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Brands as seen through Other People’s Eyes

Author: Katie Hart

Date: 15 Oct 2020

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Brands as seen through Other People’s Eyes

Brands as seen through Other People’s Eyes

How good is your memory?

Don’t worry, I am not going to ask you what you had for breakfast yesterday, or where you were last Tuesday evening. I just wonder how good you are at recalling things which you see on a regular basis.

Like the Apple logo. Could you draw that if I asked you to?

Or the Burger King logo – how well could you recall that one?

A study carried out in America, did just that. It asked people to draw the logos of some of the most recognised brands on Microsoft Paint. And the findings make for interesting reading…or viewing.

Logos and brands

You see, brand owners invest millions of pounds each year in establishing, building and protecting their logos, and at one level they work. If we see the Starbucks logo for instance, we may well be able to recognise it. Maybe we can name it as being ‘Starbucks’ and have an opinion about the organisation, its reputation, its products, the way it treats its staff etc. So, at that level it works.

However, when you ask us to be able to recall the Starbucks logo from memory, it seems we are not so good!

Only 6% of the people who took part accurately included the crowned mermaid and tails.

If you compare that figure with an easier logo, the results get much better though. Think about the Burger King logo. What does that look like? Could you draw it if I asked you to?

Hmmmmm…perhaps not very well!

And even some of the easiest logos which we feel we know really well are not as easy to recall as we may think.

One thing which does come across very clearly with each of these designs though is the convergence into the key colours used on logos. Even if we are not able to accurately recall the details of the logo, we can often recall the colours it is comprised of and the ‘gist’ of how it looks. Picture the Domino’s logo. What colours come to mind for that?

So, when considering brand recognition, it is interesting to not only test the identification of logos, but also what is recalled about them when given free scope. This is the truer test of how it is perceived by people, as this is the way THEY see and think of it.

So, do you think your brand would be safe in their hands?!

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