Do I Really Need a Logo Design for My Small Business? Studies Say Yes.

“Do I really need a logo for my small business? I’m just getting started.”

That’s a question we get a lot.

And while getting a logo design may not be the first thing you do when starting up, you should definitely get it done early on.

Why?

Once you have a well-designed logo and are using it consistently, your logo will help shape what your customers think about your business. It will remind them of the positive interactions they’ve had with you (those interactions are positive, right?) and it may even encourage them to think and act differently when they see it.

Right about now you’re probably asking, “how is that possible?”

How Logos & Branding Affects Consumers

According to MotiveMetrics, logos and brand names have a “priming” affect on consumers who see them. The effect happens even when consumers aren’t conscious of having seen the logos. In other words, just being exposed to the logo design effected on the way consumers behaved. Here’s how the Financial Times described it:

“The participants were exposed to brands and slogans that were either spend-related or save-related and then, in an ostensibly unrelated task, participants were asked how much they would be willing to spend on a shopping trip. Those exposed to spend-related brands said they would spend more… Save-related brands made people spend less…”

Interestingly, when shown brand slogans instead of logos, the effect was reversed. That is, consumers knew they were being marketed to, so they reacted by doing the opposite. But logos don’t have this affect. Logos feel more like background art, even though they can change customer perceptions.

These findings are similar to a study conducted by Fitzsimons and Chartrand which looked at whether seeing a logo would change the way people behaved in non-consumer tasks.

Consumers were shown the Apple logo (Apple is well known as a “creative” brand and their slogan at the time was “Think Different.”) or they were shown the IBM logo (IBM was better known at the time as a safe, traditional and non-creative choice), then they were asked to complete a standard creativity test. The people who had seen the Apple logo performed better on the test.

A second test was conducted where consumers were shown either the Disney logo or the E! Entertainment logo, then given a standard test that measured honesty. Those who saw the Disney logo did better on the test.

How to use your logo to gain consumer trust

So how can you use this information?

As your logo comes to represent your business and the ideas your business represents, it can act as a short-hand and help customers act in a certain way. But you must use your logo consistently so your customers come to recognize it when they see it.

The first step is: get a great logo design.

Who knows? Someday a team of academics may study your logo and the positive affects it has on your customers. And if they do, we’ll be there to write about it.