Logo Design and Branding

Branding That Works

There’s much to be said about the staying power of a brand to make a product or service retain in the minds of your target clients. Without the right brand for your business, you won’t have a fighting chance of getting your clients and prospects recognize you amongst so many with the same type of products and services.

Why do you think the golden arches are very popular all over the world? Or that the cowboy on horseback lighting a cigarette after a day’s hard work is very familiar? It’s all because of the brand. The brand makes it possible for your target market to recognize your ad and marketing campaign.

So what is a brand? According to one marketer, branding is a method of providing your company with the means to differentiate yourself from your competitors, and eventually create a strong bond between you and your clients. Your brand provides the credible and reliable image that encourages loyalty among your customers.

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Tags: target clients, target, brochures, business, logo, clients, promote, prospects, brand

More Ideas For Promoting Your Brand

Whatever industry you’re in, the very thing that is constant (in addition to change and financial loss) is competition. Let’s face it. We cannot discount that any form of competition is what makes retail business thrive.

They’re there whether you like it or not. The only way you can go around them is to actually rise above them. Competition brings the strength and aggression that makes retail businesses such as yours to remain standing.

It’s a doggy-dog world in any business industry. While you can’t direct what your competitors should do, you can nevertheless lessen the impact they’ll make on your retail business.

Here are more ideas to promote your brand, and hopefully, get you to stand out among the rest.

Reduce Expenses; Increase Advertising

Although you would want to lessen your expenses this year, it shouldn’t be that you have to cut back on your advertising campaign. In addition, the rest of your competition would be increasing their promotional campaign when you’re decreasing yours so you’d better step up especially during slower sales time.

Most of the time, your operating expenses alone can eat up much of your company’s budget. But if you could tweak it a bit further, you’ll realize that you can actually decrease on some of the expenses and add on your marketing campaign.

Think Out of the Box

In marketing, the most creative usually gets the most clients. For your marketing collaterals - be it flyers, brochures or postcards – using unconventional designs distinguish you from the rest of the competition.

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Tags: promotions your brand, promoting your brand, branding your, brand development, brand promotion, designer, your brand\'s, importance of branding, branding and design

Many companies have established their brands and seeped their way into the public’s consciousness through a successful corporate branding campaigns. Today, for example, “Prada” is synonymous with bags while anyone who wants to buy a digital camera needs only to go to an electronics store and say “Kodak” to be shown the store’s different digital cameras.

One of the strategies companies use to try to create buzz for their products and services and establish their brand is to give away promotional products. Try attending any corporate-sponsored event and you’re bound to get gift items emblazoned with a company’s name, logo and contact details. In fact, a survey conducted by Sweeney Research in 2003 indicated that companies in the United States spend around $13 billion every year on promotional products alone.

Companies’ willingness to spend a substantial amount on promotional products like pens, mugs and in some cases, cheap digital camcorders can be explained by this simple fact: they serve their purpose.
Corporate giveaways for one, have greater recall value. A study made by the Promotional Products Association International indicated that 76% of people are able to recall the name of a company they saw on a promotional product while only 56% can remember the business that advertised on a print publication they read in the past week.

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Corporate Design

by: Jonathan Foster-Smith

A rough guide to corporate identity

The tabloids report the millions spent by large corporate companies on their logos as a scandal… Those small swathes of colour adorning British Airways’ tail fin, ICI’s letterhead or Sainsbury’s checkout seem to come at a huge price.

So do these companies have too much money and not enough common sense? Are they victims of designer indulgence, or are they getting a good deal?

This isn’t rocket science, but it is often misunderstood, as the tabloids flagrantly show. Let’s start at the beginning. Every company has a corporate image. Every company from Joe’s One-Man Taxi Co. to IBM. It may be good, it might be bad. Put simply, corporate identity is the way in which an organisation is perceived.

Corporate identity describes the individual characteristics by which a company is recognised. It is the organisation’s sense of ‘self’ - the corporate individuality or personality. Visual identity (that’s the logo) is a pretty big part of it.

So how deep into corporate identity do you want to go? Let’s really confuse matters.

