Not Just Pretty | Building An Effective Small Business Brand

Rebranding and Logo Design

Does rebranding your business mean that you need to – or should – redesign your logo?

Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine whether you need to redesign:

• What is the purpose of this rebranding? What changes are you making in your business, and does your old logo match the new brand?

About the logo:

• How long have you had it? How much have you used it?
• Do you like the logo? If you do, it might be worth keeping. If not, this might be a good reason to change it.
• Do your clients react well to your logo? If they do like it, are the clients you're working with now your ideal clients for the new brand?

About whether redesigning the logo is appropriate or if it should be started over:

• How much are you changing what you're doing in your business with your new brand? If you're moving too far away from what you used to offer, then you would be better served by starting over with a fresh logo, to visually signal that you've made a change.
• How well does the logo print/ reproduce on your marketing materials?

Send the right message

An article of mine from a while ago - still true!

Here's the link to it:

http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/articles/18972/1/Send-the-right-message/Page1.html#

Send the right message

3 easy ways to create a clear, uncomplicated logo

Have you ever come across a company logo that looked like a jumbled mess of drawings? Where there were so many elements competing for your attention that you didn’t even know where to look or what it all meant? The job of your logo, says brand identity expert Erin Ferree, owner of Elf Design, is to communicate what your business is all about in an instant. But if you try to say too much in that instant, Ferree notes, it’s more likely your customers and prospects will either not get the message or get the wrong message.

The key to avoiding a confusing logo is to keep it simple. Ferree offers these easy steps to create a clear, uncomplicated logo as part of a corporate identity development strategy — a logo that communicates your key message to your target audience:

1. Don’t try to say too much. Your logo should tell the story of your brand. That story is made up of four parts:
   
   • Your company’s personality
     
   • The type of services or products you offer
     
   • What distinguishes you from your competition
     
   • Who you can best help
   Once you develop your brand story, scale it back to one or possibly two main ideas that you want customers and prospects to instantly see in your logo. If you’re trying to tell a complicated story, then your logo design will reflect that and have little impact. Again, simple is best.
   
2. Don’t include too many details in the icon. A logo that contains a lot of visual elements may turn out to be too complicated. Keep the number of shapes, lines, and other design elements at a minimum to make the image as clear and clean as possible. If you include too many design elements, it’s more likely that when you scale the logo down, some of the finer details will be blurred, and it may not print well.
   
3. Keep the icon and the name of your company separate. If you layer your company’s name on top of the icon in your logo, it can be difficult to read. Moreover, if you include text on top of the icon, the concept may get lost. Separating the image and the company name will make both easier to read and understand.
   

Does Logo Placement Work For Small Businesses?

In a small business sense, product placement often means putting your logo on others' marketing materials - getting them to post your logo on their website, or on a brochure, or a business card. But the question here is — does that really help your small business to gain more recognition and, bottom-line, to get clients?

I think the answer can really depend on the type of company you're trying to align yours with. Does it make sense for your logo to appear on their materials? Is your product or service related to theirs in a way that a potential client would see the buying connection?

Also, what is the deal that the other business owner is trying to strike with you? Do they want to put your logo on their website out of the goodness of their heart, or do they want you to pay an advertising fee? If they do want a fee paid, then look carefully at their traffic statistics and visitor types, so make sure the price they want to charge will offer you a good return on investment. 

If they want you to sponsor their print run of marketing materials in exchange for putting your logo on the back corner of a brochure, really examine whether the design would show off your logo, and whether people would even be likely to notice your logo at all. If they do notice it, they'd still have to look at it long enough to react and then do some research on your offerings - it may not be worth the cost.

So, the short version of this is, if you're offered a logo placement deal, look at:

- Cost to your business

- Level of exposure you'd get (how many people would see it)

- The type of client who would see the other marketing materials (are they even a good potential client for you?)

- Whether the other business is a good "buying connection" for your business (when someone purchases their products/services, would they even be looking for yours any more?)

Then weigh these factors to see if placing your logo on the materials would make sense.

Trademarking process: an inside view

What's the process for trademarking your logo like? How do you go about it? What happens?

I've been asked these question often. I don't know all of the legal stuff that goes on behind-the-scenes when you're trademarking a logo, but I did trademark my logo a couple of summers ago, so I can tell you a bit about the process.

First, I designed my logo. Then, I sat with it for a bit to make sure that I liked the logo well enough to stick with it for a good bit of time. I also wanted to make sure that the logo worked for my clients as well, and that they reacted well to it.

Once I figured out that my logo met these qualifications, I looked into the options for a company to help me through the trademarking process. I wanted something affordable, yet, knowledgeable and helpful. I went with www.legalzoom.com.

They had an easy form to fill out, plus I uploaded my logo art to their site in black and white. 

