Why Change Your Logo
Why Do Companies Change Their logos?
Don’t worry, we’re not suddenly going to become a marketing blog. But as a blog for businesses and solutions, we think this will provide value. Plus, we have a special announcement to go with it.
⇒ If you’ve ever thought about rebranding, this is for you.
⇒ If you just went through it (bless your heart), this is for you.
⇒ If you have a business, this is for you.
First, What is a Logo?
A logo is a visual representation of your company. It can be graphic, like the Nike swoosh or the blue bird of Twitter, or it can be letters only, like CNN or eBay. Most are a combination of the two, like Target, for example, or NBC. And then when they’ve been around long enough and had consistent enough branding over the years, they can be like Mastercard and drop the mic words altogether.
What does a Logo Do for Your Business?
In a matter of milliseconds, your logo signals to customers, prospects, competitors, and employees who you are and what you do or what you stand for. A logo communicates your company’s brand. It does this by using color, typography, and design style. And sometimes it does this subliminally.
Take Amazon, for example. By now, we’re all familiar with it (and probably Prime members to boot). But think back to when you initially saw the current logo in 2000. The yellow arrow resembles a smile, implying its customers’ happiness and, possibly, its desire as a business to make you happy. But how long did it take before you noticed the arrow literally points from “a” to “z”? That part of the design is subtle but intentional, and it communicates instantaneously that they have everything you need, from A to Z.
Granted, not every business has a billion dollar budget or team of psychology researchers and marketing design experts to incorporate these special details. And not every company cares that much about it, to be honest. Sometimes you just want to make sure the name is spelled right and get to work. But you can find a good story about most company logos, even locally such as Savannah Bee or Nine Line, because the logo becomes the symbol for the company. A symbol as recognizable as Batman’s. Or, for the younger crowd, the Avengers.
Why Would You Change Your Logo?
If you’ve put all this thought and energy into creating your logo, then it doesn’t seem to make much sense to change it. But there can be any number of reasons why a company would want a new look, or symbol. Just off the cuff, here are five.
- New ownership
- Merger with another company
- Looks outdated
- Want to attract a different type of customer
- Shift in service or focus
Deciding to change a logo is not as simple as it may seem, however. The costs alone can be prohibitive.
Think about your own business. Your logo is everywhere. It’s on your website, your printed materials, uniforms, promotional items, building signs, and it exists outside your company with partners and vendors. Changing it is a massive undertaking. And that’s after you have the new one all ready to go.
Actually creating a new logo can be a time-consuming and expensive process on its own. Depending on your primary motivation for the change, you’ll want to consult with various stakeholders, retain the services of a graphic designer, and possibly conduct research. You’re going to see drafts, make revisions, and want to scrap the whole project at least once.
Sure, there are ways to cut some corners on this, such as crowd-sourcing or purchasing unused, ready-made designs. But it is incredibly easy to recognize what you don’t like in a design and yet maddeningly difficult to describe what you want. Graphic designers know this and deal with clients being unable to verbalize their vision every day. (Side note: if you have a graphic designer who “gets you” and understands your vision, do not let them go.)
PRO TIP: If you are going to change your logo, limit the number of your decision makers in the process. People resist change, so you’ll want buy-in from staff and a way to ensure you don’t alienate existing customers with your new look. However, you will find agreement on such a subjective decision as a logo to be nearly impossible the more people there are in the room. Feedback from various groups of people can be very helpful in shaping the overall tone or style, but keeping the final call down to 3 or fewer people can help you retain some sanity throughout this process.
Why is Infinity Writing about Logos?
Here is our special announcement…
What? Why? When?
The Reasons Behind a New Logo for Infinity
The simplest, and probably most obvious, reason is because we’re tired of being confused with Xfinity. Even among our clients sometimes.
We began our mission in 1999. Comcast didn’t create Xfinity until 2010. But thanks to its nationwide reach and massive marketing behind it—plus the fact that most people lump all Internet and IT services together in their minds—our local Infinity brand lost the recognition battle.
To add insult to injury, we’re known for our Fanatical Customer Service (Core Value #3) whereas they are…not. They have a reputation for long hold waits on the phone and day-long service windows that keep customers tied up and helpless. They are transactional and can sometimes make their customers feel insignificant and replaceable. Our goal is the exact opposite.
But the similarity to another company’s logo is only part of why we made this decision. The more subtle, and powerful, reason is to signal the next stage in our evolution as a company.
Evolving How We Serve You
Infinity, Inc. began in 1999 with Chuck Brown and David Brown. They offered break-fix IT services to customers, which means that when someone had a problem or needed help, they helped. It’s a reactive and unpredictable business model, and it’s how pretty much all IT service companies start out.
After a few years, the Brown brothers knew they could do more for their clients if they began managing their IT. This way of operating shifts the focus to a more comprehensive treatment of each client. Instead of solving one-off issues, Infinity implemented tools to monitor and prevent problems across the entire network. As more and more software came into use, businesses needed more complex setups and stronger protections.
But nowadays, with entire generations growing up with the Internet and email—some not even knowing what a rotary phone is or how people communicated before Facebook and Instagram—younger people have become more computer-savvy at an earlier age. And with the variety of IT vendor offerings, nearly anyone with a credit card can call themselves a managed services provider and sell cybersecurity protection and Microsoft O365 licenses. Even Office Depot is doing it.
But service, while critical, is not the ultimate goal for Infinity. We want to provide our clients with solutions. And solutions aren’t about which data backup tool or antivirus you have. Solutions are what gets you to your business goals.
- Need to hire more employees? More flexible and robust remote networking and communications can make your business more attractive.
- Need to streamline your customer purchasing and fulfillment process? Let’s look at your workflow and see where we can automate.
True IT solutions make your business better, faster, stronger. This new logo isn’t about starting over or changing who we are. It’s about evolving to face the future head-on and to provide more value to our clients.
Our goal has always been our clients’ overwhelming success and happiness with our partnership. Our new logo is simply a way of indicating that we’re taking this relationship to the next level.
And we can’t wait to show you.
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