The success of nearly everything on the online realm hinges heavily on how well an impression it makes with the user, whether they are ads, logos, banners or even the UI/UX interface of websites. Marketers use the word “Impressions” to gauge the number of visits each webpage had instead of referring them to as just plain “visits” because they strive to create an impact on the user, which in turn will drive the success in viewership or conversions based on how good the impression was. But that’s all about websites and the desktop front, the question therefore is, Are Apps different in catering to the word impression or are they the same?

Apps definitely are different, as making a great impression when one talks of the app domain is more important, because its not just down to opening a web page and seeing what they offer like its done on the conventional front, but its one where you have to make the user pass through the main barrier, i.e. download the app, to have them view any of the things you have on offer there.

You have a great app idea, you get down to building it, you create the perfect interface and make the app function in a way that each user will feel that the app adapted and got personalized based on the preferences. You even had great App store Optimization with all the more relevant keywords and great screenshots and an awesome description to go with it. Are you forgetting something? Is all done? No its isn’t.

The App icon is probably the most important part of the whole app domain as this is where the make or break moment happens. Apps are restricted when it comes to space and only a small title along with a short description can be made available on the app’s listing in the App store. The App Icon or the App logo is what will stand to engage the user more than anything else as in this restricted world where everything is constricted for space, Only the App icon remains the place where the app can show off what it contains inside.

Succinctly describing or personifying what the user will experience once it downloads the app, the App icon is an increasingly important facet of an App.

App stores are becoming crowded by the day, with hundreds of apps plying for user attention in each category every single day, which makes the issue of making your app stand out in this overly crowded space even more important. But the main problem arises where app developers or development companies fail to grasp the idea that investing in a good logo design or a corporate logo design to feature as their App icon will bring in good results and what is exactly a great design that would work wonders for the App.

Taking a look at most of the highly successful apps that feature on App stores like Snapchat or Pokemon Go, their App icons have become instantly recognizable and no matter how many similar apps spring up that offer the same, if not better experience, the user will be drawn to the ones whose Icons are more popular as it signifies the trust and quality of experience that these apps offer.

When it comes to app development companies, the Icons are not part of the more important milestones to cover during the app development journey. It may be a point on the agenda list but its importance is just much as for the app itself.

However, to get it straight, expecting the kind of logos that you would normally deem good for a website or a desktop version of an e-commerce store will not do the job here in the same manner because mobile is an entirely different world with its own criteria for design, scalability, user preferences, and more importantly, a perfectly crafted logo. If the user passes through an app whose Icon is too large or on the face, the screen of the mobile would make this sort of an icon turn off the user, who will pass on and move to the next app.

What constitutes a good design for a logo is a separate read but the first thing that developers should understand is its increasing importance and relevancy in the app world. Google is developing a mobile-centric indexing system which implies that how much apps will serve to dominate the future of online companies and their subsequent viability.

Coming up with something the reverberates with the masses on the app stores should be the main agenda for app developers when it comes to designing an App icon and not just make it a cheap rip-off of the prevailing trends like following Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn’s lead and asking for the background of the app icon to be bluish. What worked for others might not work for you, keep striving for something different but without compromising on the importance and investment that you App Icon might require to make your app stand the best chance of having a great start and a sustainable following.

You’ve never seen any other logo change the way you have seen Google’s? Google Doodles are the modified Google logos that show up on its homepage to celebrate a holiday, a person or even some event in history. There are times where you yourself wouldn’t know what Google is celebrating but the Doodle will trigger your curiosity and you’ll be compelled to click on it to find out more.

So what exactly is the purpose of the Google Doodles and what does Google get out of it?

Well, the Google Doodle Department shared that the reason behind Google Doodles is twofold.

Celebrate Innovation

“The doodles aim to celebrate interesting events and anniversaries around the world that reflect Google’s personality and love of innovation,” is what they said precisely.

Google places immense importance on innovation. They believe their innovativeness is their core competence that has let them conquer the Search Engine Market. Google is constantly coming up with new innovations to enhance customer experience and it has taken long strides from when it first started. It’s no surprise that they celebrate innovation regardless of where and when it came from.

