David Ogilvy from Ogilvy & Mathers was founder of an advertising agency that dominated between the 1950s to the early 70s. He created successful advertising campaigns for Rolls Royce, American Express, Dove and Shell to name a few. He is often referred to as the Father of Advertising.
In 1955 David Ogilvy stated the following so beautifully about changing your brand’s image:
“How tragically easy it is to stampede into change. But what golden rewards await the advertiser who has the brains to create a favorable brand image – and the stability to stick with it over a long period.”
Most printers WON’T tell you changing your logo might not be a good idea. Printers make more money when you change your brand’s design. Obviously everything needs to be reprinted from letterheads and business cards, to pocket folders and promotional items.
As you can imagine, this creates a rather large order for a printer.
And in many cases there are sufficient reasons to change a company’s logo. Either your company is changing directions, going after a new market, or the logo was never well thought out in the first place.
However often there are complete logo changes for no other reason than something new is wanted or “We want it to be more modern”.
From every direction people are being pulled to change their logo. It’s easy to jump on this band wagon. The problem with this is it defeats the purpose of creating a consistent recognized brand in the first place. You lose all the momentum you built up over years of consistently displaying your logo on business cards, websites and newsletters, etc.
Here are 3 questions to ask yourself before changing your logo.
- Has my company completely changed directions or in a different market than when it originally started?
- Is my brand no longer relevant in my industry?
- Was there no thought put into my original logo?
If you answer yes to one of these, it’s worth considering a logo change. I have considered changing our logo, but I always ask myself “Do I NEED to change my logo or do I WANT to change my logo”? If I “need” to change it, I will immediately, but if I “want” to, well that’s just a “want”.
P.S. Remember – your logo is not your brand, BUT it is a huge part of it.
