of the brain is illuminated a perfect connection is formed with the brand. A logo of a Well-known brand trigger the positive areas of the brain which are generally used to identify the friendly relations between humans. Hence, a good logo is biologically perceived as somewhat similar to a good friendship which makes us keep the trust on the brand.
Creativity + Knowledge + Technical Skill = Brainwaves