A couple of weeks later I got a big book of research back from them on other logos that might compete with my registration. Part of the fee was refundable until I OK'd the process from a perspective of the competition - and whether I thought that I'd be able to get my logo registered once it made it to the government level. 

Then I looked through the book, decided that nothing in there was particularly close to my logo, and sent my OK to Legal Zoom. They did all the paperwork and sent it all to the government people.

After another (long) while, I heard back - the government sent me a scary letter that looked very official. I opened it, and inside there was a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo about how I couldn't trademark the use of the word "design" by itself, because that term was too general. That was a relief - I was sure the thin envelope was going to be telling me that my trademark wouldn't be granted at all. So, I had to sign away any possible claim I might be trying to establish to that. Well, I was pretty OK with that... so I signed the form and mailed it back.

Then another long, silent time went by. Then, one day, a big lovely envelope arrived in the mail. Inside, there was a folder with all sorts of certificates and official-looking papers, that basically said that I own the trademark to my logo. Yay!

After celebrating a bit, I changed the TM sign on my logo on my marketing materials and website to the circle-R symbol. 

That's how it went for me. Your mileage may vary - but the process was pretty painless when I did it!

Two occasions where having a representational logo makes sense

For a small business, I almost always recommend designing an abstract logo icon based on the problem you're solving for your clients instead of going with a representational logo. 

But, there are usually exceptions to every rule.

Here are two occasions where representational logos (logos that look like something, like a car or a baby or an animal, for example) make more sense than abstract logos:

• Where the business is selling a physical product, which people are buying because they want to have it. Sometimes the greatest reason that customers buy is because they want to own the thing in question. It might make sense to actually draw your product as your logo in this case. 

• Where the rest of the logo is mysterious. For example, if you're promoting a service with a long name, and you've chosen to use initials only in the logo. In this case, where the name of the business is not used in full, having a representational logo to clue the viewer in on what the logo is all about can really help to make the logo more accessible instead of adding to the mystery.

Having a hard time getting the logo you want from your designer?

If you're working with a designer, looking for "just the right" logo, and you're frustrated in the process, here are some tips to help you get your logo done right:

1. Make sure you're working with a designer who can work in a style you like. Check out their portfolio and make sure that they've done work that inspires you. And, if you're having trouble creating results with your designer, reconfirm that they have done the work in their portfolio - that those samples haven't been done by subcontractors or other employees in their firm. Also, let them know which specific samples you're drawn to.

2. Gather other examples of the logos that you like. It's important that you send your designer logos, not photos or paintings. And, if there is one particular part or thing about the logo that you love specifically - the font, color palette, something about the icon - then tell your designer what it is. This way, they'll be able to get a sense of your visual taste, instead of having to guess at your preferences.

3. Define your business. Too often, a client will give their designer just the bare bits of information about their business - the business name, and the services or products they provide - and then expect the designer to read their mind and perform a miracle. With so little information, how can a designer be expected to really "get" what you're all about, and to translate your personality and individuality into a unique logo? Tell them about your business's mission, what excites you about it, how you'd like your clients to see your personality. Tell them about your clients - who they are, what they need, what their problems are.

4. Give detailed feedback. Instead of saying "I don't like them" when your designer presents the lgoos to you, and then ending the conversation there, get into a dialog with your designer about the options they've offered. See if there's anything in any of the logos that appeals to you - or any rough direction that interests you. Don't just dismiss everything because it's not perfect in the first round - getting anything just right usually takes a bit of practice.

5. Break the design process down. Sometimes, a logo won't seem right because it's in the wrong color palette, or matched with the wrong font. Focus first on the logo icon, and then look at the font. Apply color last so that the color doesn't distract you from the merits of the design.

If these steps fail, then perhaps the best logo for you isn't one that you personally love - but your business may be better served by creating a logo that appeals to your clients:

6. Keep in mind that the logo's job is to appeal to your best clients - not to just make you happy. Instead of just thinking about whether you personally like the logo, show it to some of your best clients and get their opinions on it. It's actually better to have a logo that your clients like than to like it yourself in some cases - because the logo's job is to help them see your personality and to remember your business, not to just make you proud. 

These steps may help to get you closer to having a logo that will work for your business - instead of going around in circles with a designer, coming up with nothing but frustration.

What are the latest trends in brand identity in areas like treatment of logos, graphics, colors, etc.?

First of all, there's a great annual round-up of trends here (this is 2007's version):
http://www.logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=540

But, when it comes to designing a brand for a small business, I don't recommend following trends just for the sake of following them.

If you do follow a trend - whether it's a logo design trend, font trend, or color trend - just because it's hot right now, then you risk having a brand identity that will look dated in a few years. Remember all those swoop/swoosh technology logos back in the late '90s? Those companies either look dated now, or they've had to redesign.

