Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Your logo isn’t the most important thing about your business. But if you think it doesn’t matter, think again. A good logo communicates that you are a professional who pays attention to detail.

I’m not a professional designer, but I am a customer. I’m the person you’re trying to win over. And I’m going to do the thing that customers rarely do: I’m going to tell you how to make a good impression on me. A logo is just one of the many ways.

Let’s start with an example of a great logo we’re all familiar with: the Nike Swoosh.

The Nike Swoosh was created in 1971 and hasn’t changed a lick since. It doesn’t have that ’70s look, nor did it undergo a makeover to keep up with the times. (For instance, if Nike had really tied its identity to avocado green and burnt sienna because they were all the rage in ‘71, they would have had a major makeover by now.) This communicates stability.

But the logo also works on more tactical levels.

1. It looks like a logo. This logo is just as at home on a shoe or T-shirt as it is on the top of a quarterly earnings report or business card. No matter where you put it, it communicates that it is the symbol representing Nike. Logos are simple shortcuts to communicating who you are.
2. Size doesn’t matter. This logo can be shrunk down teeny-tiny for a wristband or blown up to cover a stadium wall and it still looks crisp and clean. Logos need to be able to look the same no matter how big they are.
3. It’s not afraid of black-and-white copiers. This logo can be in color or black and white without losing its impact. Although the Swoosh isn’t tied to a particular color, let’s pretend it was — since many brands have a color palette. If that were the case, then it would be important that it still looked great when black and white were the only option.
4. Singular association is a good thing. The swoosh was a blank slate. All it has ever meant is “Nike.” But if they had chosen something that wasn’t abstract, they would be at the mercy of the changing associations people had with that item. Many words and images change in meaning over time. (Just ask National Geographic and a 19-year-old what a “cougar” is, and you’ll get two very different answers.)
5. It is not without meaning. Nike is actually the Greek goddess of victory, and the swoosh communicates graceful movement and flight. Victory, grace and “flying” are a big part of sports and always will be.  This may sound contradictory to the “blank slate” theory, but it isn’t. The logo itself had no meaning in culture prior to Nike. Instead, Nike imbued it with the meaning it chose.

Boiled down to nouns, a logo with these qualities would communicate: stability, flexibility, foresight and integrity. Most customers aren’t explicitly looking for those traits in a logo, but we are looking for those traits in a business. And aside from the emotional and subliminal connection we make between logo and business, there is a more practical one.

I’m not looking for a work of art on your business card or website. However, when I see a company representing itself with hopelessly out-of-date or unprofessional-looking materials, it takes a lot of convincing to show me that is the only part of the business that is hopelessly out-of-date and unprofessional. And that is not a good position for a business to be in. Get this image thing out of the way the right way, so you can concentrate on providing good service and increasing your sales.

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The HP Creative Studio offers several options for good logo design — whether you want to do it yourself or hire a pro. Check it out, with the above tips in mind!