Not Just Pretty | Building An Effective Small Business Brand

Q&A: Changing Your Brand's Colors

QUESTION

Can you give me your opinion on changing the colours in your logo to suit different types of advertising.

What impression does it give, and will it effect long term establishment of that brand/logo.?

ANSWER

For a small business, I recommend NOT changing your company's logo colors (aside from using a color version and a black and white version where applicable). One of your logo's primary jobs is to be memorable. One of the best ways to become memorable is by being consistent with your logo and brand's appearance. You should have a set color palette that you work with because color is one of the most powerful parts of the initial impression - people often remember the colors of a brand earlier than they will remember the logo's icon or even the company name.

There is the occasional brand where changing the logo's color palette becomes a part of the brand's statement. It gives the impression of variety, wide-ranging scope, ability to change, and flexibility. This will be added to the impression that the different colors you've chosen have But, since this type of business has more variation in their look, it usually takes longer to build and establish memorability, and to train your clients to expect to see the brand in different colors.

"When do we put the TM symbol on our logo?"

This is a question I get a lot from clients who are thinking of - or even starting to - register their logos as trademarks.

Here's some advice from the US Patent and Trademark Office website:

Anyone who claims rights in a mark may use the TM (trademark) or SM (service mark) designation with the mark to alert the public to the claim. It is not necessary to have a registration, or even a pending application, to use these designations. The claim may or may not be valid.

The registration symbol, ®, may only be used when the mark is registered in the PTO (Patent and Trademark Office). It is improper to use the registration symbol at any point before the registration issues.

Please omit all symbols from the mark in the drawing you submit with your application; the symbols are not considered part of the mark. 

My advice? 

It's actually a bit of a tricky issue. There's the TM symbol, which basically means "I'm thinking about, or am in the process of registering my design as a trademark - or I just have this design and want to claim it as protected".

Then there's also the ® (register mark) symbol, which means "I went through the paperwork with the US Patent and Trademark Office and registered this thing!".  You're not allowed to use this symbol in trade until you get the certification that your logo has passed their tests.

So, you should actually go through a 2-step process, technically. And wind up with 3 sets of logos: No symbol (you need this to register, and it can come in handy down the line, in case you're printing anything that's too small to have the TM symbol look good), TM and register-marked.

But, what does that mean to your materials?

It means that you'd have to create 2 more sets of logo files (they take about 30 minutes each to generate, and aren't included in the standard package deliverables). But, that's the easy part.

It also means preparing and printing business cards twice, or waiting to print them. Once with the TM and then again with the ®.

And, that extends beyond just business cards - you'd have to change it everywhere. On anything you have printed as well as all digital instances of your logo - your Microsoft Word letterhead, invoice header, website, Facebook Fan page...

What do you do?

I've had companies go through all of the iterations (because, who knows how long it will take the USPTO to process your stuff).

I've had companies just wait and go to the ® (skipping the TM version) when they're registered.

I've also had companies who are registered decide not to add the symbol, ever, even though they're registered. They tend to put notices in their legal materials on their website.

Disclaimer

I'm not a trademark lawyer, so I can't tell you which is best. If you're really concerned about this issue, you might want to find a lawyer and talk to them about it.

Do You Have A Vector File Of Your Logo?

A vector file of your logo is one of the most valuable items that you can have in your small business's brand kit.

What is a vector file?
It's a file that was created in Adobe Illustrator or a similar drawing program. It's called a vector file because these programs enable you to create designs that are based on a series of points and lines, instead of just coloring in pixels. This makes your logo design more scalable.

What might you need it for?
If you're designing anything that you need your logo to be larger or smaller for, starting from the vector file and scaling that first will give you a crisper, clearer result. That will look more professional than a blurry logo.

Vector files also don't have background color in the file - so you can layer the logo over a new color without having funky edges. For example, if you need to put your logo in an ad with a dark background, then there won't be a white edge around the logo.

Last, vector files are easier to modify. If you need to change the colors for any reason (perhaps you have a 3-color logo but you're printing 2-color promotional items to save money) - then you can do that with a few clicks, and get a crisp and clean result.

Who might want it?
Printers, other graphic designers, website designers, advertising companies, t-shirt and promotional product printers all might want your vector logo.

How can I tell if I have one?
Go through your set of logo files (you did get more than one from your designer, right?) and look for a file that ends in .ai,.eps or even .cdr. If you don't have any of these, but you have a PDF of your logo, you can have me or another designer try opening that file to see if it's a vector file in disguise.

What if I don't have one?
If your designer only gave you a JPG of your logo, then never fear. When you have a need for a vector file, a designer can trace the JPG logo for you and create a scalable copy. Just make sure to get copies of the new files - and to keep track of them for future use.

Creating A Logo That Stands Out

The third part of that question is about designing a logo that stands out. As a small business owner, you should:

1. Research the competition. If you don't know what you're standing out against, then... well, you know. Find out what your competitors look like before beginning. Tell your designer!

