Signs Your Business Logo Needs Updating
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Your logo is the face of your business, and sometimes that face needs freshening up. Or all-out plastic surgery.
That’s okay. Every brand needs a little freshening up sometimes, but too many small-to-medium sized businesses put this task off too long, and eventually it starts to hurt their image. Here are some signs your logo needs updating.
The logo isn’t professionally designed
Let’s just get this one out of the way. If you care about how your business looks to the outside world, you need a professionally designed logo. Every business should find the money to replace that logo your nephew created out of clip-art for a twelve-pack of beer.
your logo does not work well in digital marketing.
A logo that looked sharp in the Yellow Pages 20 years ago doesn’t necessarily translate well on a website or Twitter page today. Every medium has its own nuances when it comes to design, and your logo needs to adapt to them all, representing your brand with professionalism and impact on every platform.
it isn’t flexible.
Running the same ad for months or years without changing the creative is like trying to drive a car that has run out of gas. Remember that the average consumer encounters as many as 5,000 advertising messages a day, and if your business isn’t constantly challenging their attention spans, you are wasting money.
Design is important, but scalability is critical. Any brand with an active marketing strategy needs a logo that looks good in a variety of sizes and formats. If you sponsor an event and your logo ends up on a T-shirt or newspaper ad with many others, you’ll want it to be legible and distinctive, even at a very small size.
This is another reason why professional design is a must. A graphic artist will design your logo in a vector file, which makes the image easy to resize without resolution loss.
It’s also useful to have horizontal and vertical versions of your logo on hand, and regardless of the design, it should look great in black and white. If your brand design lacks these attributes, it may be time for a reboot.
The design Looks dated.
Compare the logos you see today with the ones everyone used twenty years ago. Remember when multiple colors, heavy drop shadows and gradients were cool? Not anymore. It’s time to retire these with your grungy flannel shirts.
These outdated design elements were used (badly) to create a sense of depth, and they translate poorly to most applications today.
Search for logos on Google and see how the most recognized brands in the world approach design. In every case you’ll find something simple, flat and instantly recognizable. Simplicity is power in marketing. It wins every time.
THE logo isn’t memorable.
Creating a memorable logo requires careful consideration of your mission, personality, products, and branding needs. There are five different types of logo “marks” and each convey the company look in different ways. Here are a few examples:
Symbols – These logos invest all of their brand identity in a symbol or icon. In many examples the symbol is abstract (like Chrysler), while others rely on images people know right away (Apple). Symbols are popular because some studies show that consumer retention is higher for images.
Letter Mark – This is a typographic style where a symbol is created by using the organization’s first letter or initials. If your company has a long or generic sounding name, a letter mark logo can help make it more memorable. Examples include Visa, CNN, and Hewlett-Packard.
Word Mark – Logos that consist only of the company name in stylish text are word mark logos. Sometimes custom fonts are used to make it look unique and special. Examples include Coca-Cola, Disney and Fed Ex,
Combination Mark – This style combines the attributes of a symbol and wordmark logo, which offers the benefit of using the entire logo or individual components, depending on the need. Examples includeNBC, Target and Sprint.
Emblem – An emblem logo features the company name inside a custom-designed shape. Examples include MasterCard, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and BMW.
Changing your logo can totally reinvigorate your business. It’s an opportunity to look at where your company and mission is heading, and develop a whole new vision for its representation. And when the new face of your brand hits center stage, make sure the world takes notice.