The public, customers, employees, the city, all have a vastly different image of the same company. The image is an accumulation of a company’s past and present identity. Each and every encounter we have with it (by phone, in person or through the media) alters our impression. First impressions (what psychologists call the “primacy effect”) are vital to how we see the company in the future, and extremely difficult to change. Future encounters with the company and its products will only add to the mosaic already constructed in our mind (the “recency effect”), rather than replace it.

But the multi-nationals have bought far more than just a logo. They buy a carefully designed face - corporate plastic surgery, an appearance, an identity. And they’ve paid for a lorry-load of thinking behind it. They have funds and enough at stake to really do the job properly. The logo isn’t plucked from the sky, but selected with precision from thousands of others which were cast aside during its design.

A research team identifies the company’s needs (they are all so very different). A corporate ID programme uses the results and a design team is briefed. Ideas lead to solutions, and stage by stage presentation to the client for discussion and refinement.

Once completed, the ID is usually ‘rolled out’ gradually, strictly enforced by lengthy guidelines covering all possible applications. The advent of desktop publishing has both helped and hindered in-house bastardisation of corporate identity. Without consistency, the identity is ineffective, probably damaging.

There are companies in the UK still unconcerned by their image. Some feel the company is not developed enough to begin work on its image; others perceive astronomical costs, or just don’t care that their corporate communications look like the office dog ate them. And some just slap a logo on everything in sight.

You don’t have to spend millions on corporate Identity !

Many household names would not exist without painstakingly designed and instigated schemes that we as customers seldom even consciously consider.

So what of those companies who don’t have millions to outlay on corporate identity programmes? Fortunately, the corporate identity for a smaller company tends to be far simpler.

Your corporate identity programme can be conducted in-house, just as the research and much of the development. Always keep it very simple, and brief an appropriate designer not a print company. Make sure you get on with them, and see some of their past work. Get a rough quote before you start. Cut down any wrong trees they are likely to bark up. Inspire them. Be direct. Be patient. Be decisive. Give them ‘creative freedom’. Ensure they get to know and understand your business. Try to see your company from the point of view of your target market.

Keep the number of presentations they make to you to a minimum. This adds importance to those meetings. Don’t compromise, but do stay open-minded. It doesn’t have to be expensive, and an investment in a well thought-out corporate identity for your business will reap its cost many times over, not to mention giving you a massive advantage over your badly-dressed competitors.

Next time you walk down the street, look out for Sainsbury’s which is certainly tasting better at last. It took their designers nearly three years to lose the ‘J’ and find a replacement for that ghastly orangey-beige. Check out Barclays’ gorgeous new global eagle. And while you’re there, you might remember that Tesco not so many years ago looked a little bit like Kwik Save does today. Next time you decide to skimp on the presentation of your company, think how much you spent on your best suit. Don’t turn up to the ball in your jeans!

About The Author
Written for In Business Magazine by Jonathan Foster-Smith from Shine design - http://www.timetoshine.co.uk, distributed by Whatprice - http://www.whatprice.co.uk

articles@whatprice.co.uk

Tags: design logo, retail branding, sub branding, corporate logos, custom logo, top logos, brand strategy, logo creator

Why Branding is Important

Your brand is more than a series of words; it is your corporate identity. Your name and logo should tell people who have never been to your establishment something about you. Your brand should be strong enough to convey a message and a feeling in an instant. When you run a small newspaper ad, besides a Website, phone number and address, your logo may be all someone has by which to judge your business. If your logo design looks professional, it alone may be the reason that someone decides to visit your coffee establishment for the first time.
When you are developing your identity, first define your target or niche market and make sure your branding speaks to those groups. For example, if you are located close to a university or college, your branding should appeal to the young adults who will probably be your main source of income. If your operation is in a downtown district, it would be wise to create branding that will be attractive to office workers and business people. If you’re in a suburban shopping mall, you will probably want to develop an identity that will engage mothers, shoppers and area residents.
Properly executed branding can set small chains and independent retailers apart from the big chains. World Cup Coffee & Tea, a small chain in Portland specializing in organic, shade-grown, fair-trade and relationship coffees, has created branding with thematic ties to its niche market-coffee consumers who are interested in the social issues surrounding coffee. So its branding is colorful and fun, with an International and ecological flavor, suggesting an affinity with the environment and sustainability issues.
I have seen many small companies make the mistake of choosing an identity too quickly. Sometimes when Bellissimo arrives to train retailers on-site, the first thing we see is a sign with a poorly designed logo. We do our best to explain how to use these ill-conceived logos, but to be honest, if the identity is not professional, do you want to see it everywhere you look? A good rule of thumb is to have as many people as possible look at your prospective logo design before you invest any money in it. Garner the opinions of people whose taste you trust.
Taste may be subjective, the law is less so. From a legal standpoint, it is extremely important to check with your attorney before finalizing your name to avoid copyright infringement. Every state has different laws regarding business names. A client of mine in Arizona wanted to register the name “Caffe Paradiso,” but because there was already a “Paradise Café” in the state, my client was unable to use the name. In other states, the name may have been acceptable. Make sure you follow the proper registration procedures in your state so you will not have to change your name years later because of an infringement violation.

