Why We’re Biologically Wired to be Judgy with Brands.
We all remember as kids being told to never judge a book by its cover, right? But why do we do that in the first place? Why don’t we make immediate reactions to what we visualize in front of us based on data and story? Well, there are theories that our brains still make split second decisions in perception of fear or joy as a leftover defense mechanism from our past. Is that cotton candy a lovely treat, or a terrible monster?
Clearly a terrible MONSTER.
So how does this all tie into logos and branding you say? That’s when the science really kicks in. Scientific American published an amazing article that talks about the area of the brain that kicks in for artwork or visually stimulating marks. It’s called the anterior insula. It’s also the part of the brain that usually deals with negative feelings. So it’s odd that perception of artwork would live there too, right? Turns out that it’s your brains way of deciding if this is good for me or not. The same way it might look at a piece of pie say “yep… gonna eat that” or “mmmm nope… already had two pies today”. Your brain lumps aesthetics into the same category as safe or harmful environmental items. HOW COOL IS THAT!
DANGER PIE!
So now you understand how a consumer’s brain is going to look at your logo compared to other logos. If a consumer who hasn’t had the chance to interact with your brand yet comes across your logo while making a purchasing decision, will their anterior insula tell them to purchase? When a business owner is just getting started, they’ll often get some cheap, well-recycled logo from one of THOSE places online (you know who I’m talking about…) so they can get it done and move on. They think that they’re saving valuable selling time by rushing through this stage of a launch so they can get their marketing materials out there immediately. Well, science is here to tell you that you’re doing more harm than good for your business in the end. You’re destined to get some of the low hanging fruit with any type of logo. Word of mouth from friends, family, neighbors… they’ll purchase because they have a connection already. But how can you scale that? Let’s run a little experiment. Take a look at the logos below and decide which company you’ll likely hire based ONLY on the logo and not anything else.
I’ll assume your neck hurts from the hard left leans in that experiment. We designed these logos for our clients because they wanted to stand out and succeed in their businesses. They understood the value of a first impression when it comes to scaling your market reach. If you’re interested in getting a free evaluation of your logo, or a quote for a new logo, please don’t hesitate to reach out! We can either design just your logo or do a full identity package to get all of your stuff done at once!
Hope you enjoyed this article, and we hope to inspire you to Love Your Brand.