Google Doodles have celebrated everyone from inventors, scientists, artists, musicians and even political figures; anyone whose unique thinking has contributed positively to the world.

With their Doodles, they aim to creatively provide information on some of the world’s most integral discoveries, like DNA, NASA finding water on the moon and the anniversary of flight.

By celebrating the greatest inventions of the world, Google is subtly but very cleverly including itself in the same list, proclaiming that it too is a brilliant invention.

Establish and Grow and Emotional Connection with its users

Every company designs strategies to connect with customers on an emotional level but few of companies have gained that sort of dependency from their customers like Google has. The verb “Google” was entered into the Oxford and Merriam-Webster dictionary back in 2006. It’s been so ingrained into our life that few would be able to imagine a life prior to Google and yet Google feels the need to further connect with its users.

Google Doodles provide users a dose of inspiration when they log in, the doodles are a fun way of delivering important messages before users continue their searches. The effort Google puts into bringing a smile to their user’s faces is much appreciated and undoubtedly makes it stand out from its competitors.

Matthew Cruikshank, a designer from Google’s Doodle team believes the reason the Doodles resonate with the users is because they show the “human behind the machine”. He bases this on how the Doodles first started.

The first Doodle was launched way back in 1998 when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin went to attend the Burning Man festival in Nevada; they altered the logo to show that they were out of the office. The idea caught on and since then Google Doodles have become a distinctive part of Google’s user experience and identity.

Businesses are constantly advised not to change their logo designs unnecessarily because it makes brand recognition difficult but Google has managed to make its Doodles an integral part of its brand identity which shows a unique way.

With Google Doodles, Google continues its mission to providing information universally by using an exciting blend of animations and interactive games that inspire its users and leave an everlasting impression.

Every business aims to perfect their ideal logo that resonates with their brand image. With the substantial amount of creativity and energy that goes into materializing the product/ service idea, organizations are on the constant lookout for pairing the right visual and graphical representation with their brand name.

With each passing year, some logo trends become all the more deeply engrained while new trends continue to emerge. However, the purpose of a flawless logo design continues to serve the purpose of leaving an indelible mark on your customers, so that they can recognize and recall your brand almost instantly, such is the power of an effective logo.

Familiarize yourself with the upcoming logo trends of 2017 and how they can help your business be a brand known far and wide.

Minimalism

Conveying the intended message with as little as possible is the new trend. Business logos in 2017 will aim to create a unique identity of the brand they are portraying with the idea of staying simple. Often it is not the extravagance or fancy fonts and colors that catch the eye but a straightforward and simple logo that is practical and purpose-driven. With the exodus of marketing messages at the exposure of public, something simple and creative wins the show. A minimalistic logo is timeless and does not need elaborate illustrations to help it stand out.

Negative Space

This technique of designing your logo preys subtly on our sub-conscience by incorporating the object, intended to be the center of attention in the backdrop. Contradictory much? This is where the real trick comes into play. The mind goes through an interactive mental process to try to figure out the hidden message and hence involves the individual into decoding the message. This makes the logo get embedded in our minds and makes recall faster and easier.

Hand drawn

Logos that are set apart from the mainstream pre-set fonts and imagery by getting people to hand draw them humanizes the logo. This adds a personal touch to your logo and gets the public thinking about the idea behind the creative art. The final product seems more genuine and had some element of reality in it. The younger generation especially gets attracted to pieces of art that have logic and a unique human touch to it.

Retro-modern

With technology reaching new and unprecedented heights, the modern look has its own way of evoking emotions and when something novel and out-of-the-box comes to the forefront it is bound to catch the attention of the general public. It’s all about playing around with the color combinations and font styles which seem to be repeating on various platforms. Retro-modern brings in feelings of nostalgia and can be creatively modified to target a specific group of people.

Clarity like never before

Last but not the least, designers have realized that cluttering a logo with too many fancy elements and inconspicuous items to be left to be deciphered by the audience is not going to work anymore. Instead, brands are aiming to make their logos as simple as possible and making them flexible across a wide variety of platforms. With visual information being so glamorous, attention spans have become situational and shorter. Hence the impact of a logo should be long lasting.

