Lets start with your image to the outside world:

• A poorly conceived/executed logo (1.) will not connect with your prospects; (2.) can deliver the wrong message about who-you-are and what-you-do; (3.) give the idea that you have poor quality standards; (4.) may be too generic to be memorable; (5.) is hard to read on business cards; (6.) will confuse people about what you do
• A logo that hasn’t been updated in years (1.) will tell your customers you are too cheap to keep your image fresh; (2.) may no-longer represent the company and its values; (3) will project a lack of interest in your own business and brand value; (4) looks boring and not fun to work with

Now, let’s consider, more importantly, the image to your employees:

An old logo that hasn’t been updated will tell employees  (1.) “We don’t care about the future of the company;” (2.) “We are cheap and don’t understand the intrinsic value of our Brand;” (3.) “We don’t understand what the current Brand represents or where it is headed;” (4.) “We fear or are against change or improvement.”

A poorly conceived/executed logo tells your employees (1.) we do not connect with our employees; (2.) delivers the wrong message on who-the-company-is and what-the-company-does; (3.) gives the idea that we have poor quality standards; (4.) steers potential applicants away from applying by having them think, “If they don’t invest in their image, they probably won’t invest in me either.”

Next Printing Cost:

I’ll have to preface this with some basic info – a professionally developed logo is successful in black and white, one color – possibly two color. When contrasted with some poorly planned logos that are full-color for no good reason:

• Printing cost for full-color, all of the time, will normally double or triple any printing job’s cost (Example: business cards for a two-color logo can run about $100, but the cost can easily jump to $200+ for full color on the same paper stock)

Imagine printing letterhead, envelopes, and business cards for an office of 10 people. If you have professional designed stationery with a two-color logo, your cost may be $2,000 depending on paper stock and quantities. For similar paper stock and quantities, using a logo that is full color, you will easily spend $5,000. So, you can see that anything you saved on the logo redesign is eaten away by poor planning and execution.

Another problem with an unprofessional logo, we have seen this more times than I like to admit, is when the logo is created in a non-scalable format. They had a friend put something together in a desktop publishing program and they only have one file format and it isn’t scalable. Each time the logo is used on different media such as on letterhead, then billboards or shirts, the company they contract with has to re-make the logo, OR turn it into a two or one color, OR (the worse) stretch the logo to fit the size so the final print/production is warped, fuzzy or pixelated.

We have encountered several poorly conceived, badly executed logos that are not helping the companies they are supposed to represent. So, if you are concerned about how much a good or great logo will cost you, it is nothing compared to what a BAD LOGO will cost you.

Think about what big prospects have walked away from your company because your brand looks old, confusing, or poor quality. How much did that logo really cost you now?

Why do companies name themselves three lettered acronyms? Maybe they do this to make graphic designers’ job harder or maybe it is to confuse consumers. Unless you have a brand that is a household name like IBM, don’t name your company after three letters, any three letters! If you must, try adding something descriptive like CVS Pharmacy. This help consumers understand your brand, your products, and services; you are a pharmacy. The more descriptive the name, the better name it is for others. A descriptive name helps your brand, your consumers and even your search engine rankings. “Logo Designers” would be a great name and everyone would know what that company does – logo design.

What if your company already has an established three-letter name? Shoot your CEO. (Bad joke, I know.) CBO would be better. Ever hear of a Chief Branding Officer? Yes, it is a real position just like CFO, CEO and COO. Confused yet? Now you get my point. If your company is established with a three-letter name, try developing a tagline or slogan that illustrates your service or products. Like BOB, your friendly brand marketing business.

In conclusion, give your customers a chance to know what you do before they get to know you and stay away from the acronyms. Your potential customers should not have to make a connection with you just to know what you do, that is putting the cart before the horse. Don’t even get me started on the 7-letter acronyms.

Realistically, how often should a company change their logo? Depending on your business and market, possibly every 10 or 20 years. If your company makes a few poor decisions and your business model makes a complete 180, may be sooner rather than later might be a wise decision. Another question to ask yourself is, “How well is my logo known?” We all know the dated IBM logo. Why haven’t they changed? Well, because we all know what it looks like.

