EFFECTIVE LOGOS, PART 2
758 words - Less than 4 minutes to read

In the last blog, we discussed general guidelines for logo design (memorable, distinct and representative). This time, we’ll get down to the nuts and bolts of what makes a logo technically and aesthetically good. We discuss this through three elements every logo has: color, shape and style.

SHAPE
A logo is, at its essence, a shape. This is the primary and most important element, because logos are primarily a right-brain recognition tool, and shape the primary step of the process. So what makes a good logo shape?

· Simplicity. The more simple the structure, the more recognizable, memorable and flexible — looking good on everything from business cards to billboards. It should not depend on left-brain activity, such as reading or calculating (which is very different than a word-logo that is recognized by shape rather than read.) Today, the world knows the Apple logo — sleek apple, one bite out of the right side alluding to the biblical Tree of Knowledge. Originally, though, the logo was much less simple. The original logo featured Sir Isaac Newton under the apple tree — try recognizing that on the back of your new iPhone. Designer Rob Janoff quickly replaced the graphic with the current apple shape in 1976 and in 1998, the rainbow stripe was replaced with a monochrome, further simplifying the concept.

· Singularity. Veteran logo designer Bronson Ma stresses that logos should communicate one idea: “Your logo doesn't and shouldn’t say everything about your company but just a few core aspects of it…determined by the brand strategy.” Just like all other marketing ingredients, your logo communicates your key marketing strategic message. If you’re trying to communicate several attributes of your brand, you’re not effectively communicating any of them.

· Space. The logo is not just the graphic. It is also the buffer space around the graphic. Your logo must be protected with a “no-fly zone” of about 10-20%. This prevents the logo from being lost, muddled or infringed upon by other elements.

STYLE
To prospects, clients, investors and employees, your logo is, in many ways, your company. The style you choose for your logo must work for who your company is now and who it will become, for the products you currently sell and those you haven’t even designed yet, and for your current stakeholders and for the generations to follow.

Trendy logos expire. Pictures of your product can be outgrown. Allusions can be forgotten. Logo choice is a commitment. Changing your logo can have huge impact, wiping away the time, money and effort you’ve spent cultivating recognition. Therefore, your logo must be robust enough to weather all sorts of changes.

Furthermore, because your logo sets expectations about your company and your products, it needs to be consistent in representing you. Heavy solid font or dainty script? Dependable or fanciful theme? Cutting edge or nostalgic graphic? Logos should be chosen according to strategic message, not personal preferences.

COLOR
Color is an area that can cause a lot of trouble. Ironically, this is one area where procrastination is a good thing. Look at the logo in black and white. Color can be distracting, misleading and can camouflage bad (and sometimes good) design. Judge the graphic’s shape, style, and attitude first, and then move forward into color.

Once you’ve decided to move forward with a logo design, choose your colors carefully. Much research available on color connotations, and this — again, rather than your preferences - should guide you. Choose colors that communicate your message to your audience.

Secondly, make sure the colors you choose work and can be reproduced in different mediums. Some colors work in full-color, but skew in 4-color. Others look great in ink, but not on your website. Think about long-term expanded uses, such as on clothing (silkscreen & embroidery), television, sponsorship banners and promotional items. Consider what background (“field”) colors the logo might be printed on.

Finally, just as with shape and style, simplicity will be more memorable and recognizable to your customer. A landscape with green grass, purple mountains, blue sky, yellow sun, black birds, white clouds, and oranges on the trees might feel idyllic, but it’s not going to be as memorable as a Tiffany-Blue box or Golden Arches or Starbucks Green.

One last word on your logo: whatever you decide on, document and enforce. Know your pantone/PMS/RBG colors, your clear space amount, and your proportions. Then, be consistent in everything, all the time. You’ve put a lot of thought and effort into choosing the correct logo. Make sure your clients get the benefit of all that work!

EFFECTIVE LOGOS, PART 1

841 words - Less than 4½ minutes to read

Nike swoosh. The Double Arches. BMW’s propeller. At there best, logos are stop signs, allowing your clients to find your product among the throngs and your prospects to distinguish your brand from others on a visceral level. At their worst, logos can be…well, like London 2012 Olympic symbol: jarring, difficult to understand and irrelevant to the message.

Effective logos have several characteristics in common. Part 1 focuses on the conceptual principles of logo design. Part 2 will focus on the technical guidelines for logo design.

Part 1: CONCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES
Effective guidelines share three important traits: they are memorable, distinct and representative.

MEMORABLE
How many times have you gone to the store, only to realize you don’t remembered the brand your spouse or parent always buys? You search the shelves until finally—there it is: the one with the yellow circle, or blue ribbon, or big white letters. A memorable logo allows your clients to pick you out from a field of competitors, even when they can’t quite recall your name or the name of your product.

One example of a memorable logo is the New York classic rebus (a representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols). This logo is recognized, remembered and replicated worldwide. After seeing it only once, most viewers could not only recall its elements, they could probably reproduce it blindfolded.

Nike was so sure that their logo was memorable, they ran a series of commercials that never mentioned the company’s name. The parting shot was simply the world-famous “swoosh”. The commercials worked because Nike had made its swoosh symbol so memorable and so recognized that the viewer, upon seeing the logo, automatically supplied the company’s name. Requiring the consumer to recall the name of the company in response to the picture actually made the commercials more powerful, because it required interaction and discovery. However, the strategy only worked because the majority of Nike’s audience remembered the name of the company when they saw the swoosh.


