THE FLYPAER FOR ASSOCIATIONS
MG Parameswaran
Executive Director & Member of the Management Board - FCB-Ulka Advertising

"Symbols seem to be neutral. Symbols look to me like a kind of flypaper, to which associations get stuck. Then the symbol gets to be a real symbol." Designer George Nelson speaking at a conference of the Art Directors Club of New York in 1959
Paul Rand, the legendary designer whose work includes the IBM logo said it a little differently, "A trademark is created by a designer, but made by a corporation." (or unmade)
A logo and its associations: A designer 'designs' the logo. But an organisation 'makes' the logo. But where did all this begin?

Tracing…the roots!
Families and countries have used logos and symbols for centuries, to visually represent their names. The Hapsburg Eagle of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was once recognised all over Europe. Emperor Ashoka created a symbol, placed it atop a pillar and till this day we recognise it for the glory of his empire. In South India, dynasties like the Cholas and the Cheras have had flags displaying their symbols: Tiger, Bow and so on.
Some symbols have entered the collective consciousness of global consumers and have developed unique set of associations:
*Anchor - Hope
* Cross - Christ, God
* Crown - Honour, Glory
* Heart - Affection, Love
* Skull - Death
* Umbrella - Protection

Trademark - Logo - Symbol - Mascot - Are all the same?
The full name, so to speak, of 'logo' is 'logotype', from the Greek word 'logos' meaning word and 'typos' meaning impression. It has also been referred to as a trademark, service mark, mark or marque, but logo as a word seems to have entered the common parlance. While a trademark is often confused with just the name, unless it is a unique name it cannot be patented. A logo can be a piece of type, a symbol, a picture or a combination of any or all of these. A logo can usually be trademark protected.
A mascot may or may not be a part of the logo of a brand. For example Air India's logo is 'Air India' in red lettering, with a slight slant. The mascot, Maharaja is not always present with the logo. The same is true of the Amul girl, Ronald McDonald, Goody the tiger of Nerolac Paints etc.
For the purpose of understanding the role of logos we will delve only into the elements (type or symbol or both), which form the integral part of the brand's signature identity.

Logotypes!
Textbooks classify logos as three broad types. The first class is logos with just strong word marks (and no accompanying symbol separate from the name) and brands such as Coca Cola, Dunhill and Kit Kat have logos that fall in this category. In India brands like Raymond, Usha and Indica have logos that only comprise of the lettering.
The second class of logos are those that are abstract symbol, Mercedes Star, Rolex Crown, CBS Eye and possibly the most famous of this class is the Nike Swoosh. In India brands like Wipro (Rainbow Flower) and Aditya Birla (Sun) have logos that fall in this class.
The third class of logos comprises all that is in between, where designers have strived to device a logo to reinforce or embellish the brand naming. Some international logos like the Red Cross and Apple have visual renditions of the brand names. Sometimes the logo can be pictorial symbol, like the Prudential Rock, Ralph Lauren's Polo and McDonald's Golden Arches (which in fact started its life as a shop signage). In India too we have several examples of this type - Thermax 'T', LIC 'hands', UTI 'kalash'.

Benefits of logos
Logos, as the designers pointed out, is but 'flypaper' to which brand associations can get attached. With the right inputs, they get instant recognition and recognition in turn leads to recall of associations. The three-pointed star on ATP tournament nets is enough to remind the viewer of Mercedes and its class. A 'swoosh' on the side of a shoe is all that is needed to trigger a brand memory of Nike.
A study by Cogito Consulting of FCB-Ulka Group has shown that visual cues are remembered much more than just audio cues or slogans. This seems to hold true for both heavily advertised brands and not very heavily advertised brands, as well as for younger (<5 years) brands and older brands. The difference in recall is the highest in the case of young, low advertising brands, with scores as much as twice for visual cues, compared to slogans (76 per cent v/s 38 per cent).

Building Strong logos
There are no magic remedies to build strong logos and General Electric's six-step process seems to be a sound starting point:
- Pick a name - General Electric, for example.
- Create a memorable trademark - The GE monogram is recognised the world over.
- Make a promise - For 60 years GE promised better living through electricity, which became better living through technology, for the past 30 years.
- Effectively communicate the promise - GE has always had highly imaginative and memorable work.
- Be consistent - Even as we grow and modify our business, we carefully manage the use of our identity worldwide.
- Don't get bored - GE has kept the same strategic promise for 30 years.

