Logos that are really old work because they’re so incredibly recognizable. They can evolve over time, sure, but some larger companies keep the originals because they are the brand.

But that’s likely not you.

Here are some telltale signs it’s time to change your logo or at least investigate punching it up:

• You haven’t thought about your logo since 1995
• You haven’t thought about your logo since 2000
• You made your logo in Microsoft Word (or better yet WordPerfect) or Paint
• You use clip art you found on your computer in 1998
• The colors of the logo have faded because you’ve copied it so many times
• Your logo colors vary depending on who’s using it
• You forget why you used a pine tree in the background
• Your logo varies between your business cards, letterhead and e-mails
• Your logo only reflects only one division of your company
• You forget what your logo looks like
• You don’t have a “logo” per say

If you said “yes” to any (or all) of the items above, don’t feel bad. It’s actually very common.

While you’ve been focusing on growing your business, the marketing world has grown, too. And designs and tastes, just like fashion, have dramatically changed. And just because you can design a logo in Paint, doesn’t mean you should.

Many times the politics of a company, even a smaller one, can affect its marketing plans. If the boss or board of an organization has some attachment to an old logo or marketing plan, it can be hard to change direction.

Do you think your logo needs some refreshing? Does your manager need some convincing? Let our logo experts here at imPress help!

Like Tropicana, for instance. You may remember a few years back when Tropicana opted to ditch their classic “straw in an orange” look in favor of a “nondescript glass of orange juice” look. Sales went down, people were outraged, and ultimately Tropicana reverted back to their old packaging. This article from Business Insider shows the old and new Tropicana packages and tells the stories of this and some other unfortunate rebranding attempts. 

Even though it didn’t work out for Tropicana, rebranding does wonders for many companies. Here’s the thing – it really works best if there is a good reason to go ahead and do it. Let’s say you’re trying to reach a new market. Revamping your brand so it caters to that new market would make sense, right? Or let’s say your company’s mission and daily operations have drastically changed since you developed your original marketing materials. Shouldn’t your marketing match what’s really going on at your business? Rebranding should be much less about a new style and much more about an accurate feel or message.

Rebranding for a Reason

Take the recent rebranding that Keds has done. Most people thought of Keds as shoes that were meant to be sported by middle aged women, but the company wanted to introduce their brand to a younger generation. Their solution was the “How Do You Do?” campaign, which incorporates style, artist designs, a cross-country tour of college campuses, and the ability to create your own shoes. The Keds brand does seem more modern and fresh now, but these updates weren’t made just for the heck of it…they were made with a new market in mind.

Or look at Starbucks. Their recent changeover to a new logo might not have been popular with everybody at first, but it’s likely to be successful in the long run because the logic behind their decision to rebrand makes a lot of sense. The old logo, which incorporated the words “Starbucks Coffee,” did not accurately represent the company that Starbucks is becoming now that coffee is just one of many menu items. By making a subtle logo change, Starbucks is able to show that they’re more than just a place to grab a cup of coffee.

So rebranding is really nothing to be afraid of…if it’s for the right reasons. If the way your company runs is changing or if your targets are changing, then so should your brand.  Have a chat with the crew at imPress Printing, and we’ll help you align your brand with your business.

Well, it’s not because these crazy kids are incapable of putting together an outfit. We’re pretty sure that when their stylists are out sick, celebs do manage to get dressed. The rich and famous hire wardrobe consultants because figuring out which shoes go with which pants isn’t a high priority for them. They’re too busy doing more important things like practicing whatever they’re famous for or buying mansions. They know that their image is important, but they recognize that somebody else might already have the expertise to make them look great and that relying on that knowledge can save them time and aggravation.

Give Your Business the Celebrity Treatment

If everyone in Hollywood deserves help in the image department, then so does your business. Stylists help celebrities put together a consistent, fashionable look, and imPress helps small businesses do the same thing. It’s just that instead of working with clothing and jewelry, we deck businesses out with marketing collateral and promotional products. And like a celebrity stylist, we have an eye for what’s in, what’s happening, and what’s going to make your business stand out.

