Branding. Is a big deal. (Oh btw, we got a new logo)
When someone mentions the word branding, what comes to mind? Be honest, a logo is what comes to mind right? Don't feel bad , that was me a couple years ago. But a logo barely describes the idea of a brand. When I think of a brand, I think of the feeling I associate with company. A perfect example would be apple brand. When I think of apple, I think of a clean minimalist lifestyle. This to me is the brand. The brand is the sensation the company creates in you. It can either be good or bad. All the same the brand represents the company's ummm... aura? I sound like a new age healer when I use that word. But seriously thats the best word I could think of. Oh yea another way you can think of branding, lets consider the Mercedes Benz vs the Ford brand. Branding is why a Ford will never be held in the same regard as a Mercedes Benz. Mercedes has crafted a brand of luxury over time. It will take Ford a very very long time to give off a similar brand experience. Does that mean that Mercedes is a better brand? I wouldn't say that. Since branding is purely subjective. For instance in China, Oldsmobile (You remember Oldsmobile don't you?) is held in the same regard as the German auto brands like Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Isn't that weird?
Creating the right brand is something we've been tackling here at Boomslank. Everything down to the feel of the website, to the little extras that come with every product we ship. We actually try to figure out how to create our own aura for our customers. We want our customers to be able to recognize us even before the see the name of the product. Funny thing about that is that we also wanted to make sure we got our logo right.
To me the logo is the first visual cue of a brand. It is a strong symbol for what your company represents. And getting right logo being happy with it is very important. We've evolved our logos over time. And we've managed to trademark our latest logo.
Our very first logo was a digitalized "B" for the B in Boomslank. Unfortunately it had a striking similarity to an "E". People would actually email us sometimes asking us what the "E" meant. It was a little annoying trying to correct them that they were looking at a stylized "B".
Eventually this ambiguity got to us. And we changed our logo again. We aimed for more symmetry when we came up with this guy.
We all loved it. It seemed perfect, till the lady at the trademark office told us it looked like mickey mouse. I couldn't believe it. But rather than insult her ability to see and inevitably make things worse, I decided it would be better to go back to the drawing board.
And here we are. With our new logo. Just the first step in establishing our brand . With the new logo, we hope to usher in new products that our fans will love. Is always fun thinking of ways to improve the company. Is quite an adventure.
