By George Stez, Guest Blogger
Would you agree that a company’s logo is the most valuable visual element your company owns? When executed correctly, it allows you the opportunity to communicate what your company is all about, what you stand for, and provides credibility. In a previous post on this blog, The Marketing Forum, titled “A Brand May Not Be What You Think,” indeed a logo is not in itself a brand. But it is a key element that offers you the chance to show your company’s uniqueness.
We all understand the value of a logo for companies such as Coca-Cola or Nike. They’re huge, after all. But what about smaller enterprises? If you own or work for, a smaller company, what chance do you have to make an impression and impact with your logo?
Make Your Logo Memorable
The size of your company really shouldn’t limit the effectiveness of your logo to be recognized and remembered. Professional marketing and graphics design help are available to meet virtually any budget. The first step is to do a brand discovery, that is, evaluate your brand attributes, create a strategy and share this with your marketing agency in the form of a creative brief. Write out the who, what, when, where and why about your company (including your product or service differentiators), and explain what you’re trying to convey to your potential customers. Your marketing agency should then provide you a few variations of the logo. Sometimes the variations may be subtle and sometimes they may be unique.
Use It and Measure … Measure … Measure
Once you have your logo, use it everywhere you can. Think of every touchpoint, whether it be your website, advertising, booth graphics, emails, business cards, product, uniforms, vehicles, etc.
How do you know your logo is resonating and effective? Here is where “attribution” comes into play. You should always ask customers or potential customers how they heard of you. If you use a survey with a checklist, include the logo as an attributable touchpoint. Use a (CRM) Customer Relationship Management tool (like Salesforce or HubSpot) to record your lead sources and to connect them directly to appointments and sales.
Where I work, we have a fleet of cars and large box trucks that prominently display our large, red saber-toothed tiger logo. This has clearly proven to be a strong visual. How do I know? I listen to people I run across, and I use my CRM to look at the numbers. At Home Shows and the Chamber of Commerce or community events from San Diego to Los Angeles people will often tell me they are familiar with our company because they see our cars and trucks all around town. And what about the numbers? We’ve averaged 80 to 100 leads a year that have been attributed just to our vehicles, easily generating more than $100,000 annually. One also must consider – even though unquantifiable – the leads/sales that were generated by the logo indirectly, as the result of heightened awareness!
Play by the Rules
One final point on the logo. Make sure to use your logo in a consistent manner. But having said that, do not change the integrity of the logo by playing with colors or imagery. This doesn’t mean you can’t use slight variations. You will want a version that works on a transparent background, and one that works on a black background, because we typically don’t have control over how the logo appears on third-party websites, such as those for sponsorships or events. It’s OK to have an alternate version that works better in either a vertical or horizontal space. I typically practice what I preach, though I did take some liberties in 2018. I thought that our Saber mascot needed a “voice,” so to speak. Go to www.saberfoundations.com, turn up your speakers and hover over the tiger. Who says you can’t have fun with logos?
George Stez is the Marketing Manager for Saber, a foundation repair firm serving residential and commercial customers in Southern California. He has been in marketing (B2B and B2C) for more than 20 years and previously worked in journalism. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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