Written by: Bruce Milletto
Source: www.expresso101.com

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Creating a Brand that Sticks

by Eileen “Turtle” Parzek

Most people, when they hear the word branding, think logos - but in fact, branding is really much more than that. A brand involves blending the image, purpose, and focus of your business, with your core marketing message, and coming up with something which will stick in the minds of people who encounter it. As a business or an independent professional, it is who you are and what you do, packaged neatly, clearly, and memorably. A logo is only a tangible representation that works to reinforce a brand. So - what kind of personality does your business have? Is it conservative and solid? Outgoing and fun? Or robust and strong? And, what is your business focused on doing? Whom do you want to work with? How does your business differ from the competition? And what makes it so special, after all? Do not try to name every special quality or unique selling point - you can actually build a brand on just one unique quality! Once you can answer these questions, you can begin to create your brand. The question is what you want YOUR brand to leave behind in people’s heads. Practically any business or professional can benefit from a strong brand. But branding is even more important for micro businesses and independent professionals because they face tighter competition. A well executed brand and identity can help them compete on a larger playing field, appear more professional, and stand out from the hordes of competitors. Once you determine how you want to be remembered, your image and your message will need to communicate that. The image can simply be a consistent look used in all your correspondence, a logo that marks everything that comes from your business, and the identity you use on your web site and brochure. The message can be a tag line, your 30 second “elevator speech,” and woven through the content on your web site.

Kids establishment logos

A logo is only one manifestation of brand identity, used to create a memorable impression, but it is useless if you have not clearly defined your audience and the focus of your business. There are plenty of clearly branded businesses using only consistent fonts or colors in their marketing collateral. But whatever you decide chose one image to stick with through all your business communication, and make sure that image is professional. In other words, if you do not have the resources or finances right now to have a professional image developed for you, work with less, rather than using badly formatted clipart or a layout that makes you look amateurish or cheap. That approach can only hurt your business and your brand, so find the level that works for you without a negative effect. Once you determine what brand you want to create, and have developed an identity to accompany it, the work has just begun. You will need to vigilantly reinforce your brand every moment you are in business. Your brand needs to affect everything your business does, everything you and your employees say, and every bit of information that comes out of your office. Letterhead, invoices, proposals… these should all consistently promote your brand. In your voice mail, in your email sig, and every time someone says, “What do you do?” your brand should come out to shine. Domain names and web site content should, again, reinforce your brand. Everywhere you use your brand with consistency, you are communicating with the voice of your company. Be aware, though, that this does not happen overnight - your brand will need to build over time. Develop a strong brand, and use it consistently, and more and more often, your brand will pop into people’s minds when they have a need that you can provide.

Eileen ‘Turtle’ Parzek is a veteran web designer and an online marketing & communications consultant who has been working from home and virtually since 1995. Her first business, Turtle’s Web, was responsible for approximately 250 web projects. Her current business, SOHO It Goes! (www.soho-it-goes.com) specializes in providing technology driven design, marketing and communication services to small businesses and organizations

Photography- Focus on Product

Concentrate on determining the finest features of each item of merchandise, and then on focusing the interpretation through the camera lens. Through design of the spread (making sure that nothing gets overpowered or lost,) and through the photographic display, it can be assured that each product gets its fair share of attention from the prospective customer. More on Photography …

More on Branding for Longevity

Tags: brand marketing, brand strategy, business branding, importance of branding, image branding, laws of branding

What is Branded Email & Why You Need It!

