Premier Communications Group

When Can a Brand Go Nameless?

Businesses often rebrand over time to stay up to date when facing the pressure of staying on-trend, but when do companies reach a point of omitting their name from their brand mark?

It takes time and effort. Developing a logo mark that is memorable, versatile and timeless will allow people to identify your company, but that’s only part of the process—hang on to your hat, today’s consumers are absorbing your brand at warp speed!

Before the internet, companies were limited to using traditional marketing channels— broadcast, print and outdoor—to get brand exposure in the marketplace. With the expansion of technology, today’s brands are accelerated by a massive increase in media channels—digital, mobile, endless social media channels—leading to a broader, more immediate exposure to brands.

There are core values that are not affected by the fast pace of today’s technology,  as patience and consistency are still the rule of thumb. The ability to successfully rebrand is seeded in its origin. The first step is to establish a culture and values, which create a vision that allows for a company’s unique culture to develop. This requires implementing a proactive marketing approach, fueled by tactics that support a vision and cultivates a business methodology. When this is consistently executed over time, a company’s culture is absorbed and accepted in the marketplace.

A great example of a company that has successfully gone nameless is Starbucks. When you think of Starbucks, you think of their culture: commitment, consistency, and focus on personal connection with customers. Starbucks no longer uses their brand name in their logo, because it is iconic and respected enough to be recognized without text.

Pepsi and McDonald’s have also become recognizable enough to adapt their logos without including their brand names.

Our approach to brand development and design is based on the same principle—culture and longevity. Will the brand mark still be relevant in 10, even 20 years from now? These are just a few of the strategies we implement when creating a brand design. As for eliminating the company name out of a brand mark, time will tell.

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