Simple logos don’t mean that you suck the life out of them and make them look all monotonous and unhappening. The design of your logo is central to the existence of your brand and this is what will ultimately determine the brand recall. Your logo design might not be spot on in the first attempt but you can always outsource this crucial task to a reputable digital marketing agency.

When we start talking about businesses, branding seems to be the single most important topic that keeps generating so much attention. Branding determines whether a business lives or dies! It’s your voice out there, it’s a way to make your presence felt and most importantly its there to engage people with your products and services by forging the basis for a powerful relationship.

But what if you are screaming in a void? A place where no one listens to what you say? When scant attention is paid to what you do, no matter how great your words are? Your efforts will end up in vain and your resources will go to waste.

Online Branding and Marketing will be done with the same ingenuity and creativity but what has changed is the platform to target consumers. Mobiles seem to have conquered all!

The Numbers

Mobiles are everywhere and they are expected to dominate 2017 on a much larger scale, crossing the 4.77 billion user mark the same year. Conventional desktop users are getting low and just last year, Google announced that mobiles also dominated its searches and more than 50% came through the same source, while desktop searches kept on their downward spiral.

The complete domination can be gauged from the fact that there are 1.4 mobiles per person on the planet currently. A mind boggling number and when the quantity of something crosses the number of people who use it, things are in for a radical change.

What does this all mean for online branding and Marketing?

The screen might be smaller on mobiles as compared to desktops but the impact isn’t. Branding directed towards mobile users will need to become more and more customized, intelligent and worthy of getting an engagement, otherwise, just a simple swipe on the screen will take the user elsewhere.

That’s how small a window, businesses will have. Getting a new logo won’t be enough, the logo would need to be attractive in addition to being able to fit on that small screen and be just as effective. This might complicate the work of logo designers or logo design companies but it will definitely bring in ingenuity and greater work quality, benefitting everyone involved.

Is it Time to get a mobile-centric branding strategy for my business?

Google has just announced that it is moving towards a mobile-centric indexing system, which would mean that instead of its bots checking your website and ranking it according to a desktop user, they will now rank them from a mobile user’s perspective. This would signal a paradigm shift in the race to get the best ranking on search engines like Google and would also call for businesses to match their steps as soon as possible.

Not having a mobile-centric branding strategy right now, is going to keep you in the game, but not for a very long time. You are losing out on customers and valuable leads, just because your branding strategy is one-dimensional and is fast losing relevancy. 1-2 years down the road, it would be too late to make the big shift and then get used to its workings. Getting it now will make your marketing team understand how different things work on the mobile platform and develop a custom strategy for your business, optimized according to the mobile industry.

Is getting an app part of the mobile-centric branding strategy?

During the past 3 years, the number of apps downloaded has more than tripled; jumping from an impressive 75 billion downloads in 2014 to a mighty 268 billion app downloads predicted for 2017. The popularity of apps downloaded stem by the virtue of the unmatched ease of access they provide to brands and companies towards gaining the most out of their consumers and giving consumers unparalleled access to whatever they want, whenever they want. A revolution indeed.

Everyone gets to carry your store around with themselves on their phones through the usage of apps. Apps stay there and are not “visited” like websites, definitely making them a high and immensely influential part of the mobile-centric branding strategy.

When it boils down to who gets successful and who fails in the business world has never been down to the quality of the products you make, it’s a big factor yes, but not immensely influential at that. It’s how you portray your products and their quality and how you sell it to your prospective clients is what matters in the end. Mobiles are the future that have pervaded our present, it’s now up to us on how we make the best use of our resources to capture this phenomenon while time is on our hands.

When you delve out to make a logo, what are the things you start wondering about? Design, colors, graphics, outlay, texture, shapes, fonts, they are all integral parts of the logo design process, but is there something missing in there that is important?

Yes, something is missing, but the highly surprising part is that its beauty lies in being ”missing” all the time. “Negative Space” or more simply put the space leftover in between the different design elements after the process is completed, is one of the most important design components that can make a logo look infinitely great.