By Tom Martin

Imagine a world in black and white. All cars are black, all TV commercials are black, all magazine ads, all newspaper ads, all advertising and marketing is black and white. Think of how many times a day you are exposed to a medium that is designed to sell or market to you. Now, think of all of these in black and white. Welcome to email. Prepare for a difference.

Before we go any further, what is “Branded Email.” Most companies have never heard of this term, understand this term or know exactly what it is. Branded Email is email sent out on a one to one basis with corporate branding elements included in the email. The branding elements can include corporate logos, website links, tag lines and the overall look and feel to match the company website and/or paper company letterhead.

Branded email is here to stay. It is an opportunity that cannot be missed. Under the most conservative figures, over 7 billion emails are sent each day. Some reports show that number to be closer to 30 billion with an anticipated 60 billion emails send per day by 2006.

Email is taken for granted and all attention to this magnificent technology is focused on mass mailing and email marketing. Why is it that we never think twice about the 5-10 emails we send a day? Lets do some quick math to illustrate the impact everyday email can have. With 20 people in a company sending 10 emails a day, over the course of a year on a 5-day workweek, that company will be sending out over 48,000 emails! 48,000 pieces of one-to-one communications are sent as plain, black and white correspondence. This is equivalent to sending out 48,000 letters on plain white paper! An incredible missed opportunity!

Individuals in charge of their corporate image have not placed enough emphasis on their electronic communications. One-to-one email correspondence is a direct link to the hearts and wallets of the customers. We like to use the analogy of CPR when dealing with email. Every email sent deals with “C”, “P”, “R” - Customer, Prospect, and Relationship. They are a customer, a prospect, or an established relationship. Company customers are only customers until they have been targeted as a prospect of another company. With global ties and instant communication, the staging front for the retention and acquisition of a fan or customer falls into the “Inbox”.

Branded Email turns your plain emails into professional corporate representations. Today, email is becoming one of the most important tools a company has. With so much time spent in creating all of the companies marketing and advertising pieces, why is so little spent on the tool they will use the most? We cannot stress enough the importance of your everyday email and the impact it has on those who receive it. Every company, every day, everywhere is fighting for space in someone’s “Inbox”. Whether it is a large corporation or a small corporation, the fight exists and in the “Inbox”, the company size holds no bearing.

The inbox is the modern day interpretation of a level playing field. What lies within the content of the message is the perception of reality and the level at which that company operates. Small companies, who leverage their inbox strategies, increase their odds for success and growth.

Email has stayed stagnant long enough, it is time to take advantage of what we presently have and make it work for us. With global trade barriers shrinking by the day, you must do all you can to ensure that you retain the right to your customers and fight the Inbox battle.
About the Author Tom Martin is the President & CEO of OnLetterhead, a leading provider of branded email solutions for customers ranging from individuals to the Fortune 500. For more information on branded email for you, visit our web page at http://emt.onletterhead.com

Tom Martin is the President & CEO of OnLetterhead, a leading provider of branded email solutions for customers ranging from individuals to the Fortune 500.

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To Brand or Not to Brand - That is NOT the Question.

by Donna Lehman
Think you can’t afford to pay attention to branding? That it’s only for the rich and largest? Think again. No matter what size company you are – you really have no choice. Your brand exists in some shape or form and if you don’t invest in managing your brand, it will manage you, perhaps to oblivion.

Before we get into convincing hard numbers and business cases, let’s do something a little fun. I propose that brand is so pervasive that you can actually use it to identify where someone is from. Kind of like an accent or inflection of speech. It is, after all, our experiences with a brand that shape it.