2. Define, define, define. One way to make your logo stand out is to really know what your business is all about. A logo that's backed by meaning is a lot more likely to really get noticed.

Then your brand designer should:

3. Research the trends. Your designer should be up-to-date on the latest logo trends - and know which ones fail and which ones work. There are lots of resources online about this, like this one: LogoLounge Trends 2009 

4. Infuse it with feeling, passion and energy. You can tell when a drawing has energy behind it. If your logo has this important element, then it will reach out to customers instead of blending in.

5. Make sure it's visually unique. Use shapes in a different way. Overlap things. Create drawings that look like two things at once. Make the drawing itself interesting.

6. Create an eye-catching color palette that is flexible enough to be used not only in the logo, but across all the other marketing pieces. Look at color trends, bright colors, unusual combinations. Use color psychology to choose your colors.

7. Font treatment. I usually recommend that a stand-out logo should not use any of the fonts that come standardly installed on Macs or PCs. Find an interesting font that helps engage the viewer.

8. Lay out the logo in a unified way. Create balance in your logo layout, but make it interesting. The logo icon doesn't always have to be to the left of the text. It can be above it, inbetween lines of text, or off in the upper right. Do something intriguing with the layout.

9. Get feedback. Especially from your small business's target audience - they're the ones "buying" the logo. Ask them for specific reactions and see if you can improve the design. We're not looking for design by committee here, but for good suggestions that you may have overlooked.

Then you'll be on the road to a stand-out brand! 

For more information on designing a stand-out brand, get my ebook, "A Roadmap To Designing A Stand-Out Brand". Get it here!

Deciding On Your Logo

The second part of this week's question is "How do you decide what logo to create for your business - one really pops out, bold in color"?

First of all, I recommend that you hire a brand designer to create your logo. Hire a brand designer because they will look at the overall brand strategy and how you will build and grow your company. Logo designers and graphic designers don't do this strategic piece.

Look for a designer whose style matches your preference. Otherwise, branding will be a struggle. It can also help to give a designer samples of logos that you like to steer them in the right direction. Tell your designer that you're looking for a bold logo.

Keep in mind that your logo's main job is to communicate with your target audience. So, first you have to define your target audience. Who are they? What do they like? Can you find a few of them to act as a review panel during the logo creation process?

Then, define the rest of your brand story. If your brand designer doesn't know what your company is about, they can't design a brand that will work for you. They need to know who you are (your business's personality), what you do, and what makes you different.

Hand all that over to your designer and wait for your first round of designs. They should be full of great choices. Narrow down the options and then pass them by your review panel of target audience members. See what they say!

Refine the logo based on your audience's feedback and your designer's expertise. Look for a logo that's bold and unique, but also timeless - so that you don't look dated in a few years.

Then start using the logo on all of your materials - a logo won't work if people can't see it.

Branding Question: Logo Design Decisions

How do you decide what logo to create for your business? One that really pops out, bold in color and appeals to almost everyone?

I'm going to take the last part of this question first. 

It doesn't matter if your logo appeals to everyone - unless you're creating a mass-marketed product that everyone will buy (which is a big undertaking for any small business).

Your logo specifically needs to appeal to your target audience. And, as a small business, your target audience cannot be "everyone". That approach will only water down your message and make marketing more challenging - and often less effective. 

You need to get really specific about who your best customers are, what they want, and how you can help them. Then you design your brand to fit them!

More on this question in the next post.

Branding Question: Getting A Consistent Look When No One Is On The Same Page

How do I get a consistent look when no one appears to be on the same page?

Consistency is incredibly important - and sometimes hard to get. This is especially hard when you have many designers working on different projects. Here are some tips on how to make this happen:

1. Create your brand story, and circulate it to everyone in the company. This means giving it to the sales team, your vendors, your contractors and all of your staff - down to the administrative assistants. It should be a part of your training package

2. Make sure you have a set of logo files and that you make them available to all designers. This way, they'll have clean, usable copies of the logos to work with.

3. Create a consistent visual vocabulary and make the elements and specifications available in a brand asset collection and supporting documentation. The supporting documentation is often called a Brand Guide and lays out the rules for how the brand assets and visual elements should be used. These books also frequently have a "how not to use" section where you can put past mistakes and call out why they didn't work.

4. Consider creating templates for major marketing campaigns, or for certain marketing tools. Have your designers work off these templates so that everything does match.

5. Tell everyone that brand consistency is incredibly important, and that it will be a focus of the company's marketing from now on. Telling people specifically what you want can help. If they can't get with the program, consider hiring new designers who are really good at consistency.

6. Pare down to 1 designer. If you can, hire just 1 designer full time. It's easier for 1 person to be consistent with themselves. If you can't, make sure the designers have frequent check-in meetings to make sure the projects they're working on are consistent.

