Small businesses offer the ideal situation for creating a DIY logo. They have a competitive advantages today that enables them to build their businesses in more ways than ever. For example, small businesses have fewer “chefs” cluttering the “kitchen,” so they’re typically more flexible than large companies. They can adapt to change quickly, which allows them to seize opportunities that larger companies might miss. Small businesses are also innovative and better equipped to leverage social media to build relationships that lead to business growth simply because there aren’t layers of decision-makers and approvals to pass through in order to publish content and conversations.
It might seem that branding your company in a way that promotes the “smallness” of your business as a benefit is a great differentiator, but that’s not always the case. Most of the time, looking small causes you to lose business. The reason is simple. People feel more comfortable buying from large, established businesses. Consumers feel confident that these larger businesses will be around for the long-haul and must be doing great things or they wouldn’t still be in business and thriving.
Small businesses that promote themselves as competitive with large companies need to look the part. If your logo design and marketing communications materials look unprofessional, then it’s going to be extremely difficult to compete with big companies.
You don’t have to spend a fortune to design a logo and marketing materials that make your small business look like a big company. However, you do need to ensure that your logo design and marketing materials look comparable in terms of quality to big brands. All of your materials should coordinate with each other to provide a consistent brand image to consumers. Follow the 4 tips below to ensure your logo and marketing materials convey brand consistency:
1. Design a logo that is simple and focused.
Look at the logos from popular big companies like Apple, Nike, and McDonalds. The best logos are simple in design. They’re clean and can be used in any media or size. They look just as powerful in one color as they do in full color. Your logo is the most important part of your brand identity because it is the visual cue of your brand promise. Use it in all of your marketing materials and business communications in order to tie them together.
2. Choose your primary brand color.
Powerful brands usually have a single color that dominates their color palettes. Imagine seeing the Coca-Cola logo in blue. That would confuse consumers who associate the Coca-Cola brand with the color red. Choose the single color that will represent your brand and use it in all of your marketing materials. This is pretty common in many food and beverage logos. That color should be different from your competitors, if possible, but it should also match consumers’ expectations for businesses in your industry.
3. Limit your materials to use just one or two typefaces.
Choose one or two specific fonts that represent your brand image and use them in all of your materials. Most likely, at least one of these fonts will also be used in your logo design. Of course, you need to select fonts that appropriately represent your brand and industry. For example, using a font like Courier, which looks antiquated (like an old typewriter created it), would be the wrong choice for most companies, but it would be a particularly terrible choice for a company that positions itself as cutting-edge, modern, and innovative.
4. Don’t deviate from your brand identity elements.
Your logo, color palette, and fonts are all part of your brand identity, and these elements should stay consistent in all of your materials over time. When you’re completely tired of your logo and brand identity elements, your customers are just starting to remember them and associate them with your brand. Consistency leads to brand growth, so stay the course!
Today, anyone can launch a business and thanks to the Internet, any business can grow to be a global organization. The true size of your company is far less important than the perception of size that consumers have of your company. Go big or go home!
