Know-How Exchange : Branding

What are you trying to communicate with the logo? Each of those designs might be best for some specific message, so it's important to understand the communications objective if we're going to vote on a logo design. What direction did you give the designer? Is there a Creative Brief? If so, perhaps you can share that with us.

None of the logos seem to communicate the nature of your business. The first one is closest, but I think you can do better :)

I'd like to see the creative strategy behind what's been developed thus far.

I'd also like some background on the name (does this word mean something?), and on the idea behind the tag line (the point of which isn't clear).

The owner of the company has worked with a designer to develop the logos. There was no creative brief, and the owner came up the name and tagline of the company. However, I can provide some creative brief-type information:

Project Summary
What type of product or service do you offer?
Short codes for text marketing

How long have you been in business?
Start up

What do you hope to accomplish with your new identity?
We want to connect with both our consumer and business audiences. The key message to consumer audiences is this is a simple way to save money on goods and services your looking for, and for businesses this is a simple, low-cost and effective marketing tool for increasing business.

What are your long term goals?
To bring an improved "Groupon" and "Living Social" model of money saving deals and special offers to the text medium.

Audience Profile
Please describe your existing audience:
Consumers and businesses who would like to reach them. Key businesses include: restaurants, health/beauty, home and auto services, and entertainment/recreation services.

Perception/Tone/Guidelines
What type of logo would you like?
Fun and inviting

Do you have any colors in mind for your logo? (if so, why?): No, but the logo will need to be displayed in various businesses that utilize the service.

Do you have any specific images or icons in mind that you would definitely like to see incorporated into your logo?
"Texting" and "saving money"

Communication Strategy
What attributes would you like your logo to reflect about your business?
"Texting" and "saving money"

What is your tagline or slogan?
"All you need is text!"

What is the overall message you are trying to convey to your target audience?
Save money with text messages

Where will your new logo be used?
Website, advertising, marketing and in-business promotional signage

Who are your competitors?
Five and fifty, SweetJack

The explorers set off willy nilly and went nowhere.

The industrial engineers designed a cool do-hickey that did stuff.

The passengers on the plane wound up thousands of miles from home because there was no flight plan.

The novel told the tale about things that did things to things with things that had things on things.

The logo failed to convey anything because there was no creative brief.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

The owner came up with the name and tag line? Based on what research, based on what evidence, on what feedback, and on what reasoning?

Names and tag lines that don't clearly convey a benefit might once have been cool and hip but really, cool and hip has been done AND it slows down the process of communication.

I'm going to ask this question again: What does the company name mean? If it's got a meaning, TELL people what it is, don't make them claw through layers of stuff to find it.

If I'm a business owner I don't want to know about short codes. I want a done for me system that brings me more customers: make it so!

With no creative direction you could come up with a thousand different logos and they could all die a horrible death, simply because the client doesn't like them. I've seen it happen and had it happen.

Without a written plan, without a strategy, your designer (and may God have mercy on this poor person's soul) is being set up to fail.

The fault here lies with the client, and with the ad/marketing agency.

If one of these is you, you might want to sit down and sketch out what you want, what you don't want, and what inspires you and you might want to do this in detail and do it soon.

忽略这个重要的步骤设置设计师fail, it reveals serious holes in the client's ability to plan, it reveals a serious lack of trust, and it presents a lack of courage on the part of the marketing team because they're essentially failing to help the client reach an informed conclusion that, in turn instills confidence in the client's clients.

Kathleen - thank you for your feedback, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. We all wish various processes had been done differently and by different professionals, but they weren't.

In agreement with you on the shadows -- the logo designer is essentially still in design school. :)

I agree with you that the piggy bank comes closest to visually conveying the message, and I really like your suggestions about the flipping coins.

Thank you again for your time and consideration.