Your logo should show what you do

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📝 Context

Topics: Brand & Strategy
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B
Research date: July 2019
Universities: Montpellier Business School, University of Westminster, Wilfrid Laurier University.

Imagine you’re developing the logo for a new email Saas client. You’re deciding between two options:

• A minimal logo with the name and a bolt icon

• A more descriptive logo with a letter icon

Which one is more likely to get you recognised and liked?

Science says, adding the icon could boost the brand.

P.S.: If you’re developing a brand name, you’ll find the Science-based Playbook of Brand Names handy. 27 insights, a real-life case study, and a checklist to come up with a science-optimized name. Exclusively available (for free) to paid Platform members (only $99.9/year).

📈 Recommendation

Design your logo to show what your company does (e.g. A fork for a restaurant). Use visuals that clearly describe your service or product, for example:

• Add a relevant icon to your logo (e.g. a letter icon for a prospecting tool)

• Use colors and shapes related to it (e.g. brown squares for a chocolate bar)

People will like your brand more, and be more likely to buy.

🎓 Findings

• People rate brands with logos that hint at the product or service (e.g. a tree for a gardener) more positively, authentic and warm, regardless of how much they liked the logos' visuals.

• Across 7 experiments with 4,149 people, researchers found that when logos showed what the company did (vs did not), people:

  • Rated brands up to 27.7%  more authentic

  • Rated unfamiliar brands 18.7% more positively 

  • Said they were more likely to buy from 174 real UK startups

• The effect is:

  • Stronger when the brand is new or unfamiliar 

  • Reversed for undesirable products (e.g. lice shampoo or wart remover)

🧠 Why it works

• We look for elements in the logo to form our impression of the brand.

• Descriptive logos are easier to process so we immediately understand what the brand is about.

• They also help us more easily associate the brand with the product.

• This makes us think the brand is more honest and transparent.

• Which in turn makes us want to buy from the brand more.

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✋ Limitations

• The study did not account for how other design traits like colors (e.g. a black and white logo vs a realistic colored one) influence brand perceptions when logos show the products.

• It’s unclear how logos that refer to other brand characteristics impact people’s band perceptions. Such as names (e.g. Apple referring to the brand’s name), technology (e.g. a cloud for Salesforce), or country of origin (e.g. The Brazilian flag for Havaianas).

• The research looked at logos primarily in industries that are consumer-facing (e.g. retail, food and beverage, entertainment). It’s likely that the effect is the same for B2B brands.

• The effect might be weaker for more abstract logos, but it wasn’t tested (e.g. brown square outlines vs fully colored and detailed logo for a chocolate brand ).

👀 Real-life example

Waalaxy is a B2B LinkedIn prospecting Saas that allows people to find targeted leads and automate outreach. 

❌ Issue: They are still an emerging tool and compete with well-established brands. Their logo could be a way to make the brand stand out and create positive brand associations, but their current alien logo is too generic.

✅ Solution: There are a few things they could do to improve their logo and brand image:

• Include visual elements that remind people of LinkedIn (e.g. a rounded blue box) or outreach (e.g. a mail icon).

• Design those elements, and the font, to have straight lines and structured designs to highlight their USPs of reliability and effectiveness.

Their current name looks misspelled and research shows that people are less willing to buy from brands with misspelled names. Changing their name slightly to “Walaxy” can be an easy fix.

🔍 Study type

Online experiments, market observation (with 1,327 people across crowdfunding platforms), and market observation (analyzing brand logos of 423 brands).

📖 Research

Let the Logo Do the Talking: The Influence of Logo Descriptiveness on Brand Equity. Journal of Marketing Research (2019)

🏫 Researchers

• Jonathan Luffarelli. Montpellier Business School.

• Mudra Mukesh. University of Westminster.

• Ammara Mahmood. Wilfrid Laurier University.

Remember: This is a scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

🎁 Bonus mini-insight

From the Science Says Playbook of Brand Names (combination of several studies) available for free exclusively to paid platform members, join here.

🎓 Insight: Use a suggestive brand name that relates to a key product characteristic to make a great and lasting first impression.

📈 Recommendation: Choose a key positive product characteristic (e.g. ability to clear really well) and include something that reminds people of it in your brand name (e.g. The “sparkler” for a washing-up liquid)

🧠 Why it works: We process suggestive brand names better as they are easier to understand, which makes us develop more positive impressions and like them more.

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