Asuccessful logo visually represents an associa- tion’s value to members, prospects, partners and stakeholders. At a glance, it evokes an under- standing of the benefits of the organization’s products and services, creates an expectation about how those products and services perform,
and conveys the organization’s desired positioning in the minds of
the target market.
A logo isn’t just pretty, then. It’s a critical part of an association’s identity, fully intertwined with the overall member experience
— and the overall member experience hinges on substance, not
style.
Before your organization can design a successful logo, it must
therefore build a strong brand that informs and supports it. Here’s
how in five steps.
1.Develop a Strategy Brand identity doesn’t start with logo design. It starts with
strategy.
In I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee
Number 59, author Douglas Edwards, Google’s first brand manager,
tells the story of setting up a meeting to discuss his marketing
plan. Internal research showed that competitors were approaching
Google’s level of quality. In a world where search engines become
equal, he argued, Google would need to rely on branding to differentiate itself. As Edwards tells the story, the room grew quiet until
co-founder Larry Page spoke up: “If we can’t win on quality, we
shouldn’t win at all.” The message was clear: The business strategy
was to deliver superior quality. Google’s brand identity would flow
from that strategy.
In a June 2011 post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Dan
Pallotta makes a similar point. “Back in 1969 NASA didn’t have the
best logo,” he writes. “But man did it have a brand. It has a nicer
logo now — but the brand no longer stands for anything. If you don’t
know where you’re going or how you’re going to get there, that’s your
brand, no matter what fancy new name you come up with.”
