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Step By Step Branding Is Your Company Logo Important Enough To Make Or Break Your Brand
| Guest post by: Teresa Bohannon |
Article Overview: Some people will tell you that your logo is everything when it comes to branding your business. However, that is not really true. A good logo is important, a great logo is even better; but neither one is even remotely vital to your success. Why? Because when all is said and done, a logo is a visual image that will remind people of your company. The greatest logo in the world will do nothing at all for your success if it just serves as a reminder of a company that people neither like or trust.
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Free Download - The ABCs and 123s of Self-Promotion For Independent and Self-Published Authors Part 5 Successful Blogging By Teresa Bohannon |
Step By Step Branding Is Your Company Logo Important Enough To Make Or Break Your Brand
Many successful companies do not even have a professionally designed logo for their company. Often their logo is nothing more than the name of their business in basic lettering on a brick and mortar storefront, or catalog. The same is true for many owners of virtual businesses-a logo, especially when just starting out, is often just their name in a fancy or colorful font across the top of the site.
This is usually because a professionally designed logo is often considered an unnecessary expense in the beginning when money is tight. Then later when the business is off to a successful start-the, "If it ain't broke don't fix it!" school of thought kicks in and business owners tend to stick with what apparently works. This too is not necessarily true. If you can afford it, and your brand is well established then a professionally designed logo is absolutely a justifiable expense. Why? Because it can be trademarked or service marked...and it transcends mere language! Which means that only your company can legally use it, and anyone, anywhere in the world can tell at a glance that they are shopping at the right place-that yours is the 100% genuine article that they thought they were buying-no substitutions allowed!
Of course, this does not necessarily mean that your logo has to be some fancy or elaborate affair. A logo may still only be a creative or stylized way of writing your company name using bold or italic lettering, a special font, or different colors, or it may even just be a simple picture, or artistic symbol. Think of McDonald's golden arches. It does not matter where in the world you are or what language you speak, if you see those golden arches you know you are going to get a world famous, inexpensively priced, good quality, fast food meal.
Again a logo can be as simple as a stylized version of just one letter or it may even be your entire name, or just an image. Developing a logo may be something you put off until the end of your branding process if you are not sure what you would like it to look like. However, when you design your logo
there are many things to consider--colors, font, overall impression, memorability, and uniqueness.
Colors are extremely important. Make them too bright and they are probably going to come across as just plain annoying. On the other hand too staid can come across as boring. The important thing to remember is to keep your color choices consistent with the perception that you want to create for your business, and with the audience you want to please.
A logo should be short, sweet and easy to absorb in a single glance. Simple and easy to remember is best for both initial impact and long-term memorability.
It is important to search competitor sites and verify that there are no other companies with the same name as yours with a logo that is similar. A good place to start is the United States Patent and Trademark office. Spending a few hours there will help you to make sure that you never accidentally copy a logo that is overly similar to one belonging to another company. If you do not live in the United States be sure to check the resources posted by your own country.
Does a Logo Really Help You Sell? No. The world's greatest and most memorable logo means nothing if it represents a poorly designed, badly serviced or otherwise low-quality product. Think of your logo as a road sign. If it just leads down a bad road...it just reminds people not to go that way.
On the other hand a good logos does provide a positive impact for a business with a good product or service to promote. A company with a logo versus a company that does not have a logo looks more professional and comes across as a more credible place to shop from. This is because a professional logo creates an image. For example, employees wearing plain blue shirts in a store do not look as professional as employees with the same plain blue shirt on and a company logo stamped on the top left chest area of the shirt.
In the end, logos are simply a small part of an overall image. Your goal in branding is to create an image that has an emotional impact when the customers. In other words when they see your logo you want them to feel warm, fuzzy, safe and secure because it represents someone or something they trust!
If you want to learn more about understand and using basic do-it-yourself techniques for successfully branding your business please see the other articles in this series.
Virtually Branding Your Business Techniques For Do It Yourself Online Success
Step By Step Techniques For Successfully Branding Your Business Understanding Your Audience
Basic Branding Techniques For Do It Yourself Online Success
Smiles and Good Fortune,
Teresa Thomas Bohannon
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It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. - W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915
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About the Author: Teresa Bohannon RSS for Teresa's articles - Visit Teresa's website Click here to visit Teresa's website   How Search Engines Work Adopting Creative Thinking Innovative Thinking Power of Concentration Solving Problems |
Related Forum Posts
Re: Your choice between...
- I will take the $100,000 and double it on it becomes millions before I spend it. Though I am crazy about information, yet I would rather take the money and turn it into a million before I spend a dime out of it. I will do it in 4 steps.
Step 1 turn $100,000 to $200,000
Step 2 turn $200,000 to $400,000
Step 3 turn $400,000 to $800,000
Step 4 turn $800,000 to $1600,000.
After getting the goal of step 4, I will spend the $600,000 on myself then continue to double the millions again. I could then by the book for $1,000,000
Step by step approach
- Here's what I would do;
Step 1 - Observe Wal-Mart’s target customers, what does Wal-Mart offer them? How long do they stay? Discover what it is that they might want or need that Wal-Mart doesn't offer, and then write those ideas down. Some ideas to get you started are - A cafe or fast food venue, something for the kids to do while the parents shop, etc
Step 2 - Take that list, and weigh up the pros and cons of each idea, and then select the best one for you. Don't worry about not using all the space.
Step 3 - Start the best business for you, and then release the other ideas to the general market and sublet the rest of the space to those who could fill some of the niches you've come up with, plus any they can come up with. If money isn't a factor then developing the building to suit multiple small leases may be a better option, as it's a diversified income, which is potentially more stable than one big income stream.
Need a book recommendation for writing better
- I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing skills, so I was just wondering if anyone could recommend a good copywriting or copyediting book?
I was actually thinking of reading "The Copywriter's Handbook : A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells" by Robert W Bly [u:w3cg00nn]OR[/u:w3cg00nn] "The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications" by Amy Einsohn. Would anyone know if these books are any good?
Thanks
Re: Video conference system for families living in different cou
- 1) How much will someone pay for the service?
2.1) What costs are involved on the business end?
2.2) What percent on top of that do you think you deserve as profit?
3) How many people will sign up for the service?
These three will give you a rough estimate of the value of your idea.
use the equation below with respect to the questions above to figure out the value of your idea.
((1 - (2.1 + 2.2)) X 3)
You have alread identified major problems for your idea -- you have competition that is free! Computers are easy to hook to televisions, and it is becoming easier at very fast rate.
(For free stuff other than skype, look up NetMeeting if you have Windows XP.)
The video conferencing systems do a poor job of creating the feel of a physical presence.
Even high dollar systems with dedicated internet bandwidth and extremely nice tracking video cameras do a poor job, especially for long distance runs. I have the experienced the disappointing performance of some of these systems on our campus.
Video can not recreate the connection felt when in the same room with another person.
Step 1, Quickly and roughly calculate the cost of the system you propose.
Step 2, Compare that with what you think someone will pay and the cost of your current compeition.
Step 3, Go / No-Go.
Re: What works for you?
- Hi Yinka,
I work better under pressure of deadlines when I am doing something for other people. However, I like to have the leisure to develop my own projects. The first case is what Stephen Covey calls a "Quadrant 1" activity ("Important and urgent") whereas the second case is a "Quadrant 2" activity ("Important, not urgent").
We should aim to make as much time as possible for Q2 activities so that we can develop our own projects. Easier said than done!
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