Are you sure you just want a “logo”?

Do a quick search in Google and you’ll find plenty of listicles and blogs on the subject of logos, along the lines of ‘The 50 most iconic logos of all time’, ‘The 10 best logos ever made’ and ‘what personality logos display’ and such like.  Yawn.  Boring.

These articles completely fail to acknowledge that there is so much more to these iconic brands than just a “logo”.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a well-designed logo (we design them for goodness sake), but let’s not lose sight of what constitutes a successful brand.

Branding is so much more than a logo…

Sure, big brands often have great logos, but they also have strong and successful visual identities, of which the logo is only a small part. Think of it this way, if you were to visit an Apple store or McDonalds where every logo had been removed, would you honestly be in any doubt about where you were?  Of course not.

The same could be said of a BMW showroom, a Starbucks outlet or a Tesco store. By the same token, if you were to watch a Coca-Cola advert where the logo had been erased and there was no mention of the brand, I guarantee you would still know who it was – such is the strength of its brand identity.

A brand identity is multi-faceted

If all you are after is a “new logo” for your business, then odds are you are missing the point.  The components that make up a brand identity are multi-faceted and varied… by way of example, colourways, styling themes, fonts, “tone of voice” – facets that the world’s leading businesses spend millions of pounds crafting, refining and carefully adhering to, at every point of contact they have with the outside world.

‘Any designer can create a “logo”… it takes far more skill to create a winning visual identity.’

Branding goes beyond design…

The choice of music in a video, the choice of tag lines, the way the phone is answered, the level of customer service, pricing strategy environmental policy and yes, even the clarity of signage in the car park, all affect how your business is perceived.

So, the next time you start thinking about your business’s brand, don’t fixate solely on the logo. Look at the bigger picture and consider all the different ways that you differentiate yourself – each one an opportunity to assert your identity.