| "Make my Logo Bigger" and Other War Stories |
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A general discussion of how marketing communications need to be glued together by a brand idea, not only graphics and logos. So called cross media integration is often thought of in terms of ads looking like websites looking like packaging looking like on shelf merchandising. This article takes the first baby-steps in suggesting that these are all nothing more than manifestations of brand ideas, and in an great brand, will all manifest the same, single minded brand thought.
While it seems our industry has made great strides in the realm of “integration,” there are clear indications that in terms of actual “brand integration” we are still in the dark ages. And one of the clearest manifestations of this stymied thinking is (not surprisingly) one of the deepest causes of tension between clients and agencies – the size of the logo in the ad. This relatively minor issue is probably the biggest cause of friction and frustration in agency relationships. While everything else in our business is studies to death, we generally dismiss this issue as an inevitable, unmanageable client agency “thing”. But, is it?
It is hard to believe that agencies would seriously risk client relationships based on a minor point which makes, at the end of the day, very little difference[1]. Surely art directors are not really as immature and insecure as to fight to the death for something based solely on their subjective design sensibilities? And surely advertising managers are not so stubborn and bloody minded that they will sacrifice their reputations on behalf of an abstract dogma that insists: the bigger the logo the better the ad? And surely agency and client management would not buy each other dinner so frequently to smooth over the ruffled feathers caused by this issue? Does nobody have anything better to do? There is, in fact, a much deeper pathology at play – a pathology dealing not with human neuroses, but resident in the development, management and integration of the brand in the business.
In order to understand this it is necessary to understand the process of developing logos as expressions of brands.
Logos are the end product of a “Branding” project that is (most often) undertaken by brand identity firms who specialize in this area. Their process, much like that of advertising agencies, is to develop a deep understanding of the brand, build a brand architecture to define and describe the brand, and finally crystallize a creative expression of the brand – a wordmark or symbol that they believe, and importantly the client believes, encapsulates everything the brand stands for. When the board of directors accepts the new logo and identity for their brand, there is no question in anybody’s mind but that when the stakeholders (including consumers) see this logo in conjunction with (or, as in the case of brands like Nike, instead of) the name, they will know everything they need to know about the brand essence: who it is and what it stands for.
While this important component of the brand strategy is clear to everybody in the client’s world, it is never truly explained to the agency. Rarely, if ever, would the “branding firm” be brought into the agency to brief them on the brand essence. On the contrary, the agency undertakes a similar project and develops another version of the brand essence – one which they believe needs to be intrinsically and powerfully expressed in the advertising.
Hence, when placing the logo into the ad the agency does not see it performing any communication role other than, in conjunction with the company name, to identify the sponsor of the ad. Why, then, from the perspective of the agency, is there any need to make it any bigger than it absolutely needs to be?
On the other hand, from the client perspective, why does the ad need to be imbued with so much subtlety (in order to communicate the essence of the brand) when the logo (if only it were bigger and more proudly displayed) does it more efficiently, if not more effectively. (In a more pragmatic view, the CFO and CEO are looking to see a return on their huge investment in the logo – which in and of itself is a contra-indication for small, elegant logos!)
The underlying problem is the absence of effective brand integration and a common misunderstanding of what brand integration really is. It is not news to anybody in the business that integration does not mean only that all ads look alike or feature a common theme or element; or even that all communications in all media look alike; or even that all communications deliver the same intrinsic idea and brand meaning.
Brand Integration means that a single brand idea is consistently delivered at every stakeholder touchpoint. This, in turn, suggests that integration starts long before the communication agencies are involved and even before the “branding” firms are involved. Integration starts with the realization that the brand underlies the overall business strategy and therefore needs to be clearly defined and consistently explained to all aspects of the business from the outset. Think of the brand as the business equivalent of pre-linguistic, pre-behavioral determination – the company’s super-ego that informs everything it is and does, not only how it looks and what it says.
Under these circumstances the advertising creative and logo (and everything else the company does) would harmonize, and the issue of bigger or smaller would never again be raised.
I promise!
Laurence Bernstein has been fine tuning the art of converting features, attributes and benefits into dynamic, experiential brands for 20 years. He is an acknowledged thought leader on understanding customers and presents an e-seminar on this subject on Businessexpertwebinars.com. He is the founder and managing partner of BC3 Strategies in Toronto. He can be reached by email at bernstein@bc3strategies.com. www.bc3strategies.com [1] This is clearly an exaggeration – if the logo is the sole means of identifying the sponsor of the ad, then it needs to be large enough to be read; this point is especially important for outdoor advertising
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