In case you forgot what it looked like…

Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the “Guerrilla Marketing” books, says you should plan on getting twenty years out of your logo. Look for the extended warranty (just kidding). A drastic change can wipe out your brand?s equity that took years and lots of money to build. Many times you can make small updates to a logo without jeopardizing the entire brand. Notice the evolution of the Design the Planet logo below. The logo started out representing a start-up, female freelance designer working out of her home. The first update shows a young company of a few employees making strides in the market and venturing outside of the home. The newest logo captures a company evolving into a larger corporate climate with a more refined business model and clear visions from the past and of the future.

With each update, Design the Planet keeps the brand intact and evolves the identity to match the current and near future of the company. Also, being a design and brand marketing company, Design the Planet should constantly strive to capture the mind share of its target market while maintaining a strong brand that “speaks” to that market.

A few notes to think about when considering an update or redesign of your company’s logo:

• Does the current identity match the business model? Your company’s products/services? The future of the company?
• What should the identity say about the company?
• Is the identity trendy or dated? What does the trend say about the company? Does this trend work?
• Is the logo a cliché? Are you a lawyer with the cliché scales or an IT professional with clipart of a computer on your business card? How does the company differentiate from others in the field and/or market? (Note: Conventional symbols are okay and can be tastefully added or freshened up without hitting your clients over the head with the symbol.)

Let’s look at an international brand that recently updated their logo. Earlier this year, Xerox released their new corporate identity. Xerox had not made a change in their identity since 1961, when they dropped the name “Habloid” from the logo. After nearly 50 years of usage, Xerox updated their well-recognized brand for what Richard Wergan, vice president of advertising, calls “a brand identity that reflects the Xerox of today.”

After years of market research, internal strategizing and client surveys, the new logo retains some of the elements of the original logo. The research showed that consumers associate the color red with Xerox and for their overseas markets, the red color represents good luck, prosperity and good will. (Something else to consider when thinking about redeveloping your company’s identity: what do other markets that you serve think about your identity? When your company started, did you think your market would include Japan or Germany or if you are only stateside, Boston and Denver?)

Xerox stated why they made the change, “We are a very different company today than we were when our current brand architecture was developed,” says Richard Wergan, director of worldwide brand at Xerox. “The new logo is meant to disrupt the mental model of Xerox as just a copier company.”

Like all updates, they are across the board whether you are an international company like Xerox or a slightly smaller company like Design the Planet. The new corporate logo is your face to your clients, vendors, competitors, and potential clients. The corporate makeover needs to extend to each facet of your company, including business cards, packaging, signage, vehicles, website, phonebook listing, down to your company’s invoices. It takes time to update everything and can take a lot of money. When updating your brand, make a list of what needs to be updated and a timeline with the highest priority items changing first (suggestion ? website & business card first). The last thing you want is to have a hodgepodge of logos from various updates. This array of identities gives the illusion that your company is disorganized and multiple brand identities in the public’s eye create competition with yourself.

Reason #1 – It was old. The day that I look down at my card and think “this looks old” is when I know an identity needs a makeover. Quite honestly, the brand update should have happened a few years ago, around the time Katrina hit. Going into Katrina I had already reached that conclusion, but post-Katrina, we didn’t have the time or manpower to dedicate to building our own new brand. There were other people who needed our help, so we chose to reprioritize at the time.

Reason number 2 – The font. The old Design the Planet font was adapted from a Handwriting font that I found stylish and new, yet old. After using the logo for around five years, what was once a novel font that differentiated us so well had become overused. I see it everywhere and with that, our logo loses impact and becomes common. Or, more common then I would like.

Reason number 3 – The market. As a company, our market has shifted over the past several years, not dramatically, but it has changed. The old logo was well suited for the company years ago, but now seems not to match our company focus and brand.

Reason number 4 – Our web site needed a facelift. Our old web site didn’t have all of the bells and whistles it needed to be an essential tool. Specifically?

A. It was initially programmed completely in Flash several years ago because people wanted to see our proficiencies in the program (and we have updated it almost religiously since it was created). However, since then, the ways of the web have changed!

B. We have been optimizing and web marketing for our clients for years, but our Flash site was lacking in the live content that is readable by search engines.

C. The Flash site was cumbersome to update, mostly because it was programmed so long ago that it wasn’t accessing a database of information to populate the images and content.

D. Our old site didn’t give us the opportunity to share additional information like what you are reading now, and some things are worth sharing!