| If your Company Logo Could Speak, What Would it Say?
It's no secret that your business will ultimately flourish or perish at the hands of a few important mathematical equations. At the end of the day, if your revenues aren't greater than your expenses, your company will not be around for a very long time. If your prices are consistently higher than those of your competitors, your future also isn't very rosy.
But in this cold and calculating world, there is one phenomenon that can't simply be reduced to simple number and statistics: the notion of corporate image.
As a business owner, understanding how a company logo can help shape a corporate image and effectively communicate it to potential clients is just as vital to your long-term survival as understanding the rules of basic accounting. This is exactly why large companies dish out millions of dollars every year and pay marketing strategists the big bucks. Learning how to craft and communicate a corporate image to your clients is extremely important. Company logos do just that and, consequently, can have an indirect affect on your bottom line.
The reasoning behind this is plain and simple: Image is everything. There is a reason millions of young teenagers and hip-to-the-street adults are choosing the sleek iPods over the millions of other MP3 players out there. And a lot of it probably has a lot to do with the fact that Apple has been successful in creating a corporate image that emphasizes individual freedom and creativity while branding itself as a sort of counter-culture rebel compared to its competitors.
Obviously, this corporate image wasn't created overnight and neatly packaged into a company logo design. But years of branding Apple's famous corporate logo throughout the various ad campaigns has helped consumer's make that very important link. The same kind of conclusions can probably also be made for MacDonald's golden arches and the Nike swoosh. Whether consciously or not, consumers instantly relate to these company logos and are magnetically drawn to them.
That doesn't mean, however, that all corporate logos will be successful in drawing in consumers. The most effective company logos are those that perfectly capture its owner's corporate image: be it one of integrity, leadership or rebellion.
Designing a company logo is therefore a tricky endeavor. Conveying your company's corporate image through a logo design will usually require a graphic designer who can manipulate fonts images, fonts and colours to get that message across. Of course, your graphic designer is only a medium between you and your clients. It is ultimately up to you to figure out just what image you want to portray.
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