Page 34 - Branding Yourself and Your Business

30 ROBERT DRAKES

consumers looking for your brand and not be able to read it on
the package because you wanted to get too clever.

On the other hand, perhaps you do not want your brand to
have a name and you only want a symbol to signify the brand. A
good example of a company that uses a shape to signify its
brand is Nike. Nike’s swoosh logo has become synonymous with
the best sports equipment that consumers can buy. Many times
Nike even leaves their name off their products and all you see is
the swoosh logo. However, Nike is the exception to the rule;
there are not many companies that have been successful by
only using a symbol. Perhaps the only other company that has
this type of success as Nike is Apple. The name Apple does not
appear on the back on the iPad, iPod, or iPhone, there is just
their logo, which is an apple. In this case, the logo and company
name is the same so it has double meaning for the consumer.

The next time you go to your local mall or large shopping center
take the time to look at the stores logos. You will notice that the
vast majority of store logos are horizontal and easy to read. You will
only see a few stores that have opted to use something different
from the horizontal easily read option. Perhaps the most well known
company to not use this format is Lord and Taylor who use a script
style font, which makes it harder to read their name.