Logo Usage Tips: There is No Such Thing as Logo Overload

Your brand identity is made up of several elements, including your logo design, typefaces, and color palette. Once you’ve designed your logo, you need to share it with the world. Don’t be stingy with your logo. Use it everywhere so it becomes the visual symbol of your brad that evokes emotions and perceptions instantly. This level of recognition won’t happen overnight, but through consistent use and patience, it will happen. Believe it or not, there was a time when the Apple logo didn’t elicit the perceptions that is does today but overtime, it became one of the most powerful brands in the world and a great example of a technology logo design.

Meeting Consumer Needs for Instant Gratification
We live in a time when people want instant gratification. If they don’t grasp your message in 3-seconds or less, they’ll move on and your chance to connect with them is gone. People aren’t willing to search through clutter to find your most important messages, but a logo can be a shortcut to communicating with consumers.  Once established, it can instantly provide the information people want before they have a chance to get away.

Adding a tagline to your logo can help communicate your brand promise more quickly to new audiences. The Home Depot tagline, “More saving. More doing.” is a great example of a tagline that communicates brand benefits instantly. The Home Depot brand offers better prices that help you afford more projects. The Home Depot’s primary competitor, Lowes, uses the tagline, “Let’s build something together.” It’s a good tagline that makes it clear Lowes is a brand associated with building, but The Home Depot tagline is better because it conveys more information about the brand and highlights a benefit that is likely to be very important to the company’s target audience of small construction businesses and people who pursue do-it-yourself home repair projects.

Use Your Logo Everywhere
Once you’ve designed a great company logo, you need to use it everywhere that you can in order to raise awareness and eventually recognition and recall. Your goal is to keep your logo in front of your target audience as much as you can, but exercise strategic restraint. Don’t associate your logo and brand with opportunities that don’t align with your brand promise, which could do more harm than good.  Following are some logo usage tips that can help you get started and stay on track:

1. Sponsor events.
Most industries have a variety of events that you can participate in and sponsor, which will help you get your logo and brand in front of more people. Look for trade shows, seminars, and other events within your industry as well as events that might not be directly related to your industry but your target audience is likely to attend. Most event sponsorship opportunities are offered using a tiered pricing structure. The more you pay, the more exposure your business and brand will get to participants.

2. Sponsor local athletic organizations.
Most communities have sports teams, bowling leagues, and other organizations that accept sponsors to help cover their costs. Look for opportunities that match your business, put your brand in front of your target audience, and give you a fair amount of publicity based on the required investment. Sometimes community sponsorships don’t have to come in the form of a monetary investment at all. You might be able to offer your volunteer services in exchange for brand promotion.

3.  Distribute creative promotional items.
Everyone has a collection of pens with company logos printed on them. Instead of adding another to their desk drawers, give out clever promotional items associated with your business. For example, if you own a car detailing company, give out ice scrapers with your logo and contact information on them. It’s useful and more interesting than another pen.

4. Produce branded packaging and marketing materials.
There is more to packaging than the box you see on a store shelf. Next time you visit an Old Navy store, take a look at the price tags and display packaging. Everything is branded creatively. Many retailers package items at the point of sale or for shipping in custom tissue paper with the brand logo printed on it. Similarly, your logo design should be displayed on all marketing materials, stationery, business cards, invoices, labels, and every other promotional piece or business communication.

5. Think outside the box for places to display your logo.
Don’t be afraid to get creative with logo placement. As long as the places where your logo appears are appropriate for your brand, go for it! For example, produce magnetic signs for your employees’ cars, particularly your sales team, and have them affix the signs when they use their cars for company business. As your employees drive, your logo will be exposed to a lot of people.

A logo can be a very powerful business asset because it represents your brand, which is another important business asset. It takes time to develop those assets and increase their worth, but the results are worth it. Just ask Apple.