Is professional design work really necessary? Does it really benefit a company? Let’s put it this way: if graphic design wasn’t worth it, highly profitable businesses that are obsessed with their bottom lines would not spend millions on logo redesign, poster ads, and marketing collateral. Professional design is invaluable to a business, in many ways.

Strong Image, Strong Business

First, strong brand imaging demands that your business be taken seriously. A small business cannot take the leap from “small business” to “market leader” without professionally-designed images. Kids’ artwork looks nice on the fridge, not so much on letterhead (unless you are a children’s charity, maybe). As we have said before, you wouldn’t wear a tank top and jeans to an interview – you need to look sharp. The same goes for your business. Lead with strong, professionally designed images and success will come more easily. You don’t want sales leads to look at your brochure and think that they’ve seen better art on cocktail napkins. You want them to be impressed. Killer graphic design can do that for you.

Pay Peanuts, Get Monkeys

You’ve heard it before – you get what you pay for. If you don’t pay a lot for design, you don’t get a lot. It seems like a deal at the time, but you’re only hurting your business. A sloppy or rushed design looks just like what it is. And bad design is a big turn off for customers.

For a bit more, you can have quality work done that will boost your business in every way. It may feel like you don’t know where the money is going, but the simple fact is that you are paying for a graphic designer’s time. The more you pay, the more you get. You wouldn’t want a cut-rate plastic surgeon that rushes the job, right? Then don’t subject your business to one. Get the work done right, and create an asset that pays dividends every single time it is seen.

A well-designed logo makes your customers feel like they are dealing with the best. Quality letterhead says to your partner businesses that you are well-organized and you are here to stay. Your brand imaging is how your business communicates with the world. Seriously. Take a look at your logo. What is your business saying to the world?

Most consumers have very strong opinions regarding their favorite brand. These opinions are more emotional than rational. Some brands (e.g. Nike, Coca-Cola etc.) resonate with customers more than others. They form an emotional attachment to these brands, often disregarding better products and services for ones with higher visibility and brand recognition. Some brands even become synonymous with the product and the consumer starts recognizing the product by its brand name (e.g. Omo, Maggi). It is therefore of the utmost importance that every company – especially the small business, has a sound brand strategy and a strong brand identity with a unique identifiable logo.

Logo Design & Brand Identity

Brand Identity and Small Business Logo Design helps small businesses in many ways. A few of the more important ones are listed below.

1. It helps give the company an established and professional feel. This increases the customers trust in the products or services the company offers.
2. A powerful brand identity is important as in general, people find it easier to recall images than text. There is an old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The logo represents that picture and can be remembered and identified with greater ease than a thousand words describing the company.
3. Logo graphics can bring about awareness of the products or services that you offer in cases where the company name is not self-explanatory.
4. As the company grows, the consumer base stays loyal to the brand.
5. The brand value generated can also be leveraged when selling stock in the company or the company itself for a higher perceived value than the actual value.

To ensure that you are doing everything possible to promote your business you need to invest in a professionally tailored and designed logo.