Your logo is important. It speaks volumes about your business and is often the very first thing that people see when they enter your website.
What does your logo say about your business and your brand?
How could you draw more attention to your logo so that you will create the kind of branding that people never forget?
In one of the most powerfully dramatic scenes of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” his father’s ghost, as he leaves for the last time says only two words: “Remember me. Remember me. Remember me.”
How does your customer remember you when they leave your site?
Think of a logo that instantly comes to your mind.
One of the first ones that come to mind for me is Coca-Cola. Their logo itself is simple- a red background with a scripted brand name written on top of it. But I also think of polar bears. I think of a beautiful crystal pool in the Arctic and gorgeously animated polar bears swimming beneath the surface and coming up long enough to drink a Coke. That’s what I remember most. The polar bear image is so immersed in the branding of Coca-Cola since they started that campaign a few years ago, that I can hardly separate the two. What do polar bears have to do with Coke? Nothing. But Coca-Cola used the image of polar bears that gave us a warm feeling about Coke that they couldn’t achieve alone.
It worked!
Coca-Cola Smiles
Another campaign Coca-Cola ran more recently was their viral “Smile” campaign. It featured a series of short video clippings, showing people handing a free Coke out to others on the street whom they didn’t know. And Coca-Cola’s sales skyrocketed again. Why? Because they created an association between the sentimental image and their brand.
And that’s powerful.
Brand Association with Facial Images Works
Another brand I often think of is Aunt Jemima pancake mix and pancake syrup. I can recall my mother and my grandmother serving breakfast and setting the Aunt Jemima pancake syrup on the table where this lady I didn’t know named “Aunt Jemima” smiled back at me while I ate my stacks. I didn’t know her at all. But I liked her. Her welcoming smile gave me assurance that as long as there were pancakes and delicious sweet maple syrup, everything would be okay.
This kind of power is hard to capture. But the idea of putting Aunt Jemima’s picture on the front of the syrup had a similar effect on others, and sales skyrocketed.
The Power of Association in Marketing
I’ll tell you just how powerful this sort of marketing is. I believed all of my life that Aunt Jemima made the pancake mix and syrup. But it was actually created by two men named Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood. Ever heard of them? I thought not. But the character they created, using an actress named Nancy Greene, helped them create a logo and a branding that they could never have done on their own.
What a Face Does for Branding
Psychologists tell us that the face of our mother and other caregivers is one of the first things we learn to recognize and respond to. There is some prewired tendency, some innate longing for connection that draws us to a face. This is why using pictures or caricatures work so well in connecting people to your brand.
It’s not just logo design that you need to consider your options with. A good example of other areas to focus your brand messaging and image logo displaying, is through video. In one of our recent whiteboard video articles you can see the comparisons between using animation, caricatures and talking heads. Which would be best for your business and audience?
The Connection Between Caricature and Branding
Taking this concept a step further, how can you create this sort of marketing for your logo and your brand. What if you don’t have an actress like Nancy Greene who can symbolize your brand the way Nancy Greene represented Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup? What if you could create your image and you didn’t need an actress to do it? That’s where caricature artwork comes in!
Benefits of Using Caricature in your Logo
- It allows you to create your branding using your face for the caricature or anyone else’s face that you feel would best represent your brand. You can even invent an original one.
- Caricatures entertain people and draw them into your message. They love seeing a smiling face with your logo.
- It draws their eye to your design better than with a logo and graphics alone.
- It’s the next best thing to animation. People love animated video, and a caricature drawing comes very close to the images they enjoy seeing in an animated video.
Where to Start
Okay, so once you’ve decided that having a caricature in your logo is the thing to do, where do you begin to incorporate it within your logo. How do you draw out the image or the picture? Not everyone is blessed with a talent in design. You have a few options if you don’t want to try it yourself. You could hire a talented artist or someone in your business who could sketch the character for you. Then use software to color in the graphic and make it more colorful.
Or you could outsource the caricature to someone on an independent talent locator site and see what they could do.
But remember, while you can sometimes find experts in different fields in such places, the image you portray to the world with your logo is so important that you cannot afford to make mistakes.
That’s where the professionals at LogoDesignTeam.com can help. They do caricature-based animations for explainer videos and other types of video. And they also create a caricature image that visitors will be drawn to that you can use in your logo.
The Key to Branding
Remember the key to branding is to build a presence on the web, that people will automatically associate with your brand. You want people to recognize your brand wherever they see your logo. So, what better way to imprint that image on their mind that with a customized logo and caricature. It’s like having a slightly altered picture of you (or a character you choose) representing your brand everywhere you go.
Is Using Caricatures Always Appropriate?
We’re not saying that using caricatures is appropriate in every single brand. If your business is a funeral service, this would not be appropriate because it would not create the kind of image you are trying to portray of a serious funeral business. But if you want to exude warmth, connection, friendliness, and fun in your brand, then using a caricature image in your logo is one of the best things you can do.
With a Little Help from My Friends
For more information on creating caricatures for your logos or creating great animated videos for your brand, contact the folks at LogoDesignTeam. They can tell you what is needed to take your brand to the next level.
You may not create the hype of Coca-Cola or Aunt Jemima, but people will certainly remember your brand, and you can start to build a serious presence on the web.
Want to be ‘Remembered’ ?
As a brand, you want to be remembered. You need to to do more than get into the minds of customers. You need to get into their hearts.
Remember, to increase traffic, engagement, and sales, consider creating a caricature for your logo or animation. Touch cord with people that makes them love your brand. Because a face is hard to forget.
Contact LogoDesignTeam today!