While we tailor our recommendations to each unique business, one thing we always stress to our clients as we “dress” their businesses is the importance of consistency. You get one logo and one color scheme that is used throughout your marketing materials. Just like celebrity stylists are careful to choose wardrobe elements that work well together, we’re careful to make sure every piece of your marketing puzzle fits.

And what do you get when consistency is accessorized with our funky creativity? Small businesses that look fantastic.

Touchpoints are all the areas where your customer interacts with your brand. They also help you win over a new client, remind an old one of why they chose you in the first place, and communicate your message to the masses. Touchpoints are one of the few times you are able to control the image that your audience sees. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to keep touchpoints consistent in all of your branding efforts.

Start by thinking what message you want to communicate to the public. What colors and symbols help relay that message? You need to put your psychologist’s hat on here a bit – Blue promotes a feeling of security and trust (good for service-related businesses); green is a color associated wealth, money or freshness (helpful for finance or consumer ventures); orange is a cheerful color that evokes feelings of optimism and light-heartedness (think items geared towards children).

Next, find a symbol that shows what you’re all about, and design it in a style that reflects the attitude of your company (harder lines should be used for serious tones, while playful companies can use more animated versions).

Consider the phases of interaction you have with your audience. This will instruct the incorporation of your brand into your marketing products. These interactions generally fall into three categories: Pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase. For example, direct mail fits into the pre-purchase category. Pre-purchase brand interactions need to be persuasive and influential. As the potential first introduction in your business, your mailer should then prominently feature your touchpoints to raise awareness of your company’s brand.

When creating your company’s brand, pay particular attention to your touchpoints and standards. Being mindful of the above tips early on will help you create a unified message in all your marketing endeavors.

Were you picturing Gatorade? You were? Well done! We knew we liked you! (Even if you did get the idea from the title of the post.)

Drink Your Energy

Gatorade is the official sports drink of…well, a ton of professional sports. And we think its evolving package design is a great example of how your branding can send off the right message about your product.

We think Gatorade’s logo, the lightning bolt, was a fantastic choice for a sports product logo. Like the Nike swoosh, its shape implies speed and power. And we know lightning delivers a lot of energy – at least enough to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, anyway. The logo isn’t overly complex or trying to do too much at once, and it is aesthetically appealing. In short, this logo’s got a lot going for it in one powerful flash.

Although the company has updated their packaging several times, they’ve kept that lightning bolt logo, which was a smart move. Consumers become attached to the logos of the products they use, and since the logo was neither seriously flawed nor dated looking, it was a good idea to hang onto that recognizable logo.

But Gatorade keeps making forward progress with the rest of their package design. They continue to update their look, making it more and more sleek and contemporary. They’ve lost the bulky “GATORADE” that was formerly written across their logo and have replaced it with a large “G.” The design of their latest line of products reminds us of what we imagined as kids when we thought about what people in 2011 would be drinking as they drove their flying cars around.

By combining a familiar logo with a sleek, futuristic feel, Gatorade’s packaging can appeal to loyal customers while keeping up with changing times. The result is a product design that’s full of energy for a product that is designed to give its users energy. Pretty awesome.

If your New Year’s resolution is to update your company’s look, keep Gatorade’s successful redesign techniques and first-rate logo in mind as you work to perfect your brand.

Tell the truth.  You’d think he was a little weird, right?

In fact, you might even see him as weirder in that outfit than you would if he just showed up in the tie-dye T-shirt, sneakers, and jeans.  The weirdness is not so much in the casual T-shirt as it is in the fact that he’s mixing and matching his sophisticated business attire with a ratty weekend shirt.  Either the informal look or the classy look would be a much better choice than a hybrid of the two.

