Tanya SachdevThe Industrial revolution of the eighteen century gave more production and when more than one manufacturer came for the same product, the concept of branding came and branding lead to the formation of business logos.
The era of business logos started in 1870 and the first logo to be trademarked was Bass Red Triangle. With more and more corporate mushrooming, the need for creating business logos started with the objective of differentiating one company product from another.
As the products/services/corporate increased, the marketers started branding the products to show the ownership & this ownership needed an ideogram, a symbol, an icon, an emblem or a combination of sign & emblem, an identity to trace the product to its owner & this gave birth to LOGOS.
With the entry of the products in multi location/international markets, Business Logos are meant to represent the parent company brands and foster their recognition on customer’s mind space to facilitate the share of their wallet. The Coca Cola logo is well identified in any language with the color red & ribbon wave design, Pepsi with globe & blue color, Mc Donald’s with (now yellow color) man sitting on the bench.
To give meaning to the logo, a color is given to form the integral part of the brand recognition as colors have emotional connect. In America Red, white, blue are used in logos for companies that show patriotic feelings, loud colors are meant to attract attention for product logos to be displayed on highways, high streets. Common examples for loud colors are Red for brands like Coca Cola, Airtel, Vodafone. Blue color is America’s corporate color, PepsiCo & IBM are the most talked about identities and also known in their respective categories as Big Blue. Color Green in Business logos is an indication of health/hygiene. Companies dealing in environmental products are using green in the tagline or in the art work. Color light blue & silver are used to reflect diet products (Coke diet is an example of silver color in the Diet Coke logo). Colors emphasize to communicate reliability, quality, relaxation, rejuvenation. People respond with cultural & sentimental beliefs for color, shapes, lines & other symbolic emotions attached to the logo. Horizontal lines communicate level and secure thinking, vertical lines convey dignity & diagonal lines are full of energy. Sometimes superstition plays a role, for eg in India vertical logos which start from bottom & go upwards are considered as rising (Coca Cola), whereas which start from top & read downwards are considered failing (Bata).
Changing/refinement of the business logo needs an in-depth thought process as it is a very risky proposition (the recent change in AIRTEL logo was debated a lot but latter on gelled with the consumers, where as the change in Federal Express logo shortened to Fed Ex enhanced the corporate identity & saved the company in cost by millions of dollars in paint application & the right pointing arrow in the new logo hints the significance of in motion). Apple Computer products are with missing bite in the apple & started with VIBGYOR the rainbow color and has reduced to single bold silver color, a big initiative 
Some car logos stand for ultimate strength of the brand. Sports car Lamborghini has the logo of Spanish charging Bull in gold color on black background, and the bull was also the zodiac sign of the founder of the company but the emphasis was for a sign of strength. Ferrari logo is the prancing black horse on yellow background, sign of power & relentless force; these logos are signs of pride & ego of the car manufacturers. Jaguar logo is Jaguar leaping- a symbol of speed, power & quickness along with the company’s name.
Business Logos are the heart and soul of a brand. A product attribute is perceived from the logo, whereas the brand is the body of the product/service & advertisement is the vehicle which carries the master key for the transaction of marketers’ dreams to acceptance, awareness and revenue, the ultimate goal of every salesperson.
Tanya Sachdev
Kritika Manchanda
