Musings of the Creative Noggins

I was reading the following article about all of the new logos that were premiered by major brands this past year and it gave me great pause to ponder why many companies are so itching to change, or “evolve” their logo.

We have a number of clients who approach us each year and, as part of their branding update planning, are convinced a logo redo is a must.

While with some companies, I couldn’t agree more.  For some others, it just seems like a potential waste of dollars if the current logo is truly timeless, has served them well and hasn’t presented any great challenges.

A new logo can translate into great cost, to include: signage, stationery, collateral, etc. which can add up quickly.

The true question is, why do you think you need a new logo?

Here’s my take.  

If you want to change your logo because of the following reasons, then you probably DO need a new logo:

1. The logo is dated (although, sometimes minor tweaks can refresh a logo to modernize it without a major redo, like this Embrey logo we updated)

Before & After

Adding some color, updating the font and adding a descriptive “tag” line helped bring it into the 21st century.

2. Your target market has changed and the logo isn’t properly fitted to appeal to that market.

3. Company product or service offerings have evolved, but your logo doesn’t seem to “fit.”

4. Your logo is or has become similar to some or many of your primary competition.  You may need a logo refresh to help you stand out from the clutter.

On the other hand, if you want to change your logo because of the following reasons, you probably DON’T need to change your logo:

1. You’re tired of looking at it.  This can happen over time.  But remember….YOU are not your target market.  You see your logo everyday, but an important part of branding is actually creating familiarity and a relationship with the consumer through repetition.

2. New management has come in and is wanting to make their mark on the company by making some updates.  Most long term brands hold brand equity in their logo and making a major change where the new and “improved” version isn’t obviously a huge improvement, could actually serve to alienate your consumer.

3. You aren’t willing to put the dollars behind the update to unveil the “new you.”  If you make a logo update but then don’t put your money where you mouth by updating the logo quickly on all of the touch points that hit your consumer, as well as making some form of announcement (internally and externally) explaining the evolution, the rationale for the change and the new direction of the company (at least symbolically), then you are wasting your money on a refresh and taking a chance of confusing your own staff, not to mention your current and prospective customers.

For what it’s worth, while I can agree with a few of the changes in the article about the major logo changes of 2012, there are others I think were a BIG mistake.  I’ll leave it at that, but would love to hear if anyone out there has any opinions?  If so, please share them here!

Click HERE to read the Business Insider article mentioned above.  

So if you’re considering a logo change, do some serious soul searching.  And if you’re having some trouble deciding, give us a call.  Believe me, I’ll shoot you straight!

Tracy Marlowe

Ok, so I admit I’m a big Oprah fan. I don’t have 8×10 glossy photos of her around my house or anything but I do like her overall purpose of teaching and learning. After all, I AM in her target market– female, age 0-100. I happened to catch one of her “Master Classics” shows the other night and it made me think a lot about branding.

She talked about how she stumbled into journalism by accident. She was in some kind of pageant with several other girls and there was an interview segment (with Barbara Walters, believe it or not). The question was “What do you want to do with your life?” (or something to that effect) and the girls that went up before her kept saying all these good things…..nurse, teacher (which is what she was going to say). Well, she didn’t want to say the same answer so she just all of a sudden said “I want to be a journalist.” And from then on it just snowballed.

She became a radio DJ of sorts and then became a news anchor where she realized something just wasn’t right.  She felt like she was trying to be a “fake Barbara Walters” instead of a “real Oprah Winfrey.” One day she was invited as a guest on a local talk show and a lightbulb went off in her head. She loved it! That was one of her many “Aha!” moments. She was still on air and teaching/communicating to the masses but she felt like she could be herself and not hide behind some manufactured idea of what she should be. (Can you imagine all the world would have missed out on if she was still stuck behind a desk reporting pre-written, pre-rehearsed news that someone else wrote?) Actually, she probably would have quit because she’d have gotten so miserable.

I immediately thought about how it applies to branding. So many companies try so hard to imitate their competitors that they lose sense of who they really are on the inside. There’s just an overwhelming sense that they’re not doing something right and something is “off.” In my opinion, Steve Jobs approached computer design as a Real Steve Jobs. Where would we Mac users be if he’d just settled for being a Fake IBM?

When we first engage with a client, we often bring in a researcher to help companies figure out who they are. Sometimes it just takes an outsider asking the right questions. It’s like having a person walk into a dark room full of people and turning the light on. Everyone’s like “Ahhhhh. There’s the switch!” And then everyone can see.

So, are you a fake Barbara Walters? Or are you a real Oprah Winfrey?

Something to think about.

By Trish Rawls

The Creative Noggin Crew at San Antonio ADDY Awards

Creative Noggin may be one of the smaller shops represented at the 2010 ADDY Awards in February, but we were proud to walk away with four ADDY awards.  Three of which were gold!

Kudos to our amazing team and even more incredible Creative Director, Trish McCabe Rawls.  Couldn’t have done it without your brilliance!  Bravo!

–Tracy Marlowe

Loved and had to share this video posted on AdWeek surmising the outcome if ad agencies were to plan kids birthday parties.

Hilarious!  Hope it brings a smile to your face.

–Tracy Marlowe



Lately, many of my friends have been going out and buying TOMS shoes. You know… the ugly looking alpargatas shoes you get a Whole Foods while grocery shopping.  It turns out, you can also get them at Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom’s and Bergdorf Goodman and get exclusive styles through these retailers and a pair costs you anywhere from $50-100 depending on the style.  

If you haven’t heard of TOMS shoes yet, let me tell you the story:  Entrepreneur and Amazing Race contestant Blake Mycoskie founded TOMS shoes in 2006 after a trip to Argentina where he would witness every day children living in poverty and without shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.  And as of September 2010, TOMS has given over one million pairs of new shoes to children in need through Giving Partners around the world.

TOMS has done most of their marketing through social media having a YouTube station with dozens of professionally executed videos, telling their story and giving different perspectives. The PR has virtually come to them with big name pubs like LA Times and The Wall Street Journal writing about their story; no pitch required from Blake and his staff. Even their retail partners have become brand evangelists where one retailer describes how they have a picture of Blake putting TOMS shoes on the feet of a child in Argentina right above their TOMS shoes display.  

So now you can see what makes this brand so special. But from a Marketing perspective, what this brand has done in terms of grassroots PR and Marketing is just as amazing. TOMS has done virtually no advertising. Their success is all through word-of-mouth marketing; a true grassroots case study.  You can also argue that the reason word-of-mouth marketing is so successful in this case is because the story behind the shoes – every person that wears a pair of TOMS shoes becomes a marketer for the brand. They now have a story to tell when they talk about their shoes and they can feel good telling that story because they  now can talk about how they have helped those in need through their purchase.  Just take a look at their holiday video that talks about how you become their marketing engine.

So what do you think… has this brand revolutionized how we approach word-of-mouth Marketing?

- Isabel