Give your Brand a Facelift not a Face change?

So, we’ve established that your logo represents your brand, it’s the flag-carrier for what your business is all about, its values, purpose, its reputation, credibility and people’s perception, all wrapped up in a logo. How can that be? It’s like this. People, all of us, form an almost instant impression of what we hear and see. We can’t help it, it happens. That’s why such intense research has been carried out on website layouts and the colours to use, it’s why we decide about people within seconds of meeting them. We can’t help it.

Another aspect of this is that we tend to only do this with new things, not the second time we see something, just the first, so a second impression will reinforce the first, but not change it.

Let’s apply this to your logo and branding generally. If you have a successful brand and a logo that’s liked and working for you, should you take the risk of changing it? Hmmm, now there’s a question, because although your branding and logo may be working, life moves on and we’re all changing, so suddenly your wonderful logo looks a little less bold and attractive, it’s very familiar, but it’s also a bit tired.

Change it? No! Update it? Ah!

Take our friends at Pepsi, they’ve updated their logo regularly over the years, in fact roughly every 10 years or so. Clever too, because now we have an image representing the brand…no words needed.

The same is true of Cadbury’s. It’s a company that has suffered more changes than most, but it’s managed to maintain its warm, almost homely character by retaining those traditionally royal colours of purple and gold, and that flowing script. It’s updated, refreshed, but it’s remained recognisably the same.

In contrast take a look at the mistake that Tropicana made. They didn’t just update, they changed their look entirely, losing everything they had in terms of brand recognition, and lost out. They’ve since stepped back into their original look.

What’s the lesson here?  Simple, don’t lose your identity. If you have a logo that represents your brand successfully then treat it as you would an old and very valued pair of shoes. Give it a shine, new soles, new heels whatever, but make sure it remains the same pair of shoes!