People are terrible at remembering logos
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People are terrible at remembering logos
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Do you think you could draw the Apple logo from memory? If the answer is yes, chances are you’re overconfident.
According to a 2015 study from UCLA, only seven out of 85 surveyed college students could accurately replicate Apple’s simple design—and almost all of the participants were Apple users themselves. The reason? Our brains often choose not to absorb unnecessary information unless we set out to memorize it, which means that we’re shockingly bad at remembering even the most ubiquitous logos in the branding world.
Based on new research into the sticking power of various healthcare logos, household medicine and hygiene suppliers are certainly not faring any better.?
The research, conducted by healthcare marketing company Tebra, surveyed consumers across the U.S. about a series of logos from medical providers, products, and common consumer brands. Walgreens, Advil, and CVS emerged as the most recognizable brands respectively, with Walgreens clinching the top spot among all generations and across genders. There were some notable demographic divides, though: Women were able to identify menstrual brands two times better than men (surprise!), and Gen Z was 24 times more likely to recognize mental health brands than their Boomer counterpoints.?
But the truly revealing data emerged when Tebra charged 111 respondents with drawing healthcare logos from memory. Asked to reproduce the logo for the dental hygiene brand Crest, participants generally struggled to capture the design’s notable features, which include a shining red “C” followed by simple blue letters. Some of the artists clearly panicked and jotted down the first idea that came to mind—including a star and a smiling moon, a 2D tube of toothpaste, and an oblong pink shape with the words “Crest Toothpaste” inside.?
Given that the Crest wordmark is relatively straightforward, other brands presented an even greater challenge for the survey-takers. Most respondents remembered that the multivitamin company Centrum’s logo includes a rainbow line (with some notable exceptions, including one entry that appears to be the Audi logo), but Tebra noted that the line’s placement “seemed to stump many.” And when participants were asked to remember the look of Nature Made, Centrum’s competitor, things really started to fall apart. Submissions ran the gamut from bright green letters and dark red rectangles to a simple illustration of an avocado.
The new data from Tebra suggests that the logo misremembering phenomenon can stem from several sources: overcomplicated designs, frequent rebranding, and a nostalgia among consumers that means “old branding dies hard.”?
“These findings illustrate the importance of distinctive, memorable branding in the competitive healthcare market,” Tebra concludes. But, as their research demonstrates, even the most successful healthcare companies shouldn’t expect glowing results from customers on a logo pop quiz.
Brave Account Guy. Happy to Be Pretty Much Anywhere.
11 个月I agree with Mark, Jason and Jonathan here (especially Jonathan). Replication isn't recognition and neither of those things is as complicated and nuanced as "it's a brand for someone like me" or intent to purchase. This exercise doesn't really suggest any effect on bottom-line growth as a result of being able to accurately draw a logo. But here's what's interesting (and this is just me): After 30 or so years of doing this, what I have noticed is people's associations with physical brandmarks tend to tightly bind them to the first time that the consumer achieves "salience" with the brand. That is, they have recognized the brand and they are now capable of making a qualitative (no matter how loose) association with its place in the universe relative to theirs. Something about that first association sticks and remains with the consumer forever. I'd imagine, if you looked at the logos that people "drew" and compared it to the way the logo looked when they first became salient relative to that brand, it would be a different story. It's a no-brainer but sometimes we have to be reminded: First impressions matter a LOT and you never know when your brand is making that first impression. Be smart. And consistent.
Trusted Guide | Author | Lifelong Learner | Corporate Diplomat | Certified M&A Specialist | Certified Life Coach
11 个月Customers do not need to be able to recreate a logo. What matters is that when they see it, they know exactly what it means. The Rite Aid loge chart in the article is a case in point. Many of the drawings the authors describe as inaccurate contain the color schemes from old logos. I also do not understand how the X and Y axes can be the same. As a result, some of the drawings, as shown, are both accurate and inaccurate. A graphic that contains qualities reminiscent of Schr?dinger's cat seems to me to be of little value.
Public Media Nerd | Data Wizard at PBS Utah | MBA, MSBA | Salesforce, SF Marketing Cloud, Jitterbit, R Code, AI, Excel Pro
11 个月I wouldn’t expect anyone, even logo graphic designers, to draw a random logo by memory. That’s absurd. Logos aren’t about memorizing them so you can draw them later. They’re a shorthand for knowing what the product and brand is. I am (for unknown reasons) good at car logos. But I name the brand when I SEE the logo. I don’t go around drawing logos by memory. In short, I believe the title of this article is misleading. Memory doesn’t mean “being able to draw, randomly, from memory alone.”
Director of User Experience Design
11 个月Because a logo is not a brand.