Negative space is quite different from the subliminal design elements in that it’s the nothingness here where the brilliance needs to lie. The Amazon logo has an arrow showing the connection from “A-Z’ which signifies that it houses all types of good for consumers and a happy smile. The connection is the subliminal message while the smile arises from the perfect optimization of Negative Space.

The negative space can be used simultaneously in two very different yet equally effective ways:

To Help Increase the Focus:

Take out a family photograph from around 30-40 years back, a time when digital cameras were not in the groove and Polaroid ruled the world. The photograph might have blurred out a bit at some places and remained sharp and stoic at the others. The human eye would automatically zoom in on the clear ones and leave out the blurred part, thereby increasing the amount of focus the clear parts get.

Negative space serves on the same premise. When you want to keep it insanely simple and not make it gaudy so that it repels people off, you let the negative space engulf the visual you have created, enhancing the effect against the nothingness behind its color and lines.

In minimalistic designs, the use of negative space is highly influential as the design itself is so subtle, that it requires the negative space to support it to make a nice impact. Logos are no different.

A lot of firms require smaller and more intricate logos that look a bit more edgy and nifty. Tech firms rule the roost with such designs as they intend to represent the quality and smoothness of experience they inhibit.

The designer and the firm who wants the logo needs to understand here that the negative space is just as important as the main element of design in the overall graphic to make for a better and much more attention grabbing logo.

Playing in together with the Design:

It takes a master or matter of perfect communication to come with a logo design inspiration that perfectly assimilates the design with its negative space to create a complete logo, where each one has its part in portraying the meaning behind the logo.

See this logo design for instance:

The logo represents a brand named Anthony Lane and the logo works on the premise of using negative space to use both initial letters from the two words in the design. The “L” from Lane is portrayed in the negative space that arises in the Letter “A”, take anyone away and the design appears incomplete and irrelevant.

Using the negative space in a logo boils down to acknowledging the space that exists and then panning out a strategy to involve other elements by slightly tweaking this space to create another image altogether. Powerful logos like these stand a far better chance of serving your purpose of branding than other conventional ones as they portray that the brand made an effort to portray itself in not only the best manner but also with a hugely ingenious design.

Missing is not always bad, it’s down to the perception of the people involved in the logo design process on how they incorporate the negative space into their initiatives to make for a compelling and powerful logo.

Logos are at the forefront of your brand campaign serving as personifications of your vision and ideology as an organization but each different sector in business serves a different purpose, does that mean there should a different set of rules and niches for designing a logo in a certain domain?

The answer is Yes! Different sectors invite diversity in the logo domain and designing a logo for a certain sector requires the designer and the client to follow the well-defined guidelines on how to make a logo work perfectly and suit their domain. One of the most well-defined sectors that logos serve is the banking and financial sector, where the design gains much more importance than in other areas due to the nature of business.

Trust, commitment, balance, insight, integrity are all different types of strong emotions that logos from this sector need to elicit to successfully serve the business. The logos here can neither be too funky nor too sedate and serious; they have to strike just the right balance. Simplicity is the main tool to focus on here as in this sector the name of the business is an integral part of the logo, which makes it harder to initiate another sort of bright and loud designs around it.

The best logo designs in the financial and banking sector which have served their businesses and have become hallmarks of these institutions have subtlety at their command. Here are some great design inspirations that will work great in the financial sector:

The Merill Lynch Logo

This logo is intensely powerful as it contains the name of the organization and uses a bull as a side graphic. The bull signifies a powerful market in financial terminology as it’s connotation is with rising prices indicating profits.

The bull has its front leg and its tail up signifying an aggressive stance that goes perfectly with the company’s work of providing the best of profitable investments to its clients. Simplicity is of high significance here.

Barclay’s Logo:

Barclays has been a highly trusted and well known financial institution for many decades and its logo which shows an eagle alongside the text, represents being high and powerful. The eagle is also shaped like a knight’s armor shield which gives it the provocation of power and protection making Barclays gain a reputation for being a company that is head and shoulders above its contemporaries and provides financial protection to all kinds of investment in its foray.

