By Ken Gasque
August 9, 2016
Your logo, if you do it right. Starbucks logo is like a beacon—welcoming and inviting. The story is Starbucks adopted a Siren–“a seductive mystery mixed with a nautical theme.” She is at the heart of Starbucks… “she’s a muse –always there, inspiring us and pushing us ahead. And she’s a promise too, inviting all of us to find what we’re looking for, even if it’s something we haven’t even imagined yet.” These are the feelings of Starbucks management describing their logo and building their brand.
As a brand image-maker, your logo is your most important tool—I experienced this recently. I was sitting at a red light anxious to get to my destination when a truck pulled up beside me. I was immediately struck by the logo on the side of the landscaping truck. It did not show a picture of a beautiful landscape, but the simplicity and beauty of the graphic image conveyed an image of a beautiful landscape in my mind. I wrote down the name and URL because this is the landscaping company I have been looking for. It is now up to the company salesman to loose the sale because the sale has already been made.
Does this happen often? More often than you think. But because people do not call and say I just saw your logo and I need your services please help me, you don’t know their real motivation. More likely they call and inquire about your service without ever mentioning your logo. However, your logo has conveyed meaning and has built confidence. Your logo is part of the brand experience. A good logo is a powerful tool.
Brand Image Makers 7 Tasks
Create a difference with style
Perceptions
When we are ask to help develop a brand we begin with expectations. We begin with your end in mind. Because if you can see where you are going you will have a much better chance of getting there.
Tony Robbins, behavioral therapist, says that if you want to change, it’s easy. Act as though you are what you wish to become. It is the same for your brand. Look like the brand you wish to become beginning with your logo. Perception is reality.
One of the most difficult and important parts of developing a brand is creating the image, the look for the brand. It begins with the logo.
The Process
Step One: Discover your uniqueness. What are your opportunities and challenges? They are often the same. How you solve them may be your differentiation. Define what makes your service or product unique in a meaningful way to the consumer.
How can you expand this?
Design very effective. Everything from A to Z delivered with a smile
Amazon delivers from a to z. But it is also a smile. Amazon is delivering happiness.
Step Two: Define the brand strategy. What are core elements of your brand? These elements are an essential part of your brand identity.
Graphics set tone
Homestead Creamery is a client of ours. They sell fresh milk in glass bottles. The milk actually is fresher than the other brands in the supermarket. Homestead is a small dairy that focuses on freshness and it processes its milk daily. It is bottled and shipped out the next day instead of weeks later. Milk tastes better if it is fresh. Glass bottles have no affect on the taste like plastic and paper cartons do. Homestead Creamery’s brand as voiced by their customers… “Tastes the way milk should taste.™” The core elements—fresh and good taste.
Step Three: Create the brand identity. “We buy with our eyes.”Develop a visual and verbal image that reflects your brand—unique graphic designs that communicates your brands unique appeal.
Young’s is a convenience store with a very loyal customer base. Interviews repeatedly heard, “It’s like shopping with family.”
Brand is friendliness
Shop Here On Your Way There
“We buy with our eyes.”
The visual overwhelms the verbal… A picture is worth a thousand words. Do you see what I’m saying? Look, picture this. What’s in your mind’s eye? Let me draw you a picture. 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. A logo is a symbol for the brand experience. Just like other visuals a logo communicates that experience almost immediately.
“A company’s logo is its shorthand, a visual cue that tells a story of the brand’s culture, behavior, and values,” said Su Mathews Hale, a senior partner at the New York brand-strategy and design firm Lippincott. Because a logo may only have a second to tell this story, creating one “can sometimes be the most difficult aspect of branding,” she said. Richard Feloni, Business Insider.
Brand Image-Maker
About Ken Gasque
Ken Gasque is a brand developer—a professional marketer with a design background. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing. Ken writes a blog and lectures on brand and brand development. To learn more, visit www.Gasque.com
