You care too much about your logo

There, I said it. And it’s not really your fault. We’ve been conditioned to believe that so much value of a brand (or business) is tied up in the logo.

So I want to gently hold your hand and tell you why that’s wrong and what you should care about more than your logo.

But first, yes, visual design is important. We can’t just ignore that and pretend it isn’t. We make so many purchase decisions based on aesthetic appeal. And when attention spans are short — and shrinking — we do have to get this right.

But getting it right is so layered and nuanced and basically the whole reason why your logo just isn’t the most important part of your brand.

So, let’s get into it, shall we?

A brand experience

I would argue that a brand experience is the most important tool in your kit as a brand. It’s also not something static, as it shifts and evolves with you and your people over time.

It’s what someone (a would-be client or customer) experiences from first touch to off-boarding and beyond. It’s the marriage of messaging, communication and copywriting, marketing, website, emails and visual design.

It’s the full package that shares what you do, who you do it for, why that matters to them (and you) and everything you stand for and believe in as a business.

The brand experience is also how connection and relationships happen. And how people in your orbit become clients or customers.

And in order to have a delightful, compelling and share-worthy brand experience, you need clarity and confidence in a few key areas. You can read all about them here.

It’s just a logo

At the end of the day, a logo is just a logo. And it will almost never be experienced as a standalone visual representation of your brand. As you use it within your brand experience, you’ll combine it with

• Copywriting
• Other design elements such as colour, type, layout and illustrations/pattern
• Photography (brand, product or stock)

These combinations will be experienced in your website; social media; emails; brochures, lookbooks or catalogues; stationery; client-facing documents; presentations; packaging design and unboxing experiences.

And together they’re working to share a story: they have depth and meaning woven into them. If there’s no story, they’re just decoration.

Your story

Brand strategy is the development of everything internal — the hard work if you will. It’s understanding your purpose and strengths, the result you specialise in, your people and why they’re interested in that result, your brand voice and how you can clearly communicate all of it through messaging.

This forms the story of your brand and taking the time, energy and space to define and refine each part of this will ensure that your brand experience will

• Connect with and engage the right people
• Communicate what you do and how you do it differently
• Stand out, rather than melting into the sea of sameness in your industry

Keep them coming back

So yes, logos are important. Just not as important as you thought they were. The whole experience of your brand is the most important, and your logo is just one facet of that.

And while we make purchase decisions based on aesthetic appeal, it’s the ‘keep them coming back’ goal that can only be achieved by placing value (a lot of value, please) on the whole experience of your brand, underwritten by an easy-to-implement and clarity-inducing brand strategy.

‘Keep them coming back’ is about emotional connection, nurtured and genuine relationships, giving them an experience they want to talk about and providing them with a result that is so magnificent, other people notice.