Logos and hidden messages

We are surrounded by brands and logos. They are everywhere and take many different shapes, but have you taken a closer look at them? Here there are some examples of hidden messages in logos taht we do not usually see unless we take a closer look:

Carrefour

We will start with “Carrefour”, a French multinational Supermarket.  What do you see on it? Two arrows with funny shapes pointing in different directions? or do you see the “C” that lies between those two arrows? Interesting huh? Well, wait to see the rest of them.

Toyota

Toyota is another logo that has a message, and you might ask… what message? Well, the logo of the multinational Japanese car manufacturer represents the name of the brand itself “TOYOTA” as you can see in the picture.

 Alfa Romeo

As we have started with the cars sector, we should also take a look into “Alfa Romeo’s” logo. If you look closer, you will see that the snake is “eating” a person. I don’t know what it really means but I am sure that the Italian brand has an explanation for this.

Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten Conference is an American conference that includes 12 member Universities of the NCAA Division 1 league sports. It is significant that although the name is big TEN, it hosts TWELVE universities, but the logo shows an ELEVEN around the “T”.

Coca Cola

This logo has been very studied and observed before. If we take a closer look at the logo of the company that sells “happiness”, some experts say that we could see a white person spiting on a black person.  I have rotated the angle so it is easier to identify both persons. It is true that we can see two faces but it is not clear if one of them is black, or if the other one is “spiting” over him.

UC3M

And finally, we can see the logo of my home University. It could seem like a regular logo of a regular university, but if you examine it closely, you can identify a light bulb in the middle of it. I think it is a great idea to display a light bulb in a University’s logo since it represents the knowledge and ideas of people.

This are some of the logos that contain different messages in their shapes. All of them are among the most creative pieces of work and very well related to what they represent.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you did, don’t hesitate to share it! Thank you!

Building Brand Reputation

First of all, we should start with the meaning of brand. Brand is “a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes products and services from competitive offerings” (Definition given by the American Marketing Association)

A brand knowledge structure depends on many different factors. One of the important are the initial choices for the brand elements. There are many brand elements that can be chosen to enhance awareness or facilitate the formation of brand associations. Some of the elements are brand names, URLs, logos and symbols,  slogans or the actual package of your product.

The most noticeable attribute of a brand is its name. Brand names should be carefully chosen following the six general criteria that will be explained later in this post. There are two important guidelines to follow when choosing your brand name:

– Brand Awareness: the name of your brand should be simple and easy to spell and pronounce. It should be distinctive and unique to capture consumers attention.

– Brand Associations: the explicit and implicit meanings consumers extract from a brand name are important. In particular, the brand name can reinforce an important attribute or benefit association that makes up its product or service positioning.

URLs are also a very important brand element, they will specify the location of your pages on the web and must be carefully chosen.

As well as URLs and brand names, logos and Symbols play a critical role in building brand reputation, and specially, brand awareness. Logos can take many different forms, starting with simple or abstract designs, and finishing with plain words.

Important are also the slogans of the company. Slogans are short phrases that communicate descriptive or persuasive information about the brand. They are one of the most powerful branding devices.

Finally, the packaging of the product or the presentation of the service is also an indispensable element to take into consideration. It is how the consumer will feel the product and packaging must let the consumer identify the brand.

>> When choosing the brand elements we must take into account the six general criteria:

• Memorability
  Brand elements should be memorable and attention-getting in order to facilitate recall or recognition by the consumer.
• Meaningfulness
  Of course, a brand should have a meaning, and brand elements may take all kinds of different meanings, with either descriptive or persuasive content. The brand should give general information about the nature of the product or service category as well as specific information about particular attributes and benefits of the brand which will determine brand positioning.
• Likability
  A brand should be attractive to customers since they are the ones that will buy your product or request your services. If the brand is not attractive to them, your chances of obtaining and retaining customers decrease.
• Transferability
   Your brand might include different products and different services and therefore, this characteristic is very important if you want to enlarge your portfolio.
• Adaptability
  This characteristic is related to the previous one. The more adaptable and flexible your brand is, the easier it is to update it to changes in consumer values and opinions.
• Protectability
  One of the most important factors. You must choose brand elements that can be legally protected internationally and register them with the appropriate legal bodies.

Putting all this elements together chosen by the six general criteria will help you build a brand reputation for your firm. Brand reputation is a crucial determinant for the success of your business which has to be developed over time, with effort and determination.

If you want to see the effects of brand reputation you could check this experiment with Coke and Pepsi: http://bit.ly/60secmarketer