Diving into design and you find yourself surrounded with so much jargon. One of the most basic things people even outside design may be familiar with is a brand’s logo. A logo in its simplest form is described as a shape or symbol that is used to represent a company. It is only one element that is part of a bigger brand identity. Logos in a way are a tangible way to express the essence of your brand.
Famous logos include McDonald’s iconic golden arch and the green mermaid found in Starbucks. However, for those new to design, it’s easy to mistake the logo to be synonymous with branding. The limitation with logos is that it’s impossible to represent everything about your brand.
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Branding is a much more holistic perspective of the brand experience. It is best described in the book The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier as “a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.”
In other words, it is the sum of all the other touchpoints that your customer experiences with your brand. Branding includes elements outside the logo itself such as the fonts, color scheme, brand style guide. These are all essential in building that one cohesive brand identity to associate your customers with. In some cases, they determine the position that your brand has in the market.
The best example for it is the global sports and footwear brand, Nike. Everybody is familiar with the swoosh icon as Nike’s signature logo. This logo embodies the feeling of speed which echoes where the name Nike comes from – the Roman goddess of victory.
Nike’s branding, however, is more than just its logo. It also includes its products, commercials, endorsements, product packaging, tagline, store design, graphics, music played in commercials and in their stores, product photography, their innovations, and more. This further illustrates that at every touchpoint you may encounter with the brand, like going to their physical store, visiting their website, or seeing their ad on TV all point to one common experience. The same can be said for a lot of other popular brands out there like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and so forth.
Okay, so branding is more than just a logo, but why should you need branding and not just logo design?
Customers experience your brand through a customer journey and that doesn’t simply include your logo existing in a vacuum. The common misconception that business owners have is that when the customers see a logo, they instantly form an emotional response with the brand which will then lead them to buy the product or service.
But how does the brand recognition process really work? When the customer sees a logo such as the McDonald’s logo, the customer might remember experiences with the brand such as eating their food, dining at the restaurant, seeing their commercials. This will then trigger the emotional and intellectual response to the customer that they know do know the brand. Then this then leads them to make the purchase.
The bottom line here is, logos and branding go hand in hand. A well-crafted brand is not only defined by a beautifully designed logo. What makes it successful is the intent in creating a cohesive, pleasing and memorable experience for your customers.
Don’t know where to start? Leave it to the experts! Let iManila be your trusted partner when it comes to logo design and branding. With many years of experience in the industry, iManila can help you with your branding needs to help grow your business. Feel free to drop a message or send us an email at [email protected] to kick start your brand journey with us!
