How often do you entertain a
salesman who is not dressed professionally?
What if he’s wearing a suit with
sports shoes?
Your first reaction would be ‘I
don’t want to do business with this chump’.
That’s exactly how an
unprofessionally designed logo dampens your marketing efforts. That’s because
your logo is the face of your company. Now a chump might say that I’m good at
my work- take it or leave it’ but can you, as a brand manager, afford that?
Logo As A Brand Element
Now think of your favorite
cosmetic brand. What comes to your mind- name, logo, packaging, color, slogan
or a character? It could be one of these elements or may be a combination of
two or more. These are all brand elements.
A variety of brand elements
enhances brand awareness and even facilitates favorable (or unfavorable) brand
associations. So when your customer looks at or remembers just one of these
elements in isolation, you have a good reason to ensure that it looks good and professional.
Logo Design
Logo design must be unique and
should convey some thought or meaning to the customers and potential customers.
That implicitly implies that the design elements must resonate well with the
target audience. An old fashioned logo might get rejected by youth, or a
sophisticated identity can fail to click with the rural buyer. Let me explain
this point with a simple example. OH! Design Studio was tasked to redesign the
logo of one of the leading healthcare pharmaceutical groups –Elder Healthcare.
Elder wanted to connect with the increasingly growing young audience of the
country.
The good old Elder Pharmaceutical
logo looked like this:
At OH! Design Studio, we analyzed
and came up with a youthful and vibrant face of Elder. The bright pastel shades
of yellow brought out the progressive and changing nature of the organization.
The use of negative space lent a modern, trendy character to it and the smooth,
flamboyant strokes further enhanced it. We struck a delicate balance between
young face of Elder and the maturity and serious nature of the industry it was
in.
The Closing Note: Logo vs. Brand Identity
Is logo not same as the brand
identity? The answer is NO. Logo design forms the core visual part of the brand
identity, other aspects being the surrounding text, typeface, colors,
aesthetics, brand tone and much more. Brand identity is created by the synergy
of all these elements.
