The Importance of Logo for any Organisation - Essay Example

?Table of Contents Table of Contents executive summary 2 introduction 3 Selection of Logo 3 Communication campaign 6 Logo of Marks and Spencer 7 Logo of Channel 8 Logo of Gucci 8 Logo of Nike 9 Logo of Hugo Boss 9 Logo of Ralph Lauren 10 Logo of adidas 10 Logo of Levis 11 Logo of Fila 11 Conclusion 12 Recommendations 13 executive summary The report explains the importance of logo for any organisation and how important logo is in communicating the offerings and values of the organisation to the target audience as well as the society. The report explains that the logo should be prepared considering different aspects and management should pay a lot of attention while deigning of logo. As logo is a critical marketing tool which is not changed every year therefore it is important that the management comes up with a logo that is able to reflect the existing and future offerings of the company, the industry in which is operating, the products and services that the company would like to offer, the values of the organisation and the brand image. It is very important that the logo of the company should be catchy, engaging and pleasing to the eyes of the target audience. The logo should be able to communicate important features or characteristics that differentiate the organisation from others. Importantly, logo should make the firm stand out and logo should look prominent when logos of other firms in the industry are compared. The report analyses the logo of Zara, a retailer that offers clothing and other accessories for men, women and kids. The logo of Zara and what it communicates to the people is studied and its logo has been compared with other logos in the fashion industry. Recommendations have been given in order to improve the logo so that it becomes more appealing and more engaging for the target audience. introduction Logo is a graphical image or icon or a trademark used by organisations to reflect their name so that people are able to recognize the organisation (Design, 2005). Logo is the identity of the business and organisations around the world spent a lot of time in designing their logos as logo reflect the company and a dull or a common logo would not be able to attract customers or help people recognize the brand (Williamson, 1994). It is important for organisations to differentiate their logo from others so that they are able to recognize at once when they glance at the logo (Rivers, 2002). Logo is considered as one of the most important marketing tools as it is used in different places like promotional tools such as brochures, flyers, advertisements, and other marketing material (Duffy, & Hopper, 2003). A good logo helps in communicating what the company is about and what it can offer to its customers whereas a poor logo confuses people and they are unsure what the company is about and what it could offer to customers (Olins, 2003). The shape, colours and how the name or logo is presented is important as it gives the idea of the presentation of the company and if an organisation have not focused on its logo which is the symbolic representation of the company, then how it could offer quality products to its customers (Pavitt, 2002). This report analyses logo of one of the firms in the fashion industry, Zara. The logo is Zara is confusing as it is not able to represent what the company offers. Selection of Logo Zara is one of the leading fashion brands in the international industry offerings variety of clothing and different accessories for people of all ages. The company has its headquarters in Arteixo, Spain and it has been operating since 1975. Zara offers clothing products for men, women as well as kids. There are lots of variety available for each group of people as one can find jackets, sweaters, blazers, shoes, jeans, shirts, t-shirts etc (Tiplady, 2006). Zara has been described as one of the most innovative retailers internationally by Louis Vuitton (CNN, 2001). As it has been claimed that Zara is one of the most innovative retailers therefore the company should have a logo that could differentiate it from the other firms in the industry. The logo of Zara is below: By viewing the above logo, it can be seen that not too much thinking has been done behind designing of Zara logo. The logo of the company is very simple and it is so simple that this logo could be used in any industry and even any organisation, thus it is not able to reflect what Zara is and what Zara offers and why one should go for Zara. Although the logo of Zara can be used in any industry but even then it would not be much useful in terms of promoting the brand and reflecting what the company can offer to its customers. Logo has been used by firms internationally to promote their brand name. Everything about the logo while designing has to be considered; the style of the graphics, the way logo is presented, the colour combination and the overall appearance. It is important for firms to emphasize a lot on designing the logo as it reflects the brand image of the organisation. Writing just the name or inserting an image will not work for the firm; it has to make it look different. In other words, the logo has to make the business look stand out from others in the industry. The visual impact left by the brand to its target audience is important in attracting them as well as in making them recognize about the company. Many people prefer some products over others only because of overall colour scheme of the product particularly in case of impulsive buying. In fashion