An Assessment of the Visual Appropriateness of Selected Brand Logos

This paper focuses on assessing the appropriateness of selected logos of popular brands. The paper enunciates the relevance of logos to the public perception of brands. Logos function as signifiers, denotative, point of contact and identifiers. The visual components of logos and the suggestive meanings of shapes which are the building blocks of the pictorial contents are articulated in this study. Thirty (30) logos of popular brands were purposively selected and subjected to the analysis of Eighty (80) people constituting thirty (30) formally trained practicing graphic designers, ten (10) experienced printers and forty (40) individuals who are familiar with the selected brands. The collated data were analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS). Findings revealed that logos are visual seals that communicate brand promises to the targeted audience, viewers recall simple logos more easily and logos crammed with colours are not appealing. The study recommended that visual contents of logos should resonate balance, application colours in logos should be limited to two and logos design should be a product of a sound brand strategy.

Hola Followers! Content Analysis of YouTube Channels of Female Fashion Influencers in Spain and Ecuador

The objective of this article is to analyze the contents and unconventional advertising narratives of the eight most important women in the world of fashion in Spain and Ecuador in relation to the number of followers and points of view, in order to identify the discursive and esthetic strategies and narratives that may reflect the keys to their experience as prescribers, through a content analysis based on the interpretation of the five most viewed videos between 2018 and 2019 from four Spanish to four Ecuadorian YouTube channels ( ME = 40) based on a three-round Delphi analysis sheet with a validity of W = 0.828 and α = .947. The content is analyzed from a qualitative perspective, which allows an in-depth exploration of the dimensions and indicators of impact and influence on YouTube channels. The research presents the findings that the influencers reviewed use crutches, idioms, and set phrases to identify with their audience. The audiovisual narrative is simple, maintaining its amateur style. Advertising positioning in the channels analyzed is given by identifying the brand in the spoken discourse, the presence of brand logos, advertisements and promotions, and the presence of products of the sponsoring brands.

Does an artistic representation of brand logos increase their effect on customers?

Background: In numerous fMRI studies, brands strongly confound the customers economic decisions on a neural level by modulating cortical activity in reward-related areas. Objective: To test the hypothesis that the effect of logos can be increased by artistic logo representations, we presented logos in original and artistically changed versions during fMRI. Methods: Following a pre-study survey on the familiarity of original brand logos, 15 logos rated as familiar and 10 logos rated as unfamiliar were selected for fMRI experiment. During fMRI, 15 healthy subjects were presented with original and artistically changed logos out of the familiar/unfamiliar categories. A whole-brain and ROI analysis for reward-related areas were performed. Moreover, logo-induced valence and arousal were measured with the self-assessment manikin. Results: Whole-brain analysis revealed activation in bilateral visual cortex for artistically changed logos (familiar/unfamiliar) compared to original logos. No significant effect could be detected for the ROI analysis. On average, the logos caused neutral emotions. However, when analyzing valence and arousal for familiar/unfamiliar and original/artistically changed logos separately, familiar original logos evoked stronger positive emotions than familiar artistically changed logos. Artistically changed logos (familiar/unfamiliar) excited participants significantly more than original logos. Conclusion: Artistically changed logos elicit activation in the bilateral visual cortex but not in reward-related areas.

Safe Together, Vulnerable Apart: How Interstitial Space in Text Logos Impacts Brand Attitudes in Tight versus Loose Cultures

This research demonstrates that interstitial space in textual brand logos—that is, spacious (vs. compact) arrangement of letters—unfavorably influences brand attitude by reducing product safety perceptions. When potential threats are salient, the effect tends to occur within tight (but not loose) cultures, characterized by sensitivity to threats and a need for rigid social structures. When threats are not salient, the effect appears to occur across cultures. Five studies, including lab and field experiments, as well as archival dataset analysis, provide supportive evidence.

The Influence of Brand Logo Frame on Brand Character and Consumer’s Brand Evaluation

This paper proposes that the different border shapes of brand logos (rectangle and rounded rectangle) cause the differences in the evaluation of brand personality by consumers, which further affects the evaluation of brand by consumers. At the same time, this process is regulated by product category. If product category and brand personality are in the same direction, the border shape of brand logo will generate positive brand evaluation. In this paper, two experiments were designed to verify the hypothesis respectively and to guess the results of data analysis. However, due to the time problem, complete data has not been collected for analysis. This paper provides marketing inspiration for brand identification and deepens the related research on brand identification and brand evaluation.

Intersemiotic Translation of Subliminal Messages in Brand Logos

Subliminal messages play a vital role in attracting the consumer's attention in the world of brands. Visual subliminal messages are designed to be unnoticeable at a conscious level, bypassing the conscious mind and submitting messages directly to the subconscious mind. Although consumers may not actually attempt to decode the semiotic elements of a logo, its interpretation is an intersemiotic act. In this interplay between a logo's visual and verbal aspects, intersemiotic translation provides a useful theoretical framework to investigate subliminal advertising messages. The ability to persuade consumers is a powerful tool in marketing, and subliminal persuasion can affect markets and control consumer behavior. The authors explore consumers' awareness of subliminal messages by focusing on semiotics, symbolism, and persuasion as key issues in the translation of advertisements. Participants were exposed to logos of international brands, and through a structured questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, they were asked to identify their form, color, logo, brand name, or slogan.

Typography: the constant vector of dynamic logos

Visual identities can be constructed from a number of elements which together can be described as the Visual Identity System (VIS). Typography is one of the VIS’s central elements. Typically, the VIS elements have been considered as static and associated with prescribable visual mandates; however, the hypermodernity paradigm boosted the notion of mobility in everything – and brands are no exception. Brand logos now change in shape, colour, wear different textures and sit on top of a variety of backgrounds. All this incredible flexibility has implications for their typographical elements too. In the empirical part of this research, 50 dynamic logos were selected, grouped according to Van Nes’ categories in Dynamic Identities: How to Create a Living Brand (2012) and the changes in their typographic components were analysed under the Multilingual Typeface Anatomy Terminology framework (Amado, 2012), firstly by the researchers, and then by a group of independent coders. It was verified that dynamic logos present a consistent pattern regarding typography since they preserve consistency through type’s structural axes. This result led to a set of recommendations for both designers working with type in the context of the (re)design of dynamic logos, and academics preparing the next generation of brand designers. This research aimed at identifying the typographical inroads in brands with dynamic logos and is a relevant contribution to the perception of how the anatomy of type can define visual consistency.

The social distancing visuals in brand communication

"Communication is more than a money generator in businesses’ life and brand communication must be an ally in the process of getting noticed, inspiring and pushing to action. This paper aims to exploit some visuals of the companies that changed their logos in order to promote their own brands in times of crisis, more specifically, a medical crisis, that of the coronavirus. In not more than one month, large companies transformed their classic brand logos into social distancing visuals. The objectives of this undertaking are to emphasize the importance of brand communication in this special time of medical and economic crisis, to determine how the big brands’ logos transformed and to identify the goals of brand communication strategy through visuals. We attempt to see the new logos through a social semiotic perspective on visual and brand communication."