Why Committees Shouldn’t Make Coffee… or Logos

In other words, you have a roomy 2” x 2” chunk of real estate to communicate your company’s product or service, unique value proposition, core differentiator and what makes you awesome. It’s like an online dating ad for your whole company. And let’s face it – you have about three seconds max to look incredible or get passