Logo design choices might seem inconsequential to some. But a well-designed logo can offer substantial benefits to brands. A logo’s design characteristics can considerably affect consumer behavior and brand performance.
A descriptive logo includes textual or visual design elements that clearly communicate the type of product or service a brand is marketing. For instance, the logo of Burger King and that of the New York Islanders (a sports franchise) are descriptive.
Conversely, the logos of Mcdonald’s and the Minnesota Wild (another sports franchise) are nondescriptive.
The question of whether to use a descriptive or a nondescriptive logo often arises during design meetings. As our research demonstrates, descriptive logos more favorably affect consumers’ brand perceptions and are more likely to improve brand performance.
We compared the effects of having a descriptive logo for brands that are familiar and unfamiliar to consumers. We observed that although having a descriptive logo had a positive effect on brand equity for both familiar and unfamiliar brands, the magnitude of this positive effect was much smaller for the familiar brands.
If you are considering creating or modifying a logo, our findings suggest you might want to include at least one textual and/or visual design element that is indicative of the type of product or service your company offers.
If, however, you work for a brand that markets a product or service that can easily bring to mind negative concepts, a non descriptive logo is probably better. We also suspect that non descriptive logos are better for companies that operate in several unrelated business segments.
Of course, we are not contending that a descriptive logo guarantees the successful launch of a brand, or that the logo is the most important brand element to consider. We are arguing that underestimating the importance of logo design and the power of descriptive design elements can sometimes be a costly mistake.