industry, people rely a lot on impulsive buying and therefore it is important for firms in the fashion industry to use their promotional tools well so that they are able to attract customers and make them buy products of the company. Logo used by Zara should be recreated and redesigned in order to help people reflect what the business is about and what Zara can offer to them. There are different aspects that have been overlooked while designing the logo of Zara and these aspects should not have been ignored. Zara logo could have been improved if the designer had considered following important aspects: Relevance of company’s offerings: It is important for designer to consider what products or services the company will be offering and come up with a logo that reflects these offerings. The logo of the company should be somewhat related to the industry and it should show some signs about what the company will be offering (Brierley, 1995). Target Market The target audience of the company should be kept in mind while designing of logo. If the company has several groups that are being targeted then the demographics of the target audience should be considered or it would be a good idea to come up with a logo that fulfil the needs of most of the audience. Future Outlook The management has to play an important role in ensuring that the logo of the company is able to blend in future as well. Logo of the company is not something which will be created every other day or it cannot be redesigned every year. It is important for the success of the firm that it has a logo which can support the company later on when the company expands its range of products and services (Zenker, & Martin, 2011). It needs to have the flexibility to adapt to the changes in offerings of the company (Bignell, 2002) . Although, logo of Zara can be used in future but it still lacks the charisma to catch the attention of people. Engage People The logo of the company should engage audience. People can be engaged with a very simple yet attractive logo, therefore different variety of colours should be used with fonts that improve the overall appearance of the logo (Davis, 2005). Communication campaign Communication is very important for businesses and their logo is the first thing that communicates with the target audience and the general public. The logo is the identity and therefore it is critical for businesses to work on their logo so that a better and more dominating perception is left in their mind (Klein, 2001). Organisations use marketing material and other promotional tools to promote their brand, and all these promotional tools have their logo (Verhoef, & Leeflang 2009). For instance, a business development executive gives his business card to a potential client then the business card is the promotional tool with which the potential client will be able to recognize the organisation. Business cards have a prominent logo of the organisation so that anyone could easily recognize that the business development executive is from a particular organisation. It is important for organisations to study and understand their target market as by knowing their target market, management can make better use of their logo and they would be able to make the target market remember the organisation. For instance, it is important that logo should not reflect something which is against the norms or values of the society. The colour and style of the logo should encourage people to buy their products like a company introducing its fashion brand in Mexico with their logo in Yellow colour would not be successful because Yellow colour in Mexico reflects sorrow however the same colour would work well in countries like Saudi Arabia, China and Japan (Blythe, 2008). The logo of Zara can be modified to make it look more attractive and more engaging so that it communicates the values and offerings of the company in a much better way. First of all, the logo of the company is very simple, there are firms which would like to keep their logo simple but the logo of Zara is very simple and despite of being simple, it could have been improved a lot. Currently it looks as if someone has just written the word Zara on Microsoft word and used it as a logo. There are organisations that do not want to insert any kind of symbolic representation or icon to represent their organisation and it is understandable that Zara feels that their name would be good enough to make their target market realize and remind about the company. Therefore the important change that could be made to the logo in order to make it more engaging and more attractive is that the company can make use of good colours. Also it could use their first word ‘Z’ to good effect to make their logo more attractive just like, the Yellow M of McDonalds or they could have use different colours to make their look more attractive. Other firms in the fashion industry have used their logo to position their brand and make their logo work for them in reflecting what the company offers. There are different brands in the fashion industry and logos of some of the leading organisations are as follows: Logo of Marks and Spencer Logo of Channel Logo of Gucci Logo of Nike Logo of Hugo Boss Logo of Ralph Lauren Logo of adidas Logo of Levis Logo of Fila By looking and analysing the logos of different brands in the fashion industry it can be revealed that they have used their logo to a good effect. For instance, the logo of Marks and Spencer communicates Your Marks and Spencer and it has different colours making the logo more attractive and