Welcome back to the 3G’s & MHO Checklist Series.
This is Part 3 in our series looking at logos and more specifically company logos, brand logos and product logos, for use wherever a logo will add value, including but not limited to your Facebook logo, Instagram logo, Twitter logo, LinkedIn logo, website logo, anywhere the business logo can be used to represent your business / organization, ensure recognition, facilitate recollection, illicit positive association, and help drive sought after action.
Picking up from part 2 and all other articles related to this series that you can access on our blog, we are going to look at the evolution and revolution of a logo.
Now it might seem a little out of sequence to have an article address this specific aspect of a logo even before we talk about an actual initial logo implementation and all its subsequent steps. However, it seems appropriate to deal with this now so as to close the loop so to speak on the initial planning prior to commencing drawing logo options. This being applicable when a sufficiently confirmed roadmap of sorts is possible for your business / organisation from the outset.
Equally, there are cases when business changes and associated logo revisions are not sufficiently defined, or possibly not even on the radar at all so-to-speak, to be a factor at the very outset of the logo. There are ways and means to deal with that, but that is a topic for a separate future article.
So here goes…
Let’s kick off once again with a definition (I hear your groaning, but it will be worth it), actually three of them….
Evolution the gradual development of something (dictionary.com)
Revolution a dramatic and wide-reaching change in conditions, attitudes, or operation (dictionary.com)
Purpose of a business. Now there are many definitions of the purpose of a business. And the vast majority equally valid and equally applicable. They vary how effectively they cover the full ambit of a business to a greater or a lesser degree and/or hone in on specific aspects of business. But focusing on the topic at hand, and not taking away from any of the others, the one that I found most appropriate to help demonstrate the topic of this article is this:
Because it is the purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation.
Note: In sourcing this definition, I used a search engine to search for “purpose of a business” and then drilled down on one of the search results.
So, to apply a relatively broad brush stroke to it, when people’s needs change, it is up to business to innovate, bringing a profitable solution to those needs, and then align themselves to people’s needs and frame of reference in fulfilling those needs through appropriate marketing (and by extension relevant branding and hence a correct logo, or logo application).
Whether the needs are self-discovered by the customer, or awareness is created amongst customers through the efforts of marketing related initiatives by companies / organizations, though an important distinctions and relevant from a marketing perspective, this does not form part of this particular article. Seems like there may be a number of exclusions being incorporated into this article, however, it is necessary to help us focus on the topic at hand whilst understanding the background against which this topic (logo planning and creation) plays out.
Okay, so when is it logo evolution, and when is it logo revolution? As a rule of thumb (and there will always be exceptions):
- Evolution is when there are incremental improvements or extensions in the solution offering, usually through organic in-house growth / adaptation, though there are times when it can be through assimilating other company(ies) / organisation(s) with a natural extension to the current offering. The logo may, or may not, need to evolve to reflect this.
- For example, let’s take a look at Joe’s Vehicle Service Centre from part 1 in this series.
- So Joe had an image of a car in his logo
- Over time Joe is exposed to enquiries from customers as to where can they go to get a good and trustworthy deal on tires for their vehicles.
- There may also be a bit of complaining about the inconvenience of tire shopping having to be an additional time consuming activity over and above having the vehicle serviced.
- Now Joe evolves his business, without changing much of the nature and setup of his business, by including a tyre shop offering.
- Everything in Joe’s Vehicles Service Centre logo remains unchanged (including the wording and the car icon/symbol), but now he adds a tire icon / symbol to his logo, evolving it to be more representative of their offering.
- Revolution is when the business undergoes a huge change, either in scale, or in nature of what it does (still in the same industry), or in nature of who it does it for (same industry but different client base), or completely different industry (and there it may be for the same client base, or it might be a new client base to varying degrees)
- For example, and still using Joe’s Vehicle Service Centre as the hypothetical business
- Scale
- Joe migrates his business from a small local business with one branch to a national chain (either all owned by Joe or franchised)
- Nature of what it does in the same industry
- Instead of being a service centre, or tire and service centre, Joe now offers just about everything to do with cars. Services, tires, accessories, batteries, washing and detailing, possibly selling cars to name a few
- Nature of who it does it for in the same industry
- Joe decides to move from servicing private and light type of vehicles to servicing trucks and buses and sourcing tires for them and move out of the “domestic or private consumption product” market
- Completely different industry
- Joe could change his business to only focusing on 4×4 and expedition type vehicles (irrespective of size and variety) and look after every aspect that only serves that market, possibly retaining some of their original clientele, but probably losing the majority
- Alternatively Joe could move entirely out of the motor trade and open a go-cart racing track (in the same location or a new location) which still has a loose connection to his routes and some of his previous clients, or he could become a florist (probably in a new location)
- One that could follow a logo evolution or a logo revolution definition and approach, depending on the extent of the change is tied to the ageing of a logo over time and needing to refresh the logo in order to keep it current, and hence aid the perspective amongst your target customers that your company remains relevant and up-to-date. In the some sense (where relevant) it could mean keeping up with what is in vogue (fashionable, not just the magazine)
- So your existing logo can migrate over time, but there is a definite thread that is consistent and “familiar” in the various iterations of the logo
- Or it can be something completely different (shape, symbols, text, colour etc.)