Your Logo's Job

Your logo has a few jobs:

1. To communicate your brand story to your target audience. It can do this with a meaningful picture, or icon. It can communicate through the choice of font - fonts all have different meanings. And it can communicate through its' color palette.

2. To be scalable. Your logo needs to able to be as big as a billboard and as small as a postage stamp and retain its' legibility. And still look good!

3. To be legible. If you can't read a part of your business name in your logo, the logo becomes somewhat useless for introducing a new company or building a new brand. Don't make your customers work unnecessarily hard to decipher it.

4. To act as the visual keystone in your brand. Your logo will appear on all of your marketing materials. Some of the visual aspects of the logo will be echoed throughout your other design elements. Make sure that your logo can take on this responsibility.

5. To represent your company - proudly. You want to be happy with your logo. You want it to instill that little spark of pride, of "this is mine" for you. This doesn't mean that it has to be in your favorite colors, though. You should be proud of your logo's communication capabilities - and know that it tells your brand story in the best possible way.

6. To appeal to your customers. You want your customers to be happy with your logo. To really like it, and to be glad to be affiliated with it once they hire you. Part of this is built through the logo itself - making sure the colors, fonts and image appeal to the clients. The other half of this is reputation - delivering a great product or service so that people have a good feeling about your company and your materials.

What Brand Design Does For A Small Business

What does brand design do for a small business that a logo can't?

A brand gives your small business:

• A face - which is incredibly important for service businesses. The image helps make what you're doing more real, and more tangible.
• A set of visuals that you can use to help communicate to your clients. Many people are visual learners, and remember what they see better than what they hear or read. 
• Consistency in marketing, so that each "impression" - or viewing - of your brand adds up with the others and creates more memorability.
• A professional appearance. People like doing business with others who look "put together".
• A framework for creating additional marketing materials. You're no longer starting from scratch, but you have a map of what your pieces should look like and where to go from there.
• A big business presence - and big business impact. A well-constructed brand makes you look bigger than you are - even if you're a 1-person business, working from your couch.
• The confidence to market. If you're timid about marketing, an impressive brand can make getting the word out easier, because you want to show it off!
• Confidence from your clients. If they see that you have invested in creating a brand, and spent the time to think about your intentions. This makes them more confident that you can handle their problems.
• A strategy. Branding begins with strategy - examining your business's differentiators, USP and target audience. This strategy helps guide your marketing and business growth.
• Organization. A good brand has to be organized - in the thinking behind it, the way that it grows, the way it's presented and created. This organization shines through to your clients.
• The tools to stand out. If you create a visually interesting brand, that communicates to your best clients, and shows the story of your business, and then use those components in an organized and consistent way, your business's materials will stand out from the competition.

A Logo and A Brand: What's the Difference?

Today's Biggest Branding Question: What's the difference between branding and logo design?

I'm going to talk about this question as it relates to small business branding. Because, that's where I specialize.

Logo design is a part of brand design. But, a brand is not just a logo design. 

What is a logo? A logo is a unique, meaningful design that's paired with your company name in an interesting and cohesive way. The logo also has a color palette assigned to it. It must be scalable, able to be reproduced consistently in all of your marketing, and timeless - so that it doesn't get stale or look old too soon.

What is a brand?  A brand is "The collection of perceptions that your customer has about your business". Note that the brand lives in the customer's mind - and in the way that they perceive your business. But this doesn't mean that the brand is out of your control. You can control your customer's brand perception by defining your brand and designing eye-catching, stand-out graphics to communicate that message. Then, use those graphics consistently throughout all of your marketing communications to build brand value.

Aspects of your brand that you have control over include:

1. The story that you're telling about your business. The first step in branding is to figure out who you are, what you do, what makes you different and who your best clients are. And, to put that all together in a simple, easy-to-say and easy-to-understand brand story. Use that as the foundation for all of your visual communications, business and marketing writing, and your marketing design and strategy.
2. Your logo. Your logo should be designed to visually tell your brand story and to be attractive to your target customers (best clients).
3. Your Visual Vocabulary. Your logo is just one piece of your visual communication tools. If your marketing materials just had your logo and text on white paper, that would be a big start, but you'd be missing some big opportunities to making your designs more eye-catching. Your visual vocabulary is all of your additional graphics - like background colors or patterns, header designs, stock photos, your headshot, borders, special treatments for buttons or special offers, images of your products (like a product shot of your ebook), and your font styles and color palette. This gives you more tools to create stunning designs for your brand.
4. Specific marketing material designs. The design of your business card, letterhead, brochure, ebook cover, website, blog, ezine, and even your Twitter page are all a crucial part of your brand. These materials should reinforce each other and match without blending together too much.

So, a brand is much more than a logo - it's the consistent message that you tell through your unique graphics. A brand helps your business shine.