The same concept applies to your printed materials.  If you look at all of your print collateral as an outfit, it should match from head to toe.  We’re talking about envelopes, brochures, leaflets, letterhead, business cards, folders, fliers, fact sheets, direct mail pieces, and anything else you happen to have in your printed materials toolbox. There should be a consistent look and feel throughout the entire body of marketing collateral.

Why should your printed materials match?  Part of it goes back to the plight of the printer cartridge salesdude.  With a mismatching outfit like that, the guy just wasn’t looking his best and didn’t leave a great first impression.  In the same way, a welcome folder full of mismatched printed materials is going to leave a weird vibe with its recipient.  It may be a bigger deal to some people than others, but in any case, it’s not helping you put your best foot forward.

The other reason matching is so important has to do with branding.  In addition to its lack of visual appeal, the printer cartridge man’s outfit would leave everyone with a lot of questions about what he is trying to communicate with his look.  People who see him will think, What kind of fellow is this?  Is he a hippie?  A professional salesman?  A guy who forgot to pick up his dry cleaning? If your printed materials don’t match, you could be leaving your customers with similar confusion.  Every document generated by or for your company should be in line with your brand in an effort to present a consistent picture of who you are as a company.

So it might be time to do a closet cleanout and assess your printed materials.  If there are a few printed pieces that don’t match the rest, replacing them can update your company’s image and effectively communicate your brand.  Whether your printed pieces are more like parts of a tuxedo or a Halloween costume, you’ll be good to go as long as they all match to make one spectacular ensemble.

Eventually, even the most stubborn folks among us relent and get something new.  You can only have a rotary phone, a Walkman, and a 1985 Ford LTD for so long.  Products like these were just dandy when they first came out, but as time goes by, the time comes to move on.

The same is true for logos.  As time passes, the logo that you picked out years ago just starts to look dated.  But some business owners are even more hesitant to give their old logos the boot than they would be to get rid of a beloved yet archaic piece of equipment.  Why?  People are motivated to get rid of obsolete technology and replace it because they know the replacement will show dramatic progress in terms of its functionality.  That motivating factor isn’t really there for a logo upgrade, and often business owners are mostly wondering if it’s worth the hassle.

So…is it worth it?

It could be.

It’s possible that the logo you came up with in 1987 doesn’t do you any favors because it has that “80’s look.”  Or it’s possible that you’ve recently worked on your branding a bit and have realized that you have something important to communicate in your logo that maybe you didn’t include last time around.  If you have one of those scenarios going on, revamping the logo might be a good plan.

After all, even the enormous companies modernize their logos from time to time.  Huge corporations like KFC, Toys R Us, Walmart, and Apple have all updated their look in the past few years.  Often, the new logo just puts a new spin on the old one – like changing Apple’s amazing technicolor dream apple to a tamer, classier version of the apple.  Big companies recognize the importance of branding and know that their logo has a big role to play in that, so they’re careful not to let old logos overstay their welcome.

Of course, making the decision to change your logo is a big step, and we wouldn’t ever want you to have to go it alone.  If it’s something that’s been crossing your mind, feel free to talk to the friendly imPress team.  We can take a look at your current logo and give you our two cents about what to do.  Maybe it is time to trade in that 1985 Ford, or maybe the old bugger does have a few miles left in it.   We’ll give it to you straight so you can make the right decision for your business.

Anyone?

Anyone at all?

Oh boy.

Okay, so annual reports don’t usually top anyone’s list of publications to read for pleasure.  But since many businesses are required to churn one out each year, let’s chat about some dos and don’ts.

