Your brand is what separates you from your competition. By making sure your brand is distinct from your competition, you are protecting your company from businesses eager to reach your customers. Without proper branding, potential customers will view your company as just another supplier of products and services that are readily available from other companies. Once your company is lumped in with all the others, all that’s left for customers to decide on is price. If that happens you better hope your prices are the lowest.

Too many companies are “me too” marketers trying to be like the market leaders. To stay competitive put distance between you and your competition and develop your brand in a way that distinguishes you from the pack. Use your brand to adding to add value and appeal to your customers in a way that no one else is positioned to do.

Your logo is the main distinguishing mark used to identify your business.  It is the heart of your brand’s identity. The strongest brands in the market today have logo’s that are simple, relevant and memorable. Creating a strong visual identity that appeals to your market is the best way to begin building a lasting brand.

Along with your marketing and advertising materials, your logo needs to reflect the values and philosophy of your company. Is your company traditional? Laid back? Young? Innovative? Taking these things into consideration when creating your logo will increase it’s effectiveness. (If you are re-designing your identity, you’ll want to ensure it retains at least some of the key aspects of the identity you’ve already established. This way, you will lose the least amount of brand equity you may have built over the life of your business.)

Symbolic logos work well for some companies and more abstract logos work better for others. You may even decide your logo is stronger as just type, set in a relevant, distinct font. However, I recommend your logo be as iconic as possible.

A Symbolic logo is a logo that can describe your business without the use of type. A builder for example may use the icon of a house. A brand that deals with intangibles could consider an abstract symbol as their logo. Finding out what your customers value about your business can be extremely beneficial when deciding between a literal or abstract approach.

You may discover that what customers value most in your company is it’s long history in the market. In this case, an object from history or even just an old building might work to create a sense of time through dated architecture. If you are an investor, a tree could be used to portray growth and abundance.

In conclusion, before you begin the design of your logo, first, analyze what you want it to convey about your business. Your logo’s design and message is a fundamental building block to a powerful brand identity that sells.

Your prospects ability to recall your brand can be greatly enhanced by how consistently your identity is used. In regards to your logo, it’s a good idea to pre-determine guidelines for how it can be used. Doing this will help preserve the primary thread between the marketing and advertising of your brand.

If you are a small business, likely, you do not have a ton of money to throw at brand recognition. Brands like Coke can buy more billboards, purchase bigger ads, etc. As a small business, you must optimize the effectiveness of the resources you have. When you get in front of a potential customer you, have to make the most of it. Don’t water down your identity with different logos, colors, fonts. Without a consistent level of design, the desired effect will not be as memorable. Consistent design standards will help you make the most of every opportunity.

Consistent usage of your logo will elevate the impact of your brand, but only when used correctly. You can ensure proper usage by including a set of clearly defined guidelines for your logo. Those guidelines might include:

• The amount of negative (or white) space around your logo.

• Specific CMYK breakdown of acceptable background colors.

• If your logo can be used inside a shape, like a box or circle.

• What fonts and/or font sizes are appropriate if any information is to be added to your logo, such as an address or phone number.

These are just a few things to think about anytime your logo is used. (It’s always a good idea to consult with the designer or agency that developed your identity when determining such guidelines.)

Once you have determined your guidelines, make sure they are clearly written and attached as a separate file, along with your marketing materials. This way, it is always available when your logo is requested.

Inconsistent use of your logo will only confuse your audience and dilute it’s impact. How your identity is used can have a positive or negative effect on your brand. It’s up to you to see that your brand is communicated correctly. Make sure anyone working with your logo is familiar with it’s guidelines for use. Good luck!

For better or for worse: looks matter. And when it comes to design, logos make a first and lasting impression. What does your logo say about your company? Believe it or not, how you choose to identify your business can have an adverse effect on how your employees feel about themselves and their jobs. Truly. When I was in college, the hot topic among my fellow design students was our social responsibility and the impact icons/logos can have on the groups they represent. Design, as you know, is not merely about good aesthetics.

Take the handicapped parking symbol, for example: not all handicapped people are in wheelchairs. Yet, the symbol used to represent this broad group is a person in a wheel chair. In fact, not all the disabilities the handicapped symbol has come to represent are even physical. Not only do the icons we use have a profound effect on they way many see themselves, I would even go as far to say that society’s constant exposure to this symbol has had an effect on the way we see the disabled.

On a more positive note, there are employees who love the brands they work for so much, they proudly wear and seek out ways to proclaim their affinity for these companies. Sound crazy? Certain Nike employees have gone so far as to have the swoosh logo tattooed on their ankles. I seriously doubt even the most devoted employees of companies with complicated, confusing and/or unattractive logos will be doing the same anytime soon. No matter how much they love the companies they work for.

Okay, so maybe I’m being a little too politically correct with all this logo stuff, but ultimately we’re talking about your brand’s visual appeal. Just look at the cover of almost any magazine on the rack, not to mention the overstuffed shelves at your local grocery store. You can see visual appeal is a hot commodity. With so much competition and indiscernible differences between brands, visual appeal may be the last great form of product differentiation.

As I’m sure you know, the appeal of your brand is what makes the cash register ring. As the top decision maker in your company, if you don’t take the time to consider how your logo makes you look, or worse, how it make those it represents feel, your bottom line could be impacted.

Some things to consider before deciding on a logo…

The best logos work like a road sign or a warning label. If you are about to open a box from China with contents that are fragile or toxic, you are going to need an easily understood symbol to identify these hazards before you handle the package. If you are driving at night and you come across a sign to warn drivers of curves ahead, chances are you’re not going to have much time to ponder it’s meaning. Icons that caution you are simple because they need to communicate a clear and important message. The same is true for the images that represent your business.

For those of you who may be thinking: “It’s just a logo, it’s not a life or death decision”. I beg to differ. Your corporate identity plays a bigger part in the success of your brand than ever before. Chances are your brand’s identity will only be in front of your prospects for a few seconds. The look of your brand when compared side-by-side with your competition is often the only thing consumers have to go on. Your logo’s ability to be identifiable and to communicate your brand is paramount.