Following is a guest post from our friends over at Long & Short of It, masters of ideation, customer insights and market research. They like to say they “dig and find lots of data and then turn it into actionable insights.” Here are their insights on the logo’s role in the brand platform.
Recently we received an email from a friend who asked for feedback on his new “brand.” He sent us his logo. We wanted to scream, your brand is more than your logo!
Having a unique and memorable logo that can last the test of time is important. What’s more important is what stands behind it. Otherwise, it’s just another pretty design.
Part of your brand is what you say about your company. But predominantly, your brand is every experience your target audience has with your company.
But where does the logo fit into that? The logo is part of your visual identity which also includes colors, fonts, image style, etc. It’s the face of your brand, it’s what people see. But as anyone running a successful business knows, there is more to it than what people see. It’s all the reasons why a customer buys something in the first place and then keeps coming back for more.
So how can your visual identity convey all these things your company stands for? To start, think about how it might reflect the personality, promise, as well as the internal mission, vision and values of the company. Those are some of the core components that can help you define your brand. To define these, start by talking with your internal team and target audience (customers and prospects). Understanding their thoughts and perceptions of your brand is critical in designing a relevant visual identity.
- What words would they use to describe the brand? And why?
- What does the brand mean to them?
- How does it compare to others in the same category?
Continue to be curious about how they think and feel about your company. How do what they say compare to what you think of your company or what it says? Once the information is gathered, it needs to be synthesized into a cohesive brand platform. Only then can you start to develop the visual identity. These brand platform elements drive what the brand should look like. Don’t start with the logo. The logo is the visual expression of what your company stands for – why it exists. And that gets to the core of why defining your brand is important, it helps you tell your story. The story of what you do, why your product is meaningful, and how it can help your customers.
Those stories, expressed in whatever way makes most sense for your company from white papers to billboards, combined with your visual identity is powerful. Because if you don’t tell your story, someone else will.