When you are putting together your annual report…

DO…

• Include photos. The large amount of data that is required in an annual report can make your readers’ eyes sting.  Pictures add some much needed life to facts and figures.
• Make the layout interesting. Again, some of the information you have to include is about as alluring as a scoop of canned dog food.  Having a good layout is key to keeping your readers awake and emphasizing the key points within your annual report.
• Keep it true to your brand. Everything – colors, graphics, fonts, tone – should be in line with what you’ve been doing for your other marketing efforts.  Your annual report should look like it belongs to your company.
• Entrust the copy to a good writer. The quality of the writing in your annual report, or any document with your company logo on it, is a reflection on your business.  You need it to be as interesting as possible and, most importantly, clear.  So make sure your writer leaves out the SAT words and compound-complex sentences and makes your message accessible to your readers.
• Proofread the living daylights out of the thing. Noebody likkes speling mistakkes, or, Grammatical, errors.
• Get it printed by experts. Your investors are likely to get a little nervous if it’s clear that you printed out your annual report on a printer with a dying ink cartridge and stapled it together with your trusty Swingline.  High quality paper and printing will help your annual report look professional.

DON’T…

• Hesitate to contact imPress if you need help with any of the above.

Think.

Think-o.

Thinkity think.

Think.

Okay, done.  How’d you do?  We came up with four things.  A farmer’s flannel plaid shirt.  A Catholic school jumper.  A Scottish bagpipe dude’s kilt.  And a Burberry scarf.

Now, so it’s possible that your list was a little more extensive, but chances are, it was pretty close to ours.  If you think of all the plaid things out there, you are going to come up with a collection of clothing items that are worn by average folks…and Burberry items.  If you line up Farmer Bob, a Catholic schoolgirl, Clyde MacNeil the bagpiper, and an affluent businesswoman sporting a $1400 Burberry trench coat, at the end of the day, they are all wearing just about the same pattern on their clothes.

So in a world where plaid is commonplace, how does Burberry stand out as a luxury brand?

Well, the fact that they are an older company and have years of tradition behind them doesn’t hurt.  And it’s also helpful that their company name sounds deliciously rich.  (The real test of this, by the way, is to say it with a British accent.  Go ahead, bust out your best Hugh Grant or Kate Beckinsale accent and say it.  Buhhhhberry.)

Okay, but seriously, a lot of it has to do with the fact that they have marketed themselves strategically to appeal to the prestigious and well-to-do.  They have used superior materials and developed high quality products, and they sell these products for a lot of money.  The high price tag attracts consumers who have money.  And when the rich and famous walk around with Burberry handbags and accessories, it furthers our perception of the brand as elite and luxurious.

It’s a pretty good deal for them.  And although putting together an image like Burberry’s might be a little out of the realm of possibility for a small, local business, it is possible to be the luxury choice in whatever field you are in.  It’s just a matter of deciding that you want to cater to that target market and then taking the right pricing and marketing steps from there.

Of course, regardless of whether you want to be the Burberry or the Walmart of your particular industry, the most important thing to remember from a print and promotional items standpoint is consistency.  Burberry has told a consistent marketing story that has resulted in a solid, prestigious brand that we all recognize.  See what you can do to separate your brand from the rest.

Yes, Farmer Bob, that includes you.

Now that it’s the holiday season, you are likely to run into your family’s version of Great Uncle Ernest, that miscellaneous relative of yours who tends to tell really long stories with lots of digressions.

Now, Great Uncle Ernest is 1000 years old and has thereby earned his right to do this.  And out of respect for the dear rambling relatives of the world, we’re not going to hate on rambling, in general.

But let’s just say…your business doesn’t want to be like Great Uncle Ernest.

While families are usually pretty accepting of elderly relatives’ stories that segue from Christmas in Italy to an elbow-kicking horse, your customers are less likely to accept a rambling story from you.

You want your business to seem organized and professional, so that’s why branding is so important.  Instead of a little of this and a little of that, like Uncle Ernest’s story, you want a story that’s polished and put together perfectly.

Keeping your story from rambling starts with knowing your own story.  And once you’ve developed a vision of what you want your business to be, you can tell your story clearly through your policies, your products, your printed materials, and your promotional items.

Is your business Italian?  Beautiful and shiny?  Grandfatherly?  Does it kick people in the elbow?  As a business owner, you get to decide, but it’s best to try to stay consistent with whatever you choose.