DISTINCT
If you’ve ever traveled to a country that used a different alphabet, you probably had the experience of finding (often with relief) American soft drinks. And although you couldn’t read the writing, you knew whether it was a Coke or a Pepsi you were about to imbibe. Red with white ribbon? Coca-cola. Blue with a tri-colored sphere? Pepsi. The logos are so distinctive you don’t need to understand—or even see—the writing on the can. It wasn’t always that way, though. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that Pepsi changed its logo from red script to the block letters that distinguished it from Coke. Pepsi evolved its logo to be distinctive, and loyal consumers were able to find their beverage much more easily.

REPRESENTATIVE
As with every marketing effort, your logo should reinforce your brand in the mind of the customer. For instance, The bottled-water producer Dasani has built its brand around clear, refreshing water. Their well-chosen logo has clean, blue, fluid graphics. The design reinforces the image of the product it is promoting and communicates an expectation to a thirsty consumer: buy our water, and experience clear, pure refreshment.

NBC’s recognizable peacock quietly reminds us of its long history in the television industry (it was originally introduced in 1956 with NBC groundbreaking movement into color broadcasting), but it stays representative with its allusion to the variety of programming the NBC networks offer their viewers.

Your logo must reinforce your message in the eyes of your customer. The Olympic committee, who paid $800,000 for the design, stated that the 2012 logo is a cutting-edge appeal to the young people of the world. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge says that it "captures the essence of the London 2012 Olympic Games—namely to inspire young people around the world through sport and the Olympic values.” However, the general reaction is just the opposite. Rather than innovative, the image strikes people as 80’s retro, harkening to Miami Vice and bad perms. Compare this to Sony’s PS2 logo, which resonates with the demographic group the Olympic committee is trying to reach. This sleek logo makes the 2012 graphic look trivial and chaotic. As always, targeting your audience correctly is critical to building your logo, your brand, and your entire marketing recipe.

Sloppy communication and targeting is bad, but a logo with a double-entendre can be lethal. Logos that suffer from optical illusions can make your brand unappealing, the butt of jokes, or even offensive. For example, the logo to the left was used by a local pediatric center. While the image was intended to be an endearing picture of a parent and child, the logo was scrapped when the company discovered their visual blunder.

A powerful logo helps your prospects remember, find and differentiate you from your competitors. A poor logo can contribute to your demise, but a great logo can give you an immense advantage and contribute directly to your bottom line.

Next week, we’ll build on these general principles with tangible technical guidelines for creating your logo.

THE POWER OF PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS
650 words - Less than 4 minutes to read

Companies invest almost $17 billion every year in promotional products, and with good reason. Used correctly, promotional products are seen 10 times as often as a billboard, have triple the recall rate of banner ads, get increased referrals and result in sales over half the time. Unfortunately, most companies misuse this advertising ingredient and waste both their money and the tool’s potential.

The key to harnessing the power of promotional products lies in communicating the right message to the right people through the right product. Many companies use a shotgun approach to promotional products. They buy large quantities of items and distribute them liberally at tradeshows, parades, and in the course of daily business.

Donna Bender, president of the Donna Bender Company and recent guest on my radio program the Marketing Point, says this approach squanders the potential of the medium. Ms. Bender worked for brand giants like Eddie Bauer, Laura Ashley and Salvatore Ferragamo before starting her own promotional product company. She was dedicated to the idea that promotional products used properly result in improved relationships and ultimately, an impact to a company’s bottom line. And what constitutes proper use? Three points: Brand Consistency, Targeted Audience and Value.

BRAND CONSISTENCY
If you’re a Marketing Chef regular, you know this point: Every marketing tactic you use should come out of a unified marketing strategy (in Marketing Chef parlance, your Marketing Recipe.) Promotional items must follow the rules of consistency just like any other advertising ingredient. As Ms Bender says, what makes a successfully branded company is that “everything they do, and everything they give out speaks exactly to who they are.”

Your promotional items need to fit your brand, whether that brand is based on dependable security or youthful energy. A company known for refined luxury giving away cheap refrigerator magnates, or a hip clothing company presenting staid leather-bound planners would not only be ineffective. It would actually undermine those company’s respective brands. Therefore, when using promotional product, find items that reinforce your message.

TARGETED AUDIENCE
In using promotional products, more coverage is not necessarily better. Gaining name recognition with the wrong audience is a waste of your effort and budget. Just like your other advertising efforts, the promotional product’s audience should be closely targeted.

Most often, the target will be the decision maker within your niche market. However, promotional products can be creative ways to get past roadblocks, through what Bender calls, “Romancing the Gatekeeper.” A useful gift to an overworked (and normally overlooked) admin might just result in years of good feelings, and more concretely, in getting appointments that your competitors can’t get.

VALUE
Narrowing your audience has another benefit: the ability to give more valued gifts. While it’s true that a gold pen set costs more than a cheap ballpoint, you actually make a bigger impact with a smaller quantity of highly valued gifts. Rather than spending your budget on unwanted trinkets for people with little buying potential, you can invest in your relationship with a few top clients or prospects.

The longer, more often, and more prominently the recipient sees and uses your gift, the more he or she thinks good thoughts about you. With a little thought, you can put something truly appreciated on the desk or in the home of a person who can influence your business for years to come. That appreciation becomes tangible—the value the recipient places on your gift can translate directly to loyalty, to a sense of reciprocity, and ultimately, to sales.

So rather than spending your promotional product budget on inexpensive items that you can distribute widely, invest in the relationships that matter by giving items they’ll keep, use and see for years to come. Finding a gift that’s consistent with your brand and that will be appreciated by your targeted audience is the key to unlocking the power of promotional products.

POSTSCRIPT For more on promotional products email me at info@TheMarketingChef.com. You can also call The Marketing Chef at 972.444.9310 (direct), or toll free (US) 877.252.2995.