The important question.
If you are in the service industry, you probably are keen to reassure people they can trust you.
Whether you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a wedding planner, or an accountant, you want people who come to you to feel they can leave all the details of making big decisions to you. Because they know that you’re going to deliver. Because they sense it. How? Your brand is good.
But wait. Is your brand good? Is it trustworthy? Does it inspire confidence in people that, yes, you’ll take care of them?
The trustworthy logo test
Four questions to ask yourself to find out:
Is your logo easy to read?
This is a basic. If you can’t read it, you move on. People don’t have time to decipher interesting or “clever” ideas about how letters can create icons. In fact, forget the icons if you want to say “straightforward.”
Do yourself a favor and drop any Nike-esque “swoosh.” The logo design for Nike didn’t do its major branding work: the image that the brand evokes in your mind, and feeling it leaves you with—that’s the stuff that made Nike humungous.
(Just to see what people are doing that’s not inspiring, see YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com)
Is your color scheme eye-pleasing?
Another basic. Colors that are trendy today will be out of fashion next Wednesday. Are you really ready to be talked into something that won’t last?
I am not saying go with all neutral grays and charcoals and beiges. I’m just saying, be prepared when your turquoise and mauve feel a little too 80s after a while, or look far less like a professional service company than a teen fanzine.
Do you use consistent wording?
It takes people 7 encounters with your brand before someone will buy from you. Something a salesperson for an international company once told me. Meeting in real life? You get 11 seconds to make a first impression.
With such limited time and space, do you really want to try to pack everything you do in? Pick the top few keywords that describe your company’s heart, and then craft a simple 10-word phrase or sentence that you can use when you need to tell the story of what you do best.
Are you the same person in real life as you appear to be online?
Does it bother you when people act one way online and then offline they’re completely different? I sure get miffed.
Maybe they’re too shy, or too aloof, or too something else, but please stop acting like you’re all friendly if you’re really just too shy, or too aloof. It’s okay to be who you are. You might not want to do social networking if you’re not into it offline.
How about just be who you are? Say what you mean. And be that person in real life, to back it up. Nothing lends authenticity to the scene than just being totally transparent and sincere.
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Thank you for this.. Simple and straightforward!!