Most think it's just a symbol. Others make the mistake of placing no importance on their logo at all, settling for any type of inexpensive graphic. The fact is, a logo is the most important piece of marketing material a company will ever buy and every intelligent entrepreneurs knows it.

If you want to know the degree of importance successful businesses place on their logos, try to copy one and see what happens. Like a national flag, the logo is a company's visual identity. And like a flag, a logo is recognized worldwide - it is the image by which your company will be recognized for a very long time. In essence, it is your company's face, personality and intellect all rolled into one easily recognizable graphic.

Developing an easily recognizable graphic symbol that clearly separates you from the rest of the pack is very important and one of the most fundamental strategies in marketing your business.
The first thing a well designed logo shows is that you mean business. It also demonstrates no matter how big or small your company, that you are big on quality and innovation.

The most remembered logos are very simple in design. Look at IBM, Mobil or Kodak for example. Complicated logos are marvels of art and that's the trouble. People enjoy looking at them for their artistic value. The many colors and intricate design elements make them very beautiful to look at, but equally difficult to remember. There is a big difference between fine art and commercial art. Unless you are a museum, art gallery or rock group, keep your logos simple and smart.

Some things don't look right and others look just plain wrong. Why certain things look wrong or negative to the eye is un-explainable...but they do! For instance, a line drawn at a downhill angle is perceived as negative. Just as you see it on a stock market chart. On the other hand, a line going uphill makes for a positive image.

  Even big successful companies make simple mistakes. We have seen a huge locally based telecommunications company come up with a very amateurish design for their high-speed DSL internet service, making them look like a small startup company.

  The biggest faux pas we have seen has to be the new Xerox logo. Deciding on a new image to demonstrate its commitment to digital technology, Xerox shed its classic blue logo, paying lots of very big bucks to a top New York ad agency for a big red X.
What does a red X signify? Negativity! They are used to warn people of imminent danger (railroad crossing) or to tell people to keep away. They are used to cross out or mark out unwanted things and red X's are used to mark dangerous chemicals and poisons. Xerox, in effect, paid millions for a danger symbol that warns its customers to keep away!

  Any ad agency worth its salt would never burden a client with such a blatantly obvious negative symbol and an intelligent company management team would have never adopted such a symbol. When we first noticed the new logo, we knew the company would be in for a rough downhill ride, partially because of the very negative logo and because of the questionable caliber of the management that paid huge bucks for what in effect is a warning sign. Our advice to Xerox...do what Coke did, bite the bullet and bring back the classic!

  Xerox Logo Update
Someone at Xerox has finally seen the light. Most recently and a couple of years after we wrote the above critique about the "X" logo, Xerox dropped the "X" and has gone back to the classic "XEROX" logotype. However, it is red rather than blue. We feel the color blue is more conducive to business than the color red. However, having gone back to the classic "XEROX" logotype is a major step forward. Bravo Xerox!

   Kodak 's New Logo?
Here's a brief thought about Kodak's new corporate identity. The new Kodak logo looks like 1970's retro. If the intent was to project the company's image forward, it does the exact opposite.