Branding Why you should stop changing your logo: what the research says
Brands are remembered through repetition. What the research on distinctive brand assets says about keeping your logo, colours and fonts consistent.
Most small businesses change their look far more often than they realise. A new printer redraws the logo slightly. A social media post uses a different shade because it looked nicer that day. The van gets a font the sign writer happened to have. Then, a few years in, the owner is bored of the whole thing and wants a fresh start. The research on how brands are remembered says that's usually the wrong move, and it explains why.
What the research looks at
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science in Adelaide has spent years studying how people remember brands. One of its researchers, Professor Jenni Romaniuk, wrote the book on it: Building Distinctive Brand Assets, published in 2018. A distinctive asset is anything other than your name that makes people think of you: a colour, a logo, a shape, a font, a tagline, a character.
The idea is that buyers don't study brands closely. They glance. Over time, seeing the same colour and the same mark again and again builds a link in their memory, until the asset alone is enough to bring your business to mind. Romaniuk's work measures two things about each asset: how many people link it to your brand, and whether they link it to you and nobody else.
Consistency is how the link gets built
Romaniuk separates two kinds of consistency. Consistency of form means the asset always looks like itself: the same logo, the same colour, the same shape. Consistency of use means how and where you use it. In an interview with Contagious she explained that consistency of form matters most while you're still building an asset. Once it's well known, you can afford to play with it. Until then, every redrawn version is a slightly different thing to remember.
“Consistency of form is particularly important when you’re building assets.”
Jenni Romaniuk, Ehrenberg-Bass InstituteWriting in The Drum, Julian Major of the Institute pointed to research showing that, out of colours, logos and taglines, logos are the most likely to be linked to one single brand, followed by colours and then slogans. His advice to marketers was plain: use your distinctive assets consistently, don't change them from campaign to campaign, and be wary of refreshing them.
You're the worst judge of when it's tired
A study by academics connected with the Institute, reported in Marketing Week, found that marketers' own judgements of how strong their brand assets are were rarely accurate. They tended to think their assets were better known than they were, and less unique than they were.
It's easy to see why. You look at your logo every day, on every invoice, every post and every email. Your customers see it now and then, often without really looking. You'll be bored of it long before they've properly learned it.
What it means for a small business
Choose your assets and keep them
Your logo, one or two colours, and a font or two is plenty. Use them the same way everywhere: the van, the uniform, the website, the leaflets and the social posts. On the KSL Commercial Cleaning brand, the same mark and the same navy, sky blue and white run across the van, the uniforms and the social media, so each one reminds people of the others.
Write the rules down
Most drift happens because nobody told the printer, the sign writer or the person doing your social media what the rules are. A short brand guide does the job: which logo goes where, the exact colour codes for print and for screen, which fonts, and how much space to leave around the logo. It doesn't need to be a book. One or two pages is often enough.
Keep the proper files
Make sure you have your logo as vector files, plus versions for light and dark backgrounds. When someone asks for "your logo", you can send the right file instead of a screenshot that ends up stretched or blurry.
Change for a reason, not out of boredom
There are good reasons to change: you've outgrown the name, the logo doesn't work small enough, or the business itself has changed. When that happens, keep whatever people already recognise, such as the colour or the shape of the mark, and build the new look from it. I've written about how to tell the difference in refresh or rebrand: how to tell which your business needs.
The short version
Being recognised comes from repetition. Every time your customers see the same colour and the same mark, the link gets a little stronger. Every time something changes, some of that is lost. Pick a look you're happy to live with for years, then use it everywhere the same way.
I design brand identities built to be used consistently, with the files and a simple guide to keep everyone on track. See what's included on the services page, or get in touch.
Sources
- Romaniuk, J. (2018). Building Distinctive Brand Assets. Interview: Jenni Romaniuk on distinctive assets, Contagious.
- Major, J. (2013). Five tips for identifying and managing your brand assets. The Drum.
- Brus, R., Hartnett, N., Faulkner, M. and Driesener, C. Marketers' judgement of brand asset strength rarely accurate, study finds. Marketing Week.
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