Take this “From Where In the U.S.?” quiz:

Let’s start with something near and dear to most of us: food.
What mayonnaise would you swear is the best and search for in the market?
A. Hellman’s
B. Best Foods
C. Miracle Whip
D. None of the above

If you answered
A. You’re likely from the east coast states and refuse to call it Best Foods, even if you move to California.
B. You are from one of the states west of the Rockies. You’ve never even heard of Hellman’s, so why does they’re label look the same? Because they are.
C. You’re likely from the Midwest, Missouri in particular, and you make really sweet potato salad. (Sorry Grandma)
D. Can’t tell where you’re from. Maybe you hate mayonnaise.

As a kid, one of your favorite sweet snacks after school was:
A. Hostess Ding-dongs
B. Drake’s Ring Dings
C. Moon Pies
D. Scooter Pies
E. None of the above

This tells me that:
A. You’re from St. Louis all the way west to California. If you know them instead as King Dons, then the east coast. If you recognize the name Big Wheels, you’re from someplace else.
B. You’re from the east coast – NY/NJ – and think that DingDongs are rip-offs.
C. You grew up in the south, especially Tennessee, and typically ate these with an “RC Cola” to wash it down. Talk about sugar overload… (http://www.moonpie.com/hist_text.asp)
D. You’re from the eastern seaboard, and wondered what in the heck a “Moon Pie” was.
E. You’re from Canada and ate something called “Wagon Wheels”.

And for a non-food one that gets so specific you’ll think I’m psychic…
You need to get new clothes for the whole family, something nice to wear to Grandma’s birthday (where you will not mention the too-sweet potato salad), and you want reasonable selection, affordable prices. You head to the nearest:
A. Famous-Barr
B. Robinsons-May
C. Filene’s
D. Kauffman’s
E. Foley’s
F. Hecht’s
G. Meier & Frank
H. The Bay

And I will gaze into my crystal ball and pinpoint your location as:
A. Specifically Midwest – WI, MO, IL, IN, KY
B. The Wild West only – CA, NV, AZ, UT. Showdown, anyone?
C. New England. And don’t let any of your friends drag you into Filene’s basement in Boston…you won’t come out alive.
D. The industrial belt - NY, PA, OH, WV
E. The Texas, NM, OK, LA kinda’ south
F. Mid-Atlantic states where they have soft drawls and soft-shell crabs – MD, VA, NC, and parts of TN
G. Northwest Territory– WA, OR
H. Canada – where they eat Wagon Wheels

(Maps available at: http://www2.mayco.com/common/index.jsp)

How was that for brand identification? All of these brands started locally, without the war chests of advertising dollars that people think are needed today. They are memorable because of the experience we had with them – which was consistent and positive - so we told our neighbors. And we developed strong loyalties.

If I could turn MarketUP into the Moon Pie of the small business marketing world – well, let’s just say my Tennessee Grandpa would be proud.

Sounds simple, but it’s not that easy. Here are some of the compelling facts that result from religious brand building:

At a recent branding seminar which I attended, one of the speaker’s provided some staggering numbers related to valuation of a few of the largest global brands.

Coca Cola at #1 tells the story:
Total Valuation - $115 Billion (give or take)
Brand value - $70.45 Billion (about 61%)
(source: Business Week, 4 Aug 2003)

Anecdotally, Ford is said to have 75% brand valuation. You can guess what the stats are for Microsoft, IBM, MacDonald’s, Nike, Intel, etc.

“So what?” you might be thinking, “I’m not in that league. I can focus on selling and networking. No need to spend time and money on that BRAND stuff.”

Certainly the deep-pocket conglomerates have had plenty of time and money to build the kind of numbers that take your breath away. But it’s not just the advertising spend that got them there. They had to start and continue with a vision, products people wanted, service that satisfied and made their customers talk about them, creating more customers. That’s what brand is all about.

Brand Building on Any Budget:
1. Articulate your vision, and stick with it. No flip-flopping. No re-inventing every year. No re-naming to stay trendy. Take the time to clarify who you are and what you offer. The exercise alone will be worth it. Then build your communication tools.

2. Deliver your products and services in a consistent way that satisfies people. They WILL talk about you. And according to David Thompson, CMO of Webex (“We’ve got to start meeting like this.”), the only true brand measurement is this: Your customers are willing, nay, ANXIOUS to refer you to others. Amen.

