According to those quoted in the best selling novel, “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, the average person is subjected to over 250 commercial ads on a daily basis. There’s no question that’s a significant hill to climb as a business owner hoping to generate brand awareness or gain market exposure.

Within the myriad of logos and brand identities we’re witness to on a daily basis, less then 4% of them succeed in actually capturing attention (or sticking) in the minds of a passers-by in an effective, memorable way. Too many entrepreneurs and larger companies have dismissed the weight of a well designed logo as a trivial expense or unimportant to their goals.

Consider the aesthetic – Whether a designer or not, we can each think of businesses we pass by every day that quite frankly haven’t given their market image much thought. We’ve all seen them; cartoon-like renditions of some cute, cuddly animal or borrowed symbol from some unlicensed artwork. These scream amateur to a prospecting client. They’ll wonder if the product or service have been given any more attention then the lack-luster identity presented to them. A designer will help you develop a visually pleasing design while keeping your message in mind. Use them wisely.

Consider correlations – One also needs to recognize cognitive and subconscious visual associations people make with shapes, objects and imagery. Many identities/logos have adopted a specific visual reference, but the designer and/or the client haven’t heavily weighed the possibilities of it meaning one thing to them, while another to their target audience. An example you say! Alright. Although not logo specific, this one translates the idea clearly…

Honda recently released a television commercial in which they featured the new 2011 Honda Civic Hybrid. Throughout the commercial it shows a young adult girl going about her daily routine in her new Civic. The curious part of the whole brand message in this television ad was the fact that they chose to portray the girl as a, wait for it… a troll – a monster! Now, they may have been trying to take make a more “earthy” reference here, but the fact is that it can be interpreted in more then one way – and one of those ways is not a favorable one. Who knows a teenage girl who appreciates being referred to as a troll? Conscious and subconscious associations matter, so chose your image wisely and with careful consideration.

Watch the TV spot:

Consider originality – Another common mistake among business owners looking to create some sort of brand around their product or service is to mimic the identity of other businesses of similar construct thinking this copy-cat image will lend to their credibility within their chosen market. Another colossal mistake! This only puts your business identity into a scenario where you it simply blends in with the others in your market. Pharmaceutical drug logo designs are terrible at this. Again, watch the commercials on television and you’ll notice they all seem to look the same, incorporating the same colors and slight variations of a graphic where a circle and an arch form some sort of frolicking figure with arms outstretched.

The savvy business owner understands the tangible benefits of a well-though-out logo. It’s the one element of a business that is at the front lines of the battle of acquiring new patronage, while helping to solidify the relationships with those already acquired.

So what are the core elements that every logo design should incorporate to be an effective business tool and a strong bridge of connectivity with your target audience?

• 1 – Be original, unique
  Is it unique and does it make its own statement?
• 2 – Be flexible, scalable
  Is it a design that can be used and interchanged across multiple platforms of outreach and can it adapt easily to minor changes?
• 3 – Be simple, direct
  Is it simple and clear enough to communicate a clear, concise message?
• 4 – Be memorable
  Is it easy to recall, to remember? – as this is a crucial goal of any company identity.

Elaborating on these would not necessarily be fruitful as each business and each design will be targeted differently. The key is to always consider the above four elements.

Has your boss asked you to start a company blog and you have no idea where to start? Or, are you interested in putting one together for your small business, or even personal use?

We can help you get started by setting up a new, fully customized blog page via WordPress.com. We’ll either teach you how to customize your new blog page or build you a fully customized blog within which you will have full control over plug-ins, widgets, settings and more while we handle the CSS  - it’s up to you. Once we have built a sharp new blog page, we’ll then walk you through how to publish a new post, work with “tags,” describe in detail how setting up your “categories” will help you organize and bolster you posts, how to add pages (static or other) and much more.

Before you know it, your new company blog will be the hot topic at the office!   Many don’t realize how powerful a company blog can be and how it can bolster your online presence, while becoming a viable avenue to drive traffic to your website or place of business. By adding a blog to your company or business website and tagging it properly, it also increases the name recognition and organic search results in Google and other leading search engines.

A blog is also a terrific way to knock down the company walls and allow your readers and customers to learn more about you and your company.  Gone are the days when companies focused on privacy.  Today’s business trends demand transparency.  This essentially gives prospecting customers a “flavor” of not just your product or service, but a tangible “taste” of the culture and personality of you or your company/business that they otherwise would not get.

Or, just have fun with your own personal blog and interact with others who share the same passions as you!

Below are two recent blog builds we did via the free WordPress templates.  In both cases, there was no budget for building something like this on a remote-hosted platform, so for a fraction of the cost, we built them these blogs/microsites.  Aside from our minimal construction costs, the companies/organizations have no cost associated with these kinds of blogs/sites.

Some will use them as public blogging pages and social outreach sources for their brands (like the ATA site below) while others might want a private site (not searchable via any search engines) for either internal or restricted access information sharing (such as the MiddleValley site below).