Last week I had a conversation with a local tradesman who came in to our office with his wife inquiring about a logo…. He had VERY specific ideas about what the logo should be, what it should look like, what colors to use, what imagery to use, etc…. Indeed, this was an entrepreneur with a clear vision…. The only problem was that his ideas broke just about every logo design convention I could think of AND his ideas had no basis in any type of brand strategy.
I tried to gently coach him off the ledge and educate him that there was a more powerful way to approach the design process…. He was to have nothing to do with it … His quote; “Darn it, I just need a logo!”… We mutually agreed that we weren’t a good fit for his project and he cordially went along his merry way.
So, why did I tell you that story?… As a lead-in to this post from the Motley Fool…. Apparently, someone figured out that a powerful brand can actually change the way a consumer thinks about the quality of any product associated with that brand ….. imagine that!… Here’s a snippet from the article;
Researchers presented several dozen children with a taste test, offering them various foods such as carrots, milk, and apple juice in both unmarked and McDonald’s-branded wrappers. As you might expect, the McDonald’s-branded foods received uniformly higher marks.
Think about what this means. It shows how powerful brands can be in our minds. A mere brand label can affect how we perceive something. According to the study, the children’s perception of taste was “physically altered by the branding.”
I’m sure the customer I “lost” last week will find a perfect match…. Some designer out there will create a logo that exactly matches the image etched in his mind…. It’s just too bad that neither of them will have read the above article … or will ever likely open their minds to a better way of presenting themselves to the world … or likely realize the power of what a great brand can do for their marketing and business health.