3. Make sure your brand is communicated by everyone in your organization and anyone associated with you. Bad to say, “We are a high-touch service provider” and have someone call your phone number only to go into an endless, impersonal phone script hell. Be honest about your value.

4. Yes, it will also help if you develop a “look and feel”, those somewhat scary words that conjure up $$$$ and endless rounds of designers comps. It doesn’t have to be like that. The dot.bomb era should have weaned anyone of that notion if nothing else. Money was flying around paying for the jazziest names, logos, taglines and websites. And it kept flying…far, far away. Famous? You want famous with out frill? Try “Hewlett-Packard”. “HP”. Two names. Two blue initials inside a curved frame. Starting in 1939 they didn’t launch ad campaigns, they instead delivered consistent innovation. Tagline: Invent.

5. Measure. Be persistent. And real, and sometimes creative. But, be yourself.

I’m going online to order some authentic Chattanooga, TN Moon Pies to be delivered, which I will then have with a Starbucks, not an RC, that I will have purchased from a Starbucks location, because the brand experience is so much more rewarding there than at Albertson’s. (Where there is a Starbucks kiosk, but it is an extremely disappointing extension of the brand.) Starbucks – are you listening?

Further reading along the same lines:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/layton1.asp

http://www.marketingprofs.com/3/arruda7.asp
Small Business Branding: The Personal Connection

Brand history and fun facts sites:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/fhellmansmayonnaise.html
http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2879첥

Donna Lehman welcomes comments: dlehman@market-up.com

About the AuthorMs. Lehman is Founder and Principal Consultant of MarketUP. She authors Knowbits, a monthly ezine of marketing tips for small business. MarketUP is a Berkeley, CA based consultancy for a number of startup and small-mid sized companies. Prior to MarketUP, Donna spent more than 17 years doing design, communication, and B2B marketing for start-ups and Global 100 conglomerates in various industry sectors

Tags: website branding, what is branding, importance of branding, custom branding, online branding, marketing and branding, business branding, brand marketing

A Passion for Logo Designs

We have been talking about the third age of branding for some time. The BrandLoop newsletters have looked to discuss some of the elements of such branding practices. One key area is that of differentiation. In the current marketing environment it is all too easy for new products and services to be copied, rendering competitive advantage often only short-term. One area that enables logo designs to stand apart from the crowd is a passionate set of consumers, or possibly even logo design owners. Moreover, the consumers or logo design owners are definitely champions of the brand.

A logo design that is able to generate a level of passion will have a distinct advantage as it makes a stronger emotional connection with its target audience. For instance, does an Apple user have a different relationship with the computer than a Windows user? Why are some drivers passionate about their cars while others are not? Consequently, a passionate logo design offers the brand owner the possibility to market the product or service in different ways. logo design or line extensions may be easier to launch; a higher level of feedback from consumers enables better logo design development. Importantly, passionate consumers may undertake a lot of the marketing for you through generating word of mouth or “buzz” about the logo design.

Defining a passionate logo design

In order to define a passionate logo design we need to uncover some of the traits that they may display. Some suggestions:

The logo designs are most likely to generate buzz, to get people talking about them.
They may enjoy cult status.
They could be aspirational.
They could be luxurious.
They may be a “badge” for the consumer’s lifestyle.
However, a passionate logo design does not need to be expensive, luxurious, aspirational or even individual. A key trait is the very high level of emotional engagement with the consumer. A driver who is passionate about his or her car may not be driving an Aston Martin or a Ferrari. He or she may have an inexpensive mass-produced vehicle but the attachment to the car is emotional for different reasons such as a relationship with events that have taken place with the car or the role the car plays in the driver’s life. Therefore a definition of a passionate logo design could be as follows:

A passionate logo design is a logo that possesses a level of emotional engagement with its target audience far beyond the level that would normally be expected.

What does engagement mean?

This high level of engagement is loyalty to the logo design taken to the extreme. These are consumers who would probably not buy an alternative if their brand was hard to find. They consume the whole of the brand, not just the product. An example of this loyalty is clear in the consumer outrage when Coca-Cola changed the formula of its core brand. Soon the original, Coca-Cola Classic, was back on the shelves of retailers. Fashion logo designs such as Nike or adidas may also experience these levels of loyalty when consumers tattoo the “swoosh” icon or the three stripes onto their bodies. It is as if the logo design has its own fan club.

