Perhaps you already know that you need a logo. But perhaps you don’t know what kind, or why. Plus, there’s the cost. Why spend money on something so…basic? There’s a lot of reasons, it turns out.
The Importance of Modern Relevance of a Professional Logo
As far as its supposed support for your brand’s identity, what does it actually do?
- Starting point: a logo should be one of the start points of the company if you’re trying to build your brand. The logo is the representation of your company, it tells a lot! Logos are used to everything, to create your business card, your social media, your website, your materials, how people will remember you, and so on. The logo has many elements such as colors, shapes, typography, alignment, spaces, a message, and all of this is used (or at least should be used) to build those other products. Changing it later can be a hassle, generating more effort and more stress, besides having issues with customers.
- Separates you out from the competition: If your logo is different from your competition’s logo, this will help them remember you over your competition (or vice versa).
- It helps show customers your identity: Customers are curious about who you are and want to know what you’re about. The graphic, the font, the color combination…it all goes into getting a feel for whether you’re a brand they want to know or not. Many elements and triggers are subconscious, and you don’t know why you fell and what do you fell, but trust us, your customer does think subconsciously. For example, Red and Yellow usually make you remember the food, “Ketchup and Mustard Theory.”
- It shows your professionalism: having a professional logo shows that you are who you say you are. In an industry loaded with amateurs trying to “make a buck” this goes a long way to learning customer trust! A logo tells a lot about the company, and an unprofessional logo will tell this to your customer. It is much easier to lose user trust than to gain it.
What the data tells us
- Takes 5-7 times for viewers to recognize a brand: Statistically, it will take customers between 5 and 7 views of your logotype for them to remember it. The simpler and more effective it is, the better. If your brand changes from use to use, or platform to platform, this will make it harder. Make it right from the beginning, keep it simple, consistent, and effective.
- Color improves overall effectiveness for up to 80%: Over 80% of the most effective logos in the world have one or two colors in them. Sometimes it is offset with white, using the negative space, but the main color is just one shade. Most of the popular logos also use some shade of blue as that one color, 40% of Fortune 500 companies use the color blue in their logo.
- Takes 10 seconds to form an opinion on a logo: In just 10 seconds, a potential customer will form an opinion on your logo. That opinion will decide what they think of your brand and its identity and even its communication technique. You’ll want to make sure that your logo is accurately representative of all of those things!
- Memorable images and shapes: Images and shapes are often a good option to add to your logo, the human brain can process images 60,000X faster than words
- Almost half of your users will take your company’s logo into consideration: Around 42% of consumers say that a logo effectively conveys a company’s personality which means that an unprofessional logo means an unprofessional company, or doesn’t care about its quality or its customers.
- It doesn’t matter if you have good reviews and an awful logo: According to 60% of customers, they would avoid brands with strange, unattractive, or unappealing logos, regardless of whether they received good reviews. You’ve probably been through that too, thinking the same when seeing a company with an extremely poor and amateurish logo done in Word or using those free Google images, right?
Remember: it’s an investment
So many people assume that a logo is just a waste of money to graphic designers, but this is not the case. Your professional brand logo is going to be a huge part of your identity and communication method. It’s an investment that you absolutely must make for your company’s success and future. The data above proves it.
Logotypes are just a part of the whole company’s brand and must be right planned and executed. A good result usually comes with a lot of research, test, applications, versions, improvements, vision, creativity, a good process, professional tools and resources, and many more elements.
Sure, the big names out there may spend over $100, 000 on a logo or $211 million like British Petroleum (BP) spent, but you don’t necessarily need to aim for the same dollar figure as a small business. The key is to focus on the core concepts of your design and then find a professional agency with experience in the market. An effectively designed logo at $1,000 is just as valuable as a $100, 000 logo, after all.
Now you know. All that’s left is figuring out where you fit on the price scale, and how you want to approach your digital marketing for your brand. There’s no wrong answer, other than simply ignoring your need for a logo. Webegin is a 5-star rated and globally awarded business that helps small businesses growth providing creative solutions as a professional logotype, contact us here if you’re interested.