I know what you’re thinking, “What an obvious point to make, of course people are attracted to well-managed brand aesthetics.” But the sheer obviousness of the point is what makes it dangerous, since some of the biggest brands such as Pepsi, AirBnB, Gap, and a few others have made huge, costly missteps.
For instance, Tropicana decided to change its logo once but then got burned instantly by the free market: “The backlash was fierce: Sales by Tropicana rivals increased, while its own fell 20%, according to AdvertisingAge.” Ouch. Let’s make sure you know how to make sure your logos are on-point and hit the mark with your client base.
Deciding on Aesthetic Based On Your Company Culture
Do you want to go for something minimalist or do you prefer something on the opposite end of the spectrum that’s excessively gaudy and fancy? How can you tell what fits your brand image and how your audience perceives you to even begin with? The guiding answer to all of these question lies in relating and creating an company aesthetic that embodies your company culture. Remember, the aesthetic is not just the logo, but the larger image and reputation that the public chooses to attribute to your business.
The themes and aesthetics that your company chooses to embrace—especially with regard to its logo—will dramatically influence how your audience sees your company. Think of the idea of an overall aesthetic as a sort of dress, makeup, or clothing that shrouds and can enhance your existing company image. Research referenced by Fast Company notes that minute details such as the coloring of your logo can even influence customer perceptions, writing that: “In fact, almost 85% of consumers cite color as the primary reason they buy a particular product, and 80% of people believe color increases brand recognition.”
A key takeaway here is that when you launch something like a logo, you’re exposing it to an incredible range of people who all have led diverse lives usually with rich experiences. Simply put, everyone will see the same thing slightly differently, but you want to influence people in a way where the majority of people will interpret what you are showing them in the intended manner.
Getting To Work: The Practical Side of Aesthetics for Branding
The first thing you’ll want to do with this knowledge is to sit down and have a few moments to yourself about the future and present vision of your company. Think about the types of clientele that your business serves and what images and fonts would appeal most if you put yourself in their shoes. Better yet, choosing to conduct a branding survey may reveal many more objective insights for where you want to take the direction of your company.
After you have a general sense of how people perceive your company through the methods such as branding surveys or maybe just through brute force approaches involving the monitoring of your social media feeds, you should hire a professional business logo designer. With your set of observations, these guys can help you choose the right fonts, color schemes, and graphics so that your logo is consistent with the existing customer feelings towards your brand.
Unpacking The Meaning Of A Killer Aesthetic
You know those logos that people recognize from a mile away and immediately command authority and invoke social attention? I’ll paint an image for you: the golden bull that’s juxtaposed against a black emblem of cars like the Lamborghini Aventador sends people running, crowding, and scrambling to pose and take pictures with it. That idea and that enthusiasm captures the meaning behind a killer aesthetic, and it should be the goal that you’re aiming towards when you’re pursuing your branding strategies.
But don’t obsess over just the visuals when you consider the “killer” aspect of the aesthetic. First of all, to have a killer aesthetic, you need to have a group of people that already are incredibly enthusiastic and hyped about your company. That means that your company needs a stellar reputation among its customers before all of this stuff about aesthetics as a platform to liftoff from.
Cultivating this special feeling in customers is the first step to a successful branding attempt that connects into a killer aesthetic. You need to build a base of customers that already support your company before you can harness the power of social media to cash out on these connections and to broaden your market. In truth, mastering the killer aesthetic is one of the catalysts for a small-to-midsized business to boost its growth potential significantly.