Deutsche Bank:

The logo here is one of the best examples of innately powerful simplicity and utter creativity in a minimalistic design. As I told you earlier in the post, the text is immensely important in financial logos but the accompanying image, if any, should be intrinsically beneficial to the cause of the logo without overdoing it.

Here we see a square with a diagonal line going in the middle which subtly represents the “D” of the Deutsche brand and the easy feel of the look make for great brand recognition making for an instantly recognizable logo.

Off Market Design Inspiration:

If you want to veer off the serious minded track in logo design for your financial concern and are looking for a more colorful and vibrant design which doesn’t go over the line, then this design inspiration is for you.

The Design shows a tree growing amidst the pebbles, signifying growth in the real estate opportunities the business offers. Considering the fact that people invest in real estate in the hope of leveraging their money for high returns, this logo has the perfect symbolization to serve that purpose. A must consider for those who like to go offbeat and break from the norm.

Off Market Design Inspiration:

If you want to take your logo a more upbeat level that portrays less seriousness as compared to other financial logos then this logo design is a must-consider option for your business. Firstly the color purple is a paradigm shift from the dominating palettes of blues and greens in the financial world and secondly the circular design gives a feel of a “Smiling Face”, which other financial institutions won’t opt for, giving your logo its own identity.

Logo designs are at your discretion as a business owner and depend on the initial brief you give to your design team about how you want it to look and feel like. It’s your call at the end of the day, but it would be advisable to look for sustainable designs according to ongoing trends and previous preferences across your industry to have a fairly good idea of what will work and what won’t for your brand.

Since prehistoric times, our minds have been hardwired to understand and respond to different kinds of stimuli that aided us in our survival in those wild times. But those psychological underpinnings still do hold value as we elicit the same kind of emotions after seeing certain colors as we did back then.

The perception a person takes away after being exposed to a certain logo is largely dependent on the color of the logo. Yes, the design is immensely important, but color is a stimulus that can change the immediate outlook of your logo to the extent of altering its meaning by eliciting different passions and emotions.

Most of the iconic logos out there are more associated with their colors than they are with their design as a Mcdonald’s logo will be immediately recognizable at even the haziest of days just because of the yellow color that constitutes a major part of the minimalistic logo.

When opting for a new logo design, color is dependent on what vision you are trying to portray to the onlooker and what does your brand stands for. The key here is to pick the perfect color or a combination of colors to match your brand ideology perfectly to make a powerful impact.

To understand the different emotions that each color elicits, we have some of the most popularly used colors in logos for you here:

The Subtlety of Monochrome:

The colors black and white do not exist alone as one cannot be present without the other although the hues used each time may differ.

Black signifies formality and the elucidating darkness of the night while white is a proponent of peace and composure and together they portray a silken image that is not present in any color making it a perfect color palette to apply when you want a vintage logo for your brand.

Monochromes are great when used to signify technology and innovation and are used mostly by companies that do not want to give away what they do with their logo but just act as a personification of their vision.

The logos of Apple and Nike are built on a monochrome theme but they just signify the calmness of being great at what these companies do without making too much of pomp and noise.

The Power of Red:

When we talk about the color red, the power here is innate and it portrays passion, aggressiveness, and intensity to the fullest making it a powerful candidate for any brand that vouches to look as a constantly active entity with élan.

Companies like YouTube and Coca-Cola have red as their primary logo color to signify the dynamic nature of these brands and the product or service they offer.

The color red stands to increase or stimulate appetite and consumption which stands to explain its use in so many food and beverage products.

The Harmony of Green:

When used wisely, the color green can create an instant connection with an onlooker as it is one of the most abundant colors in nature and stands to elicit the feelings of earth and relaxation just like sitting under a tree.

The connotation is evident in all forms of this color when used in a logo as it provides the logo with a feel that it is fed by natural flavors or possesses a growth-oriented approach.

Money and financial products have long been associated with the color green and its use in such companies is great as it makes it easier to portray the phenomenon of prophesizing sustained growth that will remain fresh for long.

