Why do you need a logo? In marketing terms, it's called branding. It's how you visually communicate your company's “personality” to potential customers. Your logo design is one of the most visually identifiable elements of your company's branding campaign.
Think of a cattle rancher. He “brands” his cattle with a distinctive, unique “logo” which instantly identifies those cattle with his ranch. There's no mistaking the Rocking Horse Ranch from the Broken Arrow. The symbol and design are unique. That's the concept you want to pursue.
If you're a small business owner on the net, the importance of a memorable logo design cannot be overemphasized. A first-time visitor to your site is a potential customer, and the first impression of your web page either leads them to stay and have a look around, or quickly lose interest and leave, probably never to return.
You remember the old adage, “Make a good first impression, because you may not get a second chance.” Think about this when you set out to create a logo design for your company. You want your logo design to pack a visual punch, one that will stick in the mind of your customer.
How do you go about creating a good logo design? The criterion are short and sweet. Simplicity is at the essence. The design must be simple, unique, visually pleasing and memorable.
What you don't want is an overworked, complicated, too-busy effect. This creates a visually confusing, unfocused impression, which translates as unprofessional and disorderly! Certainly not what you want your image to convey. You may even subconsciously irritate your viewer!
As a starting point, take a look at some of your competitor's logo designs. Look at several. Note what you like, what turns you off, and take note of color combinations, fonts and shapes that work. Do not unconsciously duplicate someone else's logo design. You must make your logo design unique in the sense that all elements of your logo (shape, colors and fonts) form a unified memory in your viewer's mind.
Your type of business should give you ideas on possible concepts. For example, in the coffee business, you'll see a lot of coffee-colored tones, with steaming coffee cup themes. Think about how you can stand out in this crowd. Find a different slant that enables you to stand out from your competition. Perhaps coffee beans graphically formatted into a retro coffee pot or mug? Keep it simple and memorable.
When you have your basic concept, sketch a few mock ups with different arrangements and densities of color. Try several fonts in different sizes until you find the design which most closely matches the “personality” of your business.
Unless you're artistically competent to execute your concept, take your sketches to a professional graphic designer. They can turn your concept into a fresh and original logo design.
Your logo design can be one of your best business promotions. Make the most of it!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Business Name Suggestions
When I thought about starting a business, I knew that there would be a lot to it. You can't simply read a book on how to start a business and expect to know it all – there is just too much. There is incorporating, hiring competent people, coming up with a business plan, getting investors, getting retail space – you get the idea. One thing that I didn't consider, however, was finding the right business name.
It took me months of fruitless business name search before I really had any idea what I was doing. I got business name suggestions from everyone I met, but none of them were really good. Hiring a company to get business name suggestions seemed like a silly idea to me at first, but then one of my friends and partners told me to think about it in a different way. To him, the business name suggestion is just part of the broader business branding and marketing strategy. Your business is not just the products you sell, the people who work for you, or even the physical location where it is held. The business is about how people see it. Getting the right suggested business names is the first step to projecting the right corporate image.
The key to business name suggestions is to not think of them in isolation. It is true that every once in a while, a brilliant business name suggestion comes along. If this happens to you, you can use it as a starting point. You can cater the branding strategy, the slogans, the corporate logos – everything to that particular business name. In general, however, business name suggestions should be part of a more integrated approach. The business makes suggestions that you choose should not exist in isolation, but as part of an overall strategy. Naming a business is not only where you start as the business's founder, but also where the consumer starts. The wrong name and you will get no business.
In the end, sometimes good business name suggestions come from the most unlikely people. Our foray with the marketing and advertising agency was fruitless, and in the end we had just managed to waste several thousand dollars on nothing. In desperation, I turned to some very unlikely people to give me business name suggestions. Since we would be a toy distributor, I turned to my younger son and his friends. They came up with the perfect name.
It took me months of fruitless business name search before I really had any idea what I was doing. I got business name suggestions from everyone I met, but none of them were really good. Hiring a company to get business name suggestions seemed like a silly idea to me at first, but then one of my friends and partners told me to think about it in a different way. To him, the business name suggestion is just part of the broader business branding and marketing strategy. Your business is not just the products you sell, the people who work for you, or even the physical location where it is held. The business is about how people see it. Getting the right suggested business names is the first step to projecting the right corporate image.
The key to business name suggestions is to not think of them in isolation. It is true that every once in a while, a brilliant business name suggestion comes along. If this happens to you, you can use it as a starting point. You can cater the branding strategy, the slogans, the corporate logos – everything to that particular business name. In general, however, business name suggestions should be part of a more integrated approach. The business makes suggestions that you choose should not exist in isolation, but as part of an overall strategy. Naming a business is not only where you start as the business's founder, but also where the consumer starts. The wrong name and you will get no business.
In the end, sometimes good business name suggestions come from the most unlikely people. Our foray with the marketing and advertising agency was fruitless, and in the end we had just managed to waste several thousand dollars on nothing. In desperation, I turned to some very unlikely people to give me business name suggestions. Since we would be a toy distributor, I turned to my younger son and his friends. They came up with the perfect name.
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