Branding and Logo Design Even More Important in the Recession

Consumer behaviour is changing and it is looking to stay that way for the foreseeable future. During the boom years of the past decade, we saw a huge number of small startup businesses trying to compete with the big boys. Lots of these companies are been over night success stories online. People were willing to buy products and services from a company or website they’d never heard of, if the price was lower. But now that more and more businesses are going belly up, and consumer confidence is falling as a result. What this means is that people are going back to preferring known and recognisable brands, even if it means spending a little more.

Although in times such as these when people are worried for their jobs or loosing them, some start to consider their dream business online and of being their own boss. Research from Barclays last year showed that there were 98,000 start-ups created in the UK within a three month period, despite the credit crunch. It is by no means the easy option. When you take into account that around 80,000 new businesses failed during the same time period, kind of puts it into perspective doesn’t it!

I think that underestimating your companies branding is as detrimental as not having a website at all. You brand and logo are the first things that your future customers see. It’s crucial to what people use to judge whether you are trustworthy or not. But it’s so often the case that startup owners put off paying professional logo design in the initial stages. All to often its “Lets see how many customers we can get before we think about branding”.So what they do is, try to knock one together in paint or get a mate down the pub to create one. Many new companies unfortunately opt for cheap Vista Print Logos or free clip art to design their brand.

This isn’t acceptable for a Brand. All web business now more than ever, need to look much bigger and much more capable via good marketing, to retain customers and encourage new ones.In the middle of a recession, most consumers are nervous about who to trust, so a brand needs to demonstrate that they are trustworthy and dependable. New websites need to appear to be much bigger than they actually are to survive. As i have mentioned, consumers are now more then ever going to the big brands for what they need. And finally, a good image will make it more likely for customers you do have to refer you to their friends and family.

The fact of he matter is. Bankruptcy will hit around half small business very early on in their life, usually within two to three years. Experts agree that one of the main reasons for failure is poorly thought out  and shoddy marketing. A custom logo design helps you create the right image for this marketing to succeed. So do yourself a favour – start looking at some sample logos in your industry and see what the successful ones have in common.  Then get yourself a proper graphic designer to plan and create a great corporate identity that will help you not only stay afloat but truly stand out and succeed.