The color green has also been used in the Android bot logo by Google as it portrays the wealth of applications and functionalities that the domain offers.

The Authority of Blue:

Blue is symbolic of governance and professionalism and is one of those colors that elicit integrity and trust in the brand logo that aims to incorporate it.

Blue is present in the horizon and the sky and brands with such a vision should opt for this color to give more weight to their cause by the use of their logo.

When using blue, keep in mind that it implies faith and trust which is the main proponent of companies like Samsun and Ford that reek of quality in all of their products making blue the perfect candidate for portraying a confident yet conservative stature of a brand.

The list doesn’t end hereas there are other colors you can use when you get a logo like orange and purple which are used on an equally consistent basis in logo designs and have their own set of emotions with them but what we intended to make you understand here is the power of colors in making your logo impactful which has the ability, if done right, to transform the chances of success of your brand in the marketing world.

A logo is an insight in what your brand promises to give the customer, what it stands for, what the brand is at its core. In short, the logo is the accumulation of your brand identity in a beautifully designed package that appeals to your target market. This is not something you can make with just good Photoshop skills. Let us give you an example of what true depth is.

The vast pyramids of Gaza and Mona Lisa, both very different but yet they have something in common. One is the symbol of grandeur and vastness, and the other a work of art, personifying a mystic beauty but both of them are designed using the “Golden Ratio”. And once you realize that these works have such depth in them you appreciated them in a completely new light. But even if you never find the genius behinds such works, research has shown that the human eye and brain interpret and process images built on the golden ratio a lot faster than the norm. This helps us to prove that the appeal of Mona Lisa is in part of its well thought out design. Now think if you put this much thought into designing your product logo – that would give you a constant edge. For example, if you are in fashion retail, and if your quality is on par with the competition, a logo could make or break you. So in no way can we underestimate the importance of a good product logo design.

However, how do you convince top management that Design is something that should be focused upon? Well, first of all, remember that design is something that makes the pros stand out from the amateurs. Designs that are planned well will resonate with your clients. When you cut corners in the design phase it does not say anything good about your business. It says that you are doing a “patch job”; you are here to make a quick buck not make a mark for yourself.

Understand the brand and remember simplicity is king

Before you start your quest of making a logo, you have to literally make it crystal clear what your brand stands for, what is delivering to the customer. You have to decide how you want your brand to be perceived as. Once these ideas are jotted down on paper and are coherent with each other, then you can work on how to reflect them in a logo.

Last but not the least, the logo should be beautiful but it should be a work of art like the Last supper. Keep it simple, making it easily recognizable. Plus simple logos also make sense financially as they are easier to recreate (very important if you are in the retail industry). So when you hire a digital agency, the first thing they should ask you is about you. If they start pitching designs from the get go, its time to hunt a new partner.

In business, it is important to look at your competitors and see what they are doing – what’s working for them, what’s bringing them sales, or what’s helping them create a buzz. This is what you commonly call competitor analysis. Take this one step further, and you have what is known as benchmarking. Simply put, it means you’re taking something that has been producing results for others and emulating it so that the same success comes your way, too. While benchmarking for business practices is common, benchmarking logo can also work wonders for a company’s branding strategy.

What is benchmarking in business

Benchmarking is a systematic and strategic management process that involves comparing an organization’s performance, processes, products, or practices with those of its peers, competitors, or industry leaders. The primary objective of benchmarking is to identify areas of improvement, set performance targets, and implement best practices to enhance overall organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Sometimes, people use benchmarking and competitor analysis interchangeably. But the key difference between them is ‘focus’. In competitor analysis, the data is collected from your rivals within the industry, but when you benchmark company logo, it gives a more holistic understanding and transcends the industry boundaries to get a broader view of what we call “best practices”.

Logo Benchmarking

For any company, the logo represents its identity. However, the process of designing a logo and then redesigning it is a constant and ongoing process. These changes are sometimes made to indicate a shift in priorities or to alter the company’s identity in line with the changing priorities and tastes of the targeted audience. Sometimes, logos are revamped as part of marketing strategies to rejuvenate the business.

