Does Your Logo Measure Up?

When representing your brand, you can’t just pick any logo. The design should carry more than just the company name as it’s often their first exposure to your brand. In fact, studies show that your logo is the main thing by which customers will identify you.

While you want to be creative and show off your identity, it’s also important that it’s a design your customers will grow to love and not sever that connection.

Here are multiple ways to determine whether or not your logo is effective enough for your outreach.

1. How does your logo differ from other companies?

If you have a logo that resembles another company’s identifier, it’s not going to be as memorable as you want it to be. 

A few similar colors won’t hurt you, but if your branding isn’t original, no one will differentiate your service from your top competitors. The more unique and identifiable your logo is, the easier it’ll be for customers to connect with it. 

Do some research on your competitor’s logos or that of successful companies you admire. Ask yourself, what logos do you automatically recognize when walking down the street? 

While you should not copy their color scheme or font of course, you can use their design as a guide for your own. 

2. Measure your logo’s visibility

Understanding how your customer’s are actually interacting with your branding techniques is an effective way to tweak your logo. 

Conducting customer surveys asking about the logo itself, the colors, etc. can get you straight to the problem you didn’t notice before. 

This could be done anonymously in an email chain, or you could offer a discount for those customers who take the time to help you out. A little incentive never hurts anybody!

3. Test its versatility 

Your logo may look great as the size of a penny on your business card, but what about on your website? Your emails? Billboards?

It should be able to be scaled at different sizes without losing its luster or legibility. Moreover, your logo needs to be versatile across all types of media. 

Whether on the web or on a stack of papers, you’ll need to make sure the quality is how you want to represent your business. Testing the logo out on paper, online, and even on company merchandise is a great way to understand just how versatile and scalable it is. 

Another thing to try is testing it out in color and in black and white. If it’s still effective in either color scheme, then you’re on the right track. 

4. Define your company’s identity

Your logo defines how customers see your company: on business cards, emails, social media, letterheads, and on. As a result, it should do more than just look pretty; it’s going to represent your company’s mission and values.

Making prototypes or sketches of your logo can help you understand exactly how you want to represent your promise to your customers.

Looking them over, ask yourself which logo feels more inspirational? More true to your identity? Would this appeal to your target audience? If you don’t know exactly what you’re trying to say with your logo, then it might be time to reconsider the foundation or mission of your business. What does your service do or mean for the people?

Knowing your audience is another way to understand how to represent your company. Your logo is not for you, but for your customers. Taking their age, gender, interests, jobs, etc. into account can help you determine how your business is making their life better.

From here, your company’s identity will be much easier to convey in words and in a design. From doing research on your customers, you can create a “customer persona” that will allow you to design your logo to your typical buyer.

5. This is the time you DON’T want to be trendy

Trends come and go, but your logo shouldn’t. It’s common for logos to be improved over time, such as Instagram going from the brownish tan camera to a pinkish gradient, but their logo still defines their values.

Your logo or its basis should be unique while also transcending time-sensitive trends; it should never grow old. Knowing the trends of the time is a great way to avoid them in your design. Consider conducting research on current trends, hiring an experienced designer with unique work, or keeping up with today’s social media. 

You’re trying to build trust and recognition in your company name, so it needs to be something that people will still look at many decades from now and understand with complete clarity.

6. Consider these characteristics – Does your logo have them all?

Here are a few characteristics to think about when designing your logo and sharing it with your customers.

• Is it simple?
• Is it relevant?
  
• Is it memorable?
• Is it different?
• Is it appropriate for your intended audience?
• Is it versatile?
• Is it legible?

Overall, if you were a customer looking at this logo today, ask yourself how you would respond. Cheap designs are NOT effective; it’s worth putting the effort and money into your brand’s identity. 

Need help devising a logo and overall brand identity that no one can mistake for anyone. We can help! Reach out today.