Making your brand last is one of the most important considerations for a small business. Why? A bunch of reasons, actually.

- Designing a brand takes a lot of thought and effort - and to design a good brand, it's usually not exactly inexpensive, either. Better to do it once and get it done right the first time.

- Once you start using your brand, you'll start building "brand equity" for your business. Brand equity is basically a fancy way of saying that your brand becomes valuable for your business because your customers start to remember your designs, trust what your designs and your business stand for, and your brand starts to build credibility for you. You don't want to lose this brand equity down the road, or to switch your designs out on your customers and prospects because that can alienate them from your business.

So, how do you know what your brand should look like?

Instead of basing your brand on trends, or avoiding the trends that you see just because they're trendy, what you need to do is to choose a design that reflects the personality of your business. If you base your designs on who you are, what you do, what makes you different from your competition, and trying to communicate those three factors to your best possible customers. If some sort of design trend, or trendy color, happens to communicate those factors for you, then go for it!

An Example

One current trend in logo design is shields, according to Logo Lounge. But, instead of being a trend-based logo, a shield makes symbolic, brand-definition-based sense for this company. This virtual assistant provides protection for small business owners against arduous administrative tasks – hence the shield.

Should you put your icon inside your business name on your logo?

QUESTION:
What do you think about putting a logo icon inside the business name? For example, a circular icon in place of an "O"?

ANSWER:
I don't recommend placing the icon in the name. It reduces both the legibility of the name and the scalability of the logo.

Sure, it looks cool, but for a small business, the legibility/scalability are more important to the success of your brand. You don't want to make reading your company name any harder on your viewer.

The people looking at your logo are already in a hurry, and probably not paying a whole lot of attention. If you challenge them further by trying to be clever, you could confuse them, frustrate them, or even make them think that your name is something else - if they mis-read the icon as a different letter, then that's no good.

Placing the icon beside, above, or in some other orientation separate from your business name, then you'll get more impact for your logo.

Your logo font's 4 jobs

1. To be legible: Your business name needs to be able to be read easily, quickly and clearly. Make sure the letters are spaced well, so that they don't bleed together. Make sure that the letter shapes are distinguishable from one another - that your lower case i doesn't look like an l, for example. Also ensure that you can read it at a glance; most people won't pore over your logo, they'll just skim it.

2. To be scalable: Your logo should be able to be blown up to the size of a billboard and scale down to the size of a postage stamp, and to be readable across all of these different options. Make sure that the legibility doesn't suffer when the size is changed.

3. To make your business name look good: Choose a font that includes good letter shapes for all of the letters in your business name. For example, some lower case g's look pretty funky - so if your business name includes a g, you may want to stay away from fonts that include strange g's.

Also, if you have a long business name, consider using a lighter font so that your business name doesn't dominate the entire logo - you want the font to be balanced with the icon. This sample shows what happens to a logo when the fonts are in balance versus out of balance:

You might also want to vary the font so that the most important words in the name stand out, and to give the logo more visual interest. This can be as simple as changing color, size or weight/boldness of the font, or using 2 fonts together for more variety. Here are some examples of those techniques:

4. To support your brand definition: This is the last job that your font has, and this can show itself in a few different ways in your logo, depending on how much of your brand story is told by your logo icon.

If you've told most of your story through the icon, then the font just has to support that.

Examples:

This logo is clean and modern looking logo icon because their business's personality is cutting-edge. When paired with a modern, bold font, the logo's meaning is reinforced. But, if they used a traditional serif font for their text, the font would contradict the icon.

In this logo, the icon and font both say "strength" and "well built". But, if we switch the font out to a lighter version with a bit of a tilt to it, the logo suddenly looks much less stable and like it's ready to topple over.

But, if there's still a bit of your story to be told, then a contrasting logo font can help reveal the rest of your brand. This creative consultant wanted to show that she could be both highly creative and artistic as well as business savvy. The font brought an otherwise eclectic logo back down to earth. If she'd chosen an artsy font as well, then her seriousness about her business would not have been communicated as clearly.

More on abstract vs. representational

Why do representational logos work for big companies like Merrill Lynch, but not for small businesses?

For a small business, I strongly recommend an abstract logo - abstract logos are more high-end looking, and they make you look more professional. Abstract logos are also easier for more clients to quickly identify with - which is important for a small business brand where you don't have a lot of time or budget to spend educating your clients. You want your logo to tell as much of your story as possible - which is more possible with an abstract logo than with a representational logo, which can usually tell a bit of the story but not much.

Companies like Merrill Lynch have representational logos (ones that look like something) because back when those companies were started, there was no such thing as an abstract logo. And, since they've had many years to build up their brand message, they have educated their clients through more than just the logo in what their company's all about, through their advertising campaigns, etc. - things that a small business won't really be working with (at least not immediately, and not on a national level like Merrill Lynch).