Every major brand has tinkered with their logo from time to time. Some even have modified it more than once. In the past five years, 78% of major brands have undertaken logo redesigns to refresh their image and stay relevant in  the market.

Source

Why benchmarking is important

While looking for inspiration to design a logo or make changes to it, benchmarking is considered an ideal practice to help with the process. In this way, the company evaluates the process and sees the effectiveness, visual appeal, and overall performance of the logo relative to industry standards and competitors. This process is crucial for determining the logo’s ability to represent a strong and effective brand identity.

Benchmarking tools and metrics

Benchmarking tools and metrics are a set of parameters and strategies that help you compare your logo with that of your competitors. These tools and metrics offer a data-driven approach to logo benchmarking, allowing companies to make informed decisions about the logo’s design, performance, and its impact on the brand’s image. Some of these metrics are:

Aesthetic indices

They are quantitative measurements designed to evaluate the visual appeal of a logo. These metrics take into account various design elements such as symmetry, balance, color harmony, and proportions and give a numerical score or rating to compare the logo’s aesthetics. One common aesthetic index is the Golden Ratio, which measures the harmony of proportions in the logo’s design.

Brand recognition metrics

These metrics assess the logo’s ability to create brand awareness and recognition. Tools like brand tracking surveys or recognition tests can be used to measure how well the logo is remembered and associated with the company. Metrics may include unaided and aided recall, where respondents are asked to name or identify the brand when presented with the logo.

Eye-tracking studies

Eye-tracking technology can be used to analyze how people visually interact with the logo. By tracking where viewers’ eyes are drawn to the logo and how long they spend looking at different elements, businesses can gain insights into the logo’s visual hierarchy and effectiveness in conveying the brand message.

Color analysis software

Various software tools are available for assessing the colors used in a logo. These tools can provide data on color contrast, color harmony, and accessibility. They help ensure that the logo adheres to best practices in color theory and is suitable for different contexts, including digital and print media.

Usability testing

Usability testing, typically used for digital interfaces, can also be applied to logos, especially when they are part of a website or app. Users’ interactions with the logo on a website can be tracked to determine if it effectively guides them to important areas or actions. Metrics may include click-through rates and user satisfaction ratings.

Social media analytics

In the digital age, logos are often prominently featured on social media platforms. Businesses can use social media analytics tools to track the engagement and reach of posts that feature their logo. Metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates can indicate the logo’s effectiveness in generating online engagement.

The process of benchmarking logo

Define the scope

To start, you would need to identify the scope of the projects. Do you want to create a new logo or want to tweak specific aspects of the logo? This could include color, typography, design elements, etc. It also helps set benchmarking criteria for assessing different logos. Some would pique your interest with their color scheme, others might have fascinating typography or iconography that might inspire you. If you get into this process without defining the scope of your project, you’d focus on other elements that might not need to be changed, and it runs the risk of jeopardizing the whole process.

Identify competitors

After determining the scope, the second step is to choose a competitor(s) for logo benchmarking. Research and identify competitors and industry standards to compare against. This could include analyzing logos of similar companies or organizations in the same industry. There are two types of competitors you can consider in your analysis: direct competitors and indirect competitors.

Direct competitors are those who are your rivals in the same industry. For example, for Starbucks, Tim Hortons is a direct competitor.

Indirect competitors are those businesses that offer different products or services but target the same customer base. For example, Apple’s indirect competitors are Samsung and Huawei.

You can even look out of your industry for benchmarking. Sometimes, the best inspiration can come from unexpected places. What if evaluating the logos of businesses in completely different industries could help you to come up with new and innovative ideas.

Analysis of competitors’ logos

Getting a hold of your competitors’ logos is easy. You can find these on their websites, marketing materials, social media pages, and even product packaging. Now, you can collect data on the logos and analyze it to identify strengths and weaknesses. This could include analyzing design, color scheme, relevance, uniqueness, typography, symbology, and scalability.