engaging. The logo of Hugo Boss says BOSS first of all and then the name of the company is written. The boss in the logo is written with bold and a style that the viewer could see the Boss at first glance. Also Boss is written in such a style that it reflects the dominating personality of Bosses in organisations. The logo of adidas and Nike use symbols which have become their trademark over the years and people around the world now recognize these trademarks. Fila has used its ‘F’ to a good effect and it is communicating style and fashion. The logo of Levis reflects fun and excitement with a unique shape in which Levis is written. The logo of Gucci and Channel symbolize their first letter which has been mirrored as well to make it look more attractive. Therefore other firms in the fashion industry have used their logos to good effect in communicating what the company is about and what they could do whereas the logo of Zara lacks the ability to communicate to its audience. By viewing the logos of competitors, the logo of Zara could be more exciting and livelier like Levis and it could be more engaging and more appealing to the audience like Marks and Spencer. The logo could be redesigned with different letters representing different colours if the management would like to keep their logo look simple so with use of different colours, the company can get attention of different target market. It is important that management examines the consumer behaviour and their psychology and then come up with colours representing Zara. Or the company could come up with the same style but the colour would vary according to the culture and values of the country in which it is operating. Conclusion Logo is an important part of any organisation as it is used as to represent what the company is. The logo is the first thing that remains in the mind of the audience for a long time and they are able to recognize the firm with the logo therefore it is important for firms to analyse and see what their logo communicates to the target audience (Maylor, & Blackman, 2005). The logo of Zara is dull, boring and unattractive and it is very simple. Though the logo should be simple but there is a thin line between logo being boring and being simple and thus the company should understand this and redesign their logo to make it look more attractive and more fashionable just like their clothing and other accessories they offer. Designing of a logo is a critical decision and as the logo would remain the same for the years to come therefore the management of the organisation needs to be futuristic in their approach while designing their logo and they should take views from different aspect so that their logo represents and communicates right things to their target audience and thus helps them in reminding about the company. Recommendations The logo of Zara as discussed looks boring and unattractive and therefore it is important that the logo should be redesigned. There are different options available in redesigning of logo but it is important for the management of the company to consider the following important recommendations while they redesign their logo The logo after redesigning should be able to communicate with the customers and it should reflect that the company is operating in the fashion industry. Therefore the logo has to be trendy and fashionable. The logo of the company should not be boring; therefore the management can use different colours to represent their logo. The company is operating in several countries of Europe and in Europe black colour represents mourning, sorrow and grief therefore it is important that the company uses different combinations of colours to represent their logo. Another recommendation that the company can do is to come up with different colours in different countries considering the culture and values of the country in which it is operating but the overall scheme and style of the logo should remain the same. Logo of the company is not designed every year, and therefore it is important as once the logo has been designed it should be able to communicate what the company is and it should be able to reflect the offerings of the company. While designing the logo the management has to sit with a designer or a team should be formed which includes designers as well as top management of Zara so that they both are able to discuss and design different logos and then evaluate the pros and cons of the shortlisted logos along with the main concept that the logo would communicate to the public and particularly to the target market and then with consensus they should come up with a new logo. It will not be a bad idea for Zara to re-emerge in the industry and rebrand itself with a new logo as it will help in attracting more customers and making target market know that the brand has re-invented and thus there would be new designs and new variety available. Bibliography and References Bignell, J 2002, Media Semiotics, Manchester University Press: Manchester, England. Blythe, J 2008, Consumer Behaviour, Jennifer Pegg, Rotolito Lombarda, Milan, Italy. Brierley, S 1995, Advertising Handbook. Routledge: London, England. CNN 2001, Zara a Spanish success story, CNN Europe. Available at http://edition.cnn.com/BUSINESS/programs/yourbusiness/stories2001/zara/ [Accessed 6 January 2012] Davis, M 2005, More Than A Name. Ava Publishing: West Sussex, England. Design, M 2005, Branding. RotoVision: East Sussex, England. Duffy, N & Hopper, J 2003, Passion Branding, Wiley Publication: England. 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