- This can get increasingly complex and detailed the more you go into only this specific aspect of logos, but it will suffice for this part of the conversation to end here for now.
Right. So taking a look at an actual logo example that we did. Let’s look at 3G’s – as a third glance at our logo – and see how it measures up to part 3 of this series.
So the first version of our logo brought into being the conceptual design language of our logo, all the elements that would make it up, the colouration thereof, and the positioning of ourselves in terms of who we are and what we did. Of course it also positioned us with respect to the other players in the market. This was back in 2007 – some 16 years ago at the time of writing this article. Looking at that version of our logo in current times, it seems so old fashioned and almost irrelevant, but at the time it was cutting edge and very effective in achieving the goals set for it.
3G’s like so many business has to evolve, and from the very initial outset in our planning of our logo (and our branding by definition) we started to look at the migration of our logo as it aligned to the evolution of our business. We knew what we could offer our clients and potential clients was more than what we were initially going to market with. We knew that as customers grew in their appetite for the types of services that we offered , we would grow in our role of serving our target customer, and accordingly we would need to position ourselves as an organization through our logo – amongst other means.
Some years later, version 2 of our logo came about due to needing to refresh the look and feel of the 3G’s logo as a result of ageing (different industries move and change at varying rates, ours is quite a fast paced industry in terms of marketing, design, branding and of course digital applications such as the web and social media). 3G’s needed to remain current (no one trusts a thin cook, right?). The logo elements would remain consistent in their inclusion and changes would be restricted to aesthetics for this logo iteration. At this time though, we were in the early days of starting to provide an increasing number services to our customers, but we were nowhere near reaching the critical mass point (where we would need to reposition ourselves more broadly in terms of our logo and our branding).
Following on from version 2 of the 3G’s Digital Consulting logo, we were starting to engage more frequently with customers regarding on our “fringe offerings”, hence we were reaching the point where it was time for 3G’s supporting branding collateral to evolve to start demonstrating the wider area of application of our services. We extended our design language to incorporate the old-style chalk writing on a black school board containing various messaging related to our fuller suite of service offerings. This approach also worked as we were also looking at how best to engage with different demographics within our target customer audience. We received extensive positive feedback from our customers (current and potential) at the time, and it was a factor that helped us secure business.
The logo, still unchanged, remained focused on the original service offering. This was in part due to a “stability” perception and messaging that we were communicating at the time. Again, something that we received repeated positive feedback on – particularly during a period of broader life and existence instability that was permeating the world and people’s lives and livelihood in it.
The combined picture of our logo and its supporting materials was that we were starting to educate the market more broadly on various spaces we could be of assistance in, be it solutions we were broadly marketing since inception, as well as starting to illuminate solutions that we could offer but were not part of our mainstream marketing and positioning yet. We still had a couple of items to get aligned, including broader market readiness for adoption, before making a logo change that would be an ongoing full blown statement in this regard.
Please keep in mind that a logo may, or may not, appear in isolation. It is the total message that one needs to look at when deciding how to implement branding and logo evolutions and revolutions. We were following the “total visual message” approach in our staggered brand evolution.
We reached the market and business milestones we needed to reach. Then it was time to complete the logo evolution to the point where it stands to date at the time of writing. Specifically, it tied back to the portion of our logo that made provision for the descriptor of our service (the part that tells customers what we do):
- It started out as 3G’s Digital Consulting
- Remained 3G’s Digital Consulting right through till after the chalk board elements inclusion
- Then renamed to 3G’s Branding Consulting Digital
So, is this the final iteration?
- Of 3G’s logo, probably not
- Of 3G’s business focus and naming, well on that only time will tell, as required by our customers.
That question again that is worth returning to when considering the purpose of a logo, a brand, and the story telling that is so ingrained in is very fabric of existence – Can we say that now you know more about 3G’s, are more likely to recognize and remember 3G’s as well?
So what are your thoughts? Possibly considering some of these aspects of your logo?
Well, that was Part 3. There will be more to follow when we pick up on logo origination. You are welcome to access the balance of our articles and other posts. Likewise you are welcome to reach out to us should you want to engage directly with us on this.
Pellucid marketing!
And…….. Expect more from your communication
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