Design: While evaluating the design, you need to answer two questions. Is the logo visually appealing and memorable? Is it consistent with the overall brand identity? You’ll get your answers by looking at the balance, symmetry, contrast, and unity within the logo’s design. Elements like line thickness, shapes, and negative space also needed to be looked at.

Color scheme: Benchmarking logo will also delve into color assessment to understand the color choices because colors have a profound impact on how a logo is perceived and how it communicates a brand’s message. In color analysis, you’d examine the psychology of colors used, their combination, and consistency.

Relevance: You’d also need to see how relevant to your industry is the logo you’re benchmarking. For benchmarking examples, consider the M&M’s logo. It can work wonders on candy packets, but it’d be a bummer if pasted on Rolex watches. Right? So, the benchmark logo design needs to be relevant to your identity, the audience you’re catering to, and the product/service you’re selling.

Uniqueness: The logo you’re benchmarking should be unique. It must stand out from the competition. Otherwise, how would it help improve your design?

Typography: The selection of fonts and typography is also assessed in terms of legibility, appropriateness for the brand, and how well it complements the overall logo design. Here, you’d scrutinize various elements like font, kerning and spacing, typeface pairing and tracking, etc.

Symbology: Symbology is a critical aspect when evaluating and benchmarking a logo. The art and symbols used in a logo are a form of visual communication that inspires memorability and universal recognition. The logo you’re looking for benchmarking should be culturally relevant to your company and have a storytelling appeal that evokes emotional resonance among your customers.

Scalability: The need for availability is different for different companies. For example, an e-commerce app will have to consider logo scalability on multiple devices, while a plumbing company wouldn’t have to worry much about scalability. So, it is important to evaluate the logo’s effectiveness at various sizes and in different contexts while benchmarking. The logo should be analyzed for its clarity when scaled down to very small sizes and its adaptability to different mediums such as business cards, billboards, websites, and mobile apps.

Identify areas for improvement

After gathering data on the benchmarked logos, the next step will be to take a step back to assess your own logo. How does it stack up? Are there any areas where it could be improved? Now that you have a good understanding of the design, relevance, uniqueness, and scalability of your competitors’ logos, here are some questions you can ask yourself:

• Is the logo visually appealing and memorable?
• Is it consistent with the overall brand identity?
• Does it accurately represent the business and its products or services?
• Does it stand out from the competition?
• Will it look good in different sizes and on different media?

If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then your logo is in good shape. However, if you think there are any areas where it could be improved, don’t be afraid to make changes.

Here’s an example of the Airbnb logo redesign.

Source

The old logo was visually appealing, memorable, and consistent with the company’s brand identity. However, it was not unique.

The new logo is more visually appealing and memorable than the original logo. It also uses a distinctive font and design elements that set it apart from other travel and hospitality logos. The new logo is also more scalable. It looks good in different sizes and on different media.

Implement changes

Once you have identified all the shortcomings of your logo, now is the time to implement the changes. It is ideal to hire the services of a professional design company and give them a brief of the results obtained from your benchmarking process. Tell them how you’d want your logo to be redesigned around these parameters. The professional designer of the company can aptly implement those changes and give you a logo that reflects the brand identity and values.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different designs. The best logos are often the ones that are unique and unexpected.

Legal considerations

During the redesign, make sure you are not violating any copyright and trademark laws. Your logo must not infringe on any existing intellectual property rights and should be culturally sensitive and appropriate for the target market.

Stakeholder feedback

After the redesign, it is important to gather feedback from internal and external stakeholders. It is an essential part of the benchmarking process. This involves surveys, focus groups, and interviews to understand how the logo is perceived and whether it effectively communicates the brand message.

Monitor results

After you have implemented the changes, monitor the impact it is creating among the consumers and whether your investment into branding is paying off or not. Keep track of different metrics and audience feedback and make changes to the logo if needed.

Conclusion

In modern times, when design and branding elements are vital in determining the company/business’ success, brands should routinely be benchmarking logo to determine its effectiveness and appeal among the customers. This process also helps to gauge the industry’s best practices and evaluate the expectations consumers might have with their favorite brand.