Can you fall in love with a logo?

Modern goods and services are no longer simply products. The modern buyer looks for his or her self in them, they are for him or her a determinant of the standard of living and his or her own aspirations. Along with the product, he or she buys specific values, atmosphere and experiences that evoke the desired mental state in him or her. Their basic carrier is a simple sign – a logo.

Logo (short for logotype) comes from the words logos – word and typos – imprint, image. It is a graphic form whose purpose is to identify a company, product, event, or other type of activity. It is most often an interpretation of the sound of the name, it may consist of the graphic symbol itself, the styling of the lettering itself, or a combination of the two.

Currently, a logo is more than its definition says. It is an impulse that evokes specific emotions – at the brain level, it is a connection between the hippocampus, which remembers the image, and the amygdala, which stores the emotions assigned to this image.

Coca-Cola is the joy of life, celebrating ordinary, everyday moments. Nike means taking up a challenge, activity, strength of character. Apple is more than a brand of computer equipment that you have to pay for – it is a reward that the buyer receives, something that pleases them more than a laptop received for free. Apple’s “logo followers” would not exchange their gadgets for anything. For them, a bitten apple is not a mere trademark, but a sinful forbidden fruit, something unavailable to others. Why? The Apple logo stimulates the centers in their brains that are responsible for the feeling of reward and self-esteem.

A logo has the power to bring success to even a less than perfect product. An example would be the expensive, slow and heavy Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which, in a rational comparison, are worse than their Japanese counterparts. However, they have become a symbol of a specific lifestyle, and the Harley-Davidson logo is today the most commonly tattooed trademark in the world.

The mechanism of combining the logo and emotions also works the other way around. A negative first impression (a bad association with the brand) is hard to erase even with the best offer, because it affects how the company will be remembered. It may seem that a good product will sell itself, but in the case of commercial brands, buyers are rarely aware of the true motives behind their choices.

A good logo does not guarantee success for the brand, but it is the right starting point for other promotional activities. The opposite effect is more predictable – mistakes at the logo design stage can cost the company a lot, causing irreversible financial and image losses.

An example of an exceptionally well-thought-out logotype is the new logo of the Unilever Group – a leader in the FMCG market, which has around 400 brands in its portfolio (such as Knorr, Lipton, Algida, Axe, and Domestos). The giant’s previous logo did not have any particular marketing advantages, so in view of the company’s changing strategy, which assumed intensive communication of the group’s logo as a symbol of the quality of individual products, a decision was made to change the Unilever logo. The idea of ​​creating a parent brand was quite risky – it came down to making recipients aware that the contents of their kitchen, toilet, and bathroom may come from the same factory. In principle, the new logotype had to communicate a very wide range of benefits.

The new corporate logo consists of 25 graphic elements. As a whole, it creates an emotional image, expresses the energy and values ​​of the brands branded by Unilever. Each one carries a well-thought-out message, there is no randomness in them, together they create the company’s philosophy.

It is impossible to create a universal formula according to which every designed logo will be a spectacular success, but when evaluating it, you should remember a few rules.

An exceptionally desirable feature of a logo is memorability. Creating a logo that is easy to remember is a big challenge for the designer – they have to find a simple form that will also stand out from the countless others. However, it is enough to think of great brands such as McDonald’s, Apple, Mercedes, or Marlboro to see that the simpler the logo, the easier it is to recall its image in memory.

A good logo should draw attention and catch the eye, but it cannot discourage the recipient – contact with the logo should be a pleasure for them. It is worth paying special attention to the emotions and associations that the logo evokes. Its shapes and colors should correspond to the field it concerns, emphasizing the character of the company or product. This does not mean that every airline logo must feature a plane, it is more important that the logo of such a company is associated with speed and safety. The emotions contained in the logo will be transferred to the brand image.

The issue of the universality of the logo is also important. The versatile logo is legible both when very small and when stretched to the dimensions of a billboard, and also has its monochromatic and negative version. It can be translated into various materials – it looks good placed on a website, printed on a poster, T-shirt or pen, embossed on the cover of a calendar or engraved on a lighter. All the features described above can be found in the logo of the international shipping company FedEx, specializing in air parcel transport. This symbol has a simple structure, based on a classic font. However, it communicates the key value of the brand – speed – in an interesting way. The arrow camouflaged in the symbol attracts the attention of the recipient, evokes the desired associations and makes them remember the logo and associate the company positively.