Consumer preference for logo designs: Visual design and meaning

Abstract

Logo designs provide a quick visual shorthand for all the meaning, associations, and equity associated with a brand. Virtually all major companies utilize logos, but there is little theory-based research regarding logo design published in marketing and consumer behavior journals. Related research from psychology regarding preference for visual images has generally used special stimuli created for the laboratory that do not carry the meaning that logos acquire in the markerplace and consequently have very limited generalizability. This study seeks to begin to fill the void by examining preference for actual, familiar logo designs. An improved understanding of preference for logo designs can be a great advantage to a company considering a logo design change. The costs involved in such a change can be enormous. Beyond the cost of the services of graphic designers, a change in logo design incurs the cost of changing everything that displays the logo, and any lost sales that may result if the new design is ineffective in some way. The equity of the brand may be connected to the logo design, so a change in the design of the logo may have long-term implications. Many logos have evolved over the years through successive changes to keep the designs from becoming outdated. This study examined theoretical bases for such activity. According to adaptation-level theory (McClelland et al. 1953), individuals become adapted to an object or image due to experience with it. Slight changes to this adaptation level result in increased preference while drastic changes result in decreased preference. These effects are represented by the distinctive butterfly curve. The current study developed a technique that allows for differentiation of visual designs, indicating the degree of change. This was used to test whether adaptation-level theory applies to familiar logo designs. The results indicate a general preference for no changes in familiar logo designs. While practitioners make changes in logo designs that are consistent with adaptation-level theory, it appears that consumers react instead, in accordance with social judgment theory--they tolerate rather than prefer the changes.