The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Your Logo Is Not Your Brand
“The goal of branding is to own the one feeling that motivates your prospects to act. If you’ve created a feeling that propels action, the logo is simply a visual cue prompting that feeling. Your logo is not your brand, but should be associated with the feelings you want. Show your logo at the “moments of truth” where you’ve delivered your “wow” experiences to create that positive association.”
Chris Goward, WiderFunnel
2. Both Influence How People Feel About Your Product or Service
“The best-selling author of Start with Why Simon Sinek puts it this way: “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” In other words, people buy based on emotion. How does your brand and logo make the buyer feel? Your brand and logo are critical elements of your product and must elicit an emotion that exudes trust and makes them want to buy your products.”
Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
3. The Logo Points Back to the Company
“If a brand is the “relationship” that signifies a bond between a company and consumer, then the logo would be the idea of how that relationship functions. The logo is a simple way of pointing the customer back to the original company. It is the visual face of your business, which is used to show a preexistingrelationship between a company and audience member.”
Stanley Meytin, True Film Production
4. A Brand Is a Value Message
“Branding is a process of defining, shaping and influencing — visually and verbally — the story, emotion and meaning you want people to experience. A brand is a value message to the world. A logo is the defining mark of a brand’s essence. Take a holistic approach. Invest in a solid strategy to define your brand and positioning. Use that to inform and inspire your visual system.”
Ashleigh Hansberger, Motto
5. The Logo Represents the Brand
“It’s important for your logo to communicate and represent your brand in a succinct, easily consumable way. A great example of this is Twitter. A realistic image of a bird would’ve communicated the idea well enough, but choosing the more simplified, more cartoon-like approach sent a different message. It didn’t just communicate the idea of “tweeting,” it gave the platform a young and light feel.”
Blair Thomas, First American Merchant
6. The Logo Needs Not Be Prioritized
“Companies spend a lot of resources on creating or updating logos but often forget about explicitly developing and nurturing their brands. If you have an easily definable brand, the logo should be a relatively quick and easy next step. When a company has no discernible brand qualities and the logo projects qualities that aren’t reinforced elsewhere, then the logo is useless, or worse, confusing.”
Roger Lee, Captain401
7. A Logo Tells a Story
“Every good logo is easily recognizable and preferably tells a story. Somebody should be able to take a quick peek at a logo and understand your brand’s core value proposition. For instance, Slack includes a hashtag that relates to the fact that the service allows company people to follow an internal conversation topic.”
Andy Karuza, FenSens
8. The Logo Creates the Feeling of the Brand
“A brand is how someone feels about your company; your logo should reflect this feeling and embody everything that your company does. It is the first visual representation of your brand that anyone sees. Is it clean and crisp or chaotic and loud? You have to think about how you want your brand to be represented through your logo.”
Jayna Cooke, EVENTup
9. The Logo Is Just the Beginning
“Branding is more than just a pretty logo; it’s the message, personality and whole image of a company. The logo is one part of a brand identity. When a company creates a logo and wants to build a brand, the logo is just the beginning. It’s then how one uses the mark with other aesthetics and marketing efforts that build brand awareness.”
Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
10. Your Logo Should Encompass the Future of Your Brand
“Your logo must be timeless. Anything outdated will make customers think the same about your company, as to them the logo and the brand are one in the same. When designing a logo, remember to think about the bigger picture and plan for the future. Your logo needs to represent your brand not just today, but years from now.”