Indian Logo Stories
Many Indian companies have built strong logos, starting from square one. At times to rebuild a new brand, at times to give existing brands a new aura.
When ITC decided to enter the hotel industry, in the 70's, they knew they had to face the two strong Indian brands Taj and Oberoi. ITC decided to position its hotel chain as 'truly Indian' and gave it the name 'Welcomgroup' to signify the welcoming nature of the Indian subcontinent, where cultures and religions have found a safe haven for centuries. In a fitting manner R K Joshi of Ulka Advertising created the 'W-Namaste' logo for 'Welcomgroup'. It continues till this day as a unique logo that captures the ethos of an Indian welcome!
When Wipro Corporation wanted to signal a change in its business composition, it decided to change its logo to a colourful rainbow flower, designed by Shombit Sengupta.
In a similar vein, when Jaslok Hospital wanted to celebrate its silver jubilee, it also wanted to signal a new, more caring image. The new Jaslok Hospital logo with flowers, designed by Ravi Madkaikar of FCB-Ulka's IO Design welcomes patients with more warmth and care.
Aditya Birla group was formed after the demise of Shri Aditya Vikram Birla and the group hired designer Preeti Vyas Gianetti to create a unique logo. The corporation then unveiled the new sun logo through a shloka-based TV commercial - a unique for the Indian market

Do logos make a difference?
One key role played by logos is to protect the company from trademark infringement. Sometimes the name is trademarkable like Raymond. In fact Gwalior as a brand was dropped by Grasim since it could not be trademarked and unscrupulous competitors were weaving the name Gwalior on their fabrics. The company moved to the Grasim brand name, which was protectable in all its forms. It is a tragedy that the Gwalior brand had to virtually disappear.
In deciding about trademark infringement, the factors usually considered by the courts are:
* The distinctiveness of the complainants mark
* The similarity of marks
*The proximity of the parity products.
A more important role played by logos is to signal the brand image telegraphically to consumers. But is there a difference between flashing the name NIKE v/s the Nike logo with the 'swoosh'? Similarly between the name Motorola and the Motorola logo with the 'M'?
A seminal study, done in the early 90's with consumers in the US, attempted to study the differential impact of logos vis-à-vis just the brand name. Consumers were asked to rate brands by looking at just the name (in normal typeface). They were then asked to rate the same names presented as 'logos'. The results published in the Design Management Journal (Winter 1993) had some interesting observations. Logos can help a brand improve its ratings by a large margin. But not all logos help brand image recognition. In fact some brand names seem to score better than their brand logos. Obviously the positive scoring logos seem to be triggering the right associations in the consumers' minds, while the less popular logos are leaving the consumers a little perplexed.
The truth about good logos may just be that the organisations owning them have succeeded in ensuring that their logos have indeed become 'flypaper' of positive associations. The less successful logos may just need a lot more impetus on the consumer level to start adding to the value of those brand names.
In the Indian context it would be interesting to study how much extra the logos of companies like Raymond, Wipro and Tata add to the image scores.
Even as logos provide flypaper for associations, there are some, like Naomi Klein (acknowledged as one of the world's foremost "alternative thinkers" after the ground breaking book No Logo) who take an antithetical view to the concept of logos - branding them as almost heretical. In her seminal work "No Logo" (Flamingo, ISBN, 2001) which the New York Times called a "movement bible," Klein demonstrates the ubiquity of brands, addressing consumers as "walking, talking, life-sized Tommy (Hilfiger) dolls, mummified in fully branded Tommy worlds." She particularly chastises Nike and its trademark swoosh, calling to order culture jammers and McUnion activists. As she quotes a teen "Nike, we made you. We can break you."

Building a logo and building associations
Superlative logo designers (of Mobil, Chase Manhattan Bank among dozens of others) Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Keismer and Steff Geisbuhter give a four-point formula: "A mark is both form and substance, image and idea. To be effective, its forms must be familiar enough to be recognisable, and unusual enough to be memorable. The design must be simple enough to be read in an instant, and rich enough in detail or meaning to be interesting. It must be contemporary enough to reflect its epoch, yet not so much of its time as to appear dated before the decade is out. Finally it must be memorable and appropriate to the ideas and activities it represents."
In short, the four points logos should fulfil according to the Gurus are:
i. Recognisable, yet unusual
ii. Simple, yet rich
iii. Contemporary, yet timeless
iv. Memorable, yet appropriate.
The work of a designer may be over with the creation of a logo, but in the organisation's work just about begins with a great logo.
A logo can become just a bit of ink, colourful, on a piece of paper. But with the right efforts backing it, a logo can truly become a flypaper for associations. Positive. Warm. Caring. Trouble free. Value-for-money. Natural. Powerful. Effective. Care free. Urbane. Sophisticated…
The challenge facing organisations is how effective as flypaper is their logo? And how can it become more effective?