Engagement could also mean having a substantial impact or encouraging a major change in consumers’ lives. The logo design adds something different.

A lifestyle thing

A passionate logo design says something about the person. The logo design forms part of that person’s lifestyle. By using a particular brand, the consumer is saying something about himself or herself. The logo design adds to their personality.

Furthermore, the passionate logo design can also indicate that the owner of consumer belongs to a select group. This could be a fairly exclusive group but not necessarily so. Sports logo designs such as football clubs could fit this description. Another area of interest could be fashion brands where the logo design encourages a level of passion amongst their wearers. Again, the logo design acts as an identifier for the consumer and firmly places them within a select group, making a statement about their lifestyle.

The growth of Web sites, mailing lists and other communities built around logo designs is an example of how a passionate logo design can act as a bond between consumers. Some marketers actively encourage the development of communities around the logo design. This has the advantage of not only keeping their best customers happy but it can also be used as part of an opinion leader strategy, helping to develop new products and services and gaining critical feedback from the most important consumers.

Focused or generalist

Is a passionate logo design highly focused on one particular category or can the brand span different, unrelated categories? Apple is highly focused. Its area of expertise is not computers but creativity and it targets specific niches within the computer market that require a higher level of creativity. This contrasts with the generalist approach of the Intel/Windows PC. Consequently, Apple’s focus provides strength within those sectors and helps to develop passion for the logo design amongst its users.

Could Virgin be described as a passionate logo design? Certainly, its challenger approach and ability to move almost seamlessly across product and service categories suggest a high level of consumer engagement.

Delivering passion

The other side of a passionate logo design is where the logo owner is passionate about the logo design. We suggest that where a brand owner is able to demonstrate this level of passion, he or she will be in a much stronger position to deliver a great customer experience. Often a company’s founders can be seen as possessing that level of passion. Sometimes when a brand or company is sold, it loses that passion and therefore the inertia it has as the new owners may acquire the assets but not the passion of the original owner.

A logo design owner who is passionate about the logo is energetic and enthusiastic. In an ideal world this is radiated throughout the company so that the whole workforce is engaged and able to deliver an enhanced customer experience. This has major implications for the way in which internal marketing is handled in the organisation. Good and effective internal marketing has the potential to engage employees and make them passionate about the brand.

Marketers that wish to deliver passion must work to ensure that they recruit the best staff and use internal marketing to help to develop that passion. It may be more effective to recruit staff who are able to communicate passion for the logo and then train them in the brands. The sandwich chain Prêt à Manger is an excellent example here of how the organisation can employ staff who are “on-message” from the start and are therefore passionate about the brand. Such an approach means that the staff deliver a higher level of customer experience.

Implications

Marketers who have passion brands are in a very fortunate position. The task is to identify whether there are any such logo designs in the portfolio and, if so, how this aspect can be developed and encouraged. Not all logo designs can be described as passionate so it is important which brands possess this trait and how the brand marketing can be developed to reflect this.

Can a new logo be developed so that it becomes a passion logo design? There is no reason why this cannot happen as long as the conditions are right. The brand and its marketing need to make that necessary emotional engagement with consumers. This could start by following the Brand Experience route so that the logo design has multiple consumer touch-points and allows genuine dialogue between the logo (owner) and the consumer. Product performance and customer service must be exceptional. Product failure or disinterested staff do not encourage the development of passionate logo designs.

At the same time it is important to identify something that is unique in the logo design. This is beyond a USP and beyond its features and benefits but something that is almost loveable. This starts to help form an emotional attachment beyond the mere functionality of the logo design. Furthermore, there should be something inherently enjoyable about consuming the logo design. For example, using an Apple computer makes you more creative, driving an Aston-Martin is a driving pleasure, wearing certain logo designs of clothes or jewellery makes you feel happier.
A Passion for Brands, April 2004
Written by: BrandLoop Newsletters
Source: http://www.throughtheloop.com/knowledge/brand.html

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