photo courtesy of waffrie on flickr creative commons

I live in the Charleston, South Carolina area. A few years ago the old bridges spanning the Cooper River were torn down and a new breathtakingly beautiful bridge was built. The Arthur Ravenel Bridge is a suspension bridge that is a pleasure to drive over because of its architecture and ability to carry a large volume of traffic between Mt. Pleasant and Charleston.

Now as much as I like the bridge, it’s never occurred to me to use it as a component of my corporate identity, logo or in my advertising, but I think I’m in the minority. It seems that 8 out of 10 companies use the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, its towers or other features in their advertising. Now it makes sense for the Cooper River Bridge Run to use it in their advertising, but for a home oxygen supplier?  It makes more sense for the Yarborough Applegate law firm because the letters of their names form an impression of the bridge’s superstructure and it fits for The Bridge 105.5 radio station to use it in their advertising. But I’ve seen the bridge used in real estate ads, restaurant ads, flooring company ads and business consultant’s ads. Just get over it!

If you do business in the Charleston area, I suppose you may want to use the bridge to give a sense of place in your logo or advertising, but wouldn’t you rather have imagery that depicts or speaks to how your customers use your products or services?

Your logo is a visual communication between your company and your customers. It should be distinctive. Individual. When customers see your logo, they should comprehend your brand qualities or understand the benefits of doing business with you. It’s lazy to use the most iconic image for your business sector or locale; the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, the Eiffel Tower in Paris or a scale for a lawyer’s office or a chef’s toque for a restaurant.

When developing your logo and corporate identity, use a brand development process that clarifies your brand promise, qualities, benefits and features. Then your graphic designer can use this material to develop the best corporate identity materials for your company.

When your logo is developed, you’ll be glad yours is as individual as you and your company are.

Used well, Twitter humanizes people in corporations and behind brands. Just ask the folks @Zappos shoes.

Twitter is a very effective tool to shape brand perceptions. There are a crop of articles and examples of how Twitter is helping PR pros and companies.

MediaBistro which is a great resource for publicists and writers posted an interview with Robert Quigley, Austin American-Statesman Internet Editor that includes how he has used Twitter to increase audience and develop new audiences for that publication.

AdAge has a great article from @TomMartin regarding how he demonstrated the ability of Twitter to reshape perceptions of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. His research before and after his Tweets regarding the festival demonstrated attudinal change.

Closer to home @webprgirl Lyn Mettler is using Twitter to promote a virtual Myrtle Beach Blast. Not only will she reshape awareness for the participating hotels, she will plant the idea of Myrtle Beach in the minds of people at the right booking time in the year. It will be interesting to compare and track bookings at each hotel before and after the event.

Tweet on! I’m @Cheryl_Smithem on Twitter and I look forward to learning about your business and how you use Twitter. Share your experience. Write up how your company is using Twitter and I’ll post with your byline.

Particularly important is the admonition to “keep the size of your naming team small.” As a veteran of many naming (brainstorming) sessions, you want to be sure to keep focused and HubSpot is correct, too many cooks do spoil the soup. Branding by committee doesn’t work.

The other point that is important and bears further thought is, “What are the most important ideas you want to get across to your target market?” Jeff Taylor of Cognetix Advertising and Marketing and I were talking about this just the other day. We were talking about it in the context of the many websites that allow new business owners to get a logo for a flat fee from a web-based service. Jeff’s point is that many of these services and sites will create an interesting logo, but bottom line, does that logo deliver the message of who and what your business is and who it serves? Does the consumer recognize their needs and wants in it? Does the logo fit the brand that you are trying to create? Our concern is that as graphic design becomes more of a commodity, there is less focus on message.

Juliet:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)