How much does a logo cost? Well, how long is a piece of string? If you’re starting up your business, you could jump on Fiverr and chance your luck with a freelance graphic designer for less than £10. If you’re Pepsi, on the other hand, you can pay a record-shattering million dollars for one of the most infamous (and not for the reason you’d think) logo redesigns of all time.
A logo cost or a brand investment?
Not every business has the same budget, and whatever budget is available will be invested in different areas depending on the business. Your logo, however, is worth investing in (and we don’t just mean financially). No matter how minimalistic or simple it may look, your logo is much more than just a graphic design. It is a symbol of your brand persona: a signal to show the world who you are and what you do.
Just like a high logo cost doesn’t necessarily mean success, a low logo cost doesn’t mean it can’t be perfect for your brand. There is a chance that you can achieve the perfect logo for your business with one of the aforementioned start-up freelancers on Fiverr who are more concerned with getting work than making money. You could find a really good deal, too, as these designers will be keen to impress and get a happy customer onside.
The problem, however, is that you won’t be able to conduct the same process of providing a thorough brief with an open conversation (either over a call or in person); getting feedback and going through several redesigns. You’ll likely provide a quick written brief and be given a simple design with a quick turnaround. It might work out exactly as you’d hoped. But, if it doesn’t, you’ll likely have to find a new £10-per-design freelancer and, potentially, rinse & repeat this cycle until you finally strike gold.
The benefit of working with a marketing agency or specialist design business is two-fold: firstly, you can provide a detailed brief with an open dialogue and utilise the advice & interpretation of an experienced expert. Secondly, you will be able to work with the designers to rework the logo if you’re not happy with the original edition. Yes, the upfront logo cost is higher, but you’ll almost certainly benefit from a better design, better service and maybe even save money compared to the ‘rinse & repeat’ cycle we mentioned before.
Logos evolving with your brand
As I said before, a logo tells consumers about your brand. Or , at least, it gives them an impression of your brand; something they can use to create their own perceptions. Are you an exciting, innovative brand or do you want to be seen as pragmatic and professional? A lot of this comes down to your industry (a children’s nursery and a law firm will be looking for very different branding).
Going beyond your industry, it’s important to consider your market position. Are you a market leader or a market challenger? As your business grows and becomes more recognisable, you can consider being less brand-heavy in your logo. At the 2022 World Cup, adidas felt they could remove the word ‘adidas’ from underneath the three-stripe logo on their football shirts and still be confident that everybody would recognise their logo. Likewise, you don’t need the word ‘Amazon’ to recognise their trademark curved arrow on the boxes.
Case studies
Pepsi
We mentioned the infamous Pepsi logo redesign by Arnell Group back in 2008, but the infamy isn’t because the logo was bad, or even the astronomical logo cost. Rather, as Daniel Piper labelled it in this article, the explanatory document became “one of the most infamous documents in the world of graphic design.”
The redesign document, which CBS News declared “nonsensical”, suggests links between the Mona Lisa, gravitational pull and the expansion of the universe just to name a few. All this for a fairly marginal change; removing additional features and morphing the “Pepsi Globe” slightly as you can see below.
When you’re a business as big as Pepsi, you can get away with paying $1million (according to West Egg’s Inflation Calculator, that’s over $140million in 2022) for a minor tweak to your logo. But, if you’re reading this, you’re probably not quite eating at the same financial table as Pepsi. The final interesting point I would make here, however, is that it’s been nearly 15 years since that redesign and we’re still here talking about it. So, maybe in this case, we’ve simply fallen victim to a very smart marketing ploy.
Apple
Talk about evolving with your brand! There’s no better example than Apple. While the very first design (which lasted barely a year) was complex and depicted a scene of great scientific breakthrough, the logo became more streamlined and minimalistic over time. This matched the sleek, stripped-back look of their shops and creates an air of complete confidence in the product; putting it under the spotlight with no bells & whistles. It’s also a very good example of considering where the logo will appear. That original logo of Newton’s falling apple ‘eureka’ moment would’ve been pretty tough to replicate across the billions of products sold worldwide.
London Olympics
I picked this one because it’s a bit of an outlier. For all our talk about evolving with the brand, the London Olympics in 2012 was a one-time event. At around £400,000, this logo cost doesn’t hold a candle to some of the mega-brands’ logo cost. With that said, it’s a lot of money for a venture with a short lifespan and a very definitive, pre-determined end date.
From accusations of Nazi-related imagery to people believing they could see Lisa Simpson in an act that isn’t as family friendly as the TV show (I’ll let you figure that one out for yourselves), this logo received a lot of criticism. In all honesty, Olympic logos have never tended to be a good as you’d be expect. Maybe that’s simply because designers always feel they need to reinvent the wheel with every Olympics, Winter Olympics and Paralympics, and perhaps we can learn a lesson from that: find a logo that works and don’t overcomplicate it.
City of Melbourne
I thought we’d finish up with a slam-dunk success story. This 2009 logo design absolutely hit the nail on the head. We saw a shift from something outdated and unwieldy to a clean, sharp and appealing logo. The colours perfectly depict the modern look the city wants to represent (you can picture the green & blue tint of the windows in the sunshine) and the geometric pattern creates an air of beauty and wealth. Isn’t that how most major cities would like to portray themselves? It’s also worth noting that this was nowhere near as expensive as the other logos on this list.
How much should your logo cost?
Your logo is a worthwhile investment, but I’m not just talking about a financial investment. It’s worth your time and your effort. If somebody asked you about your business over dinner, you wouldn’t wave them away with a half-baked explanation of what you do and what industry you’re in. You’d talk about what you do differently to others: your USP.
A logo tells people about your brand persona. ‘Persona’ sounds a lot like ‘personality’, doesn’t it? You’re displaying your brand’s personality here, and that doesn’t mean ‘6ft with dark hair’ – it means the compassion behind the eyes and the warmth in a smile. That’s what your logo tells consumers about your brand.
So, finding a logo that translates the persona you want to a consumer is critical. That’s why we’d strongly recommend making the investment to work with experts at a marketing agency like KAYBE. Click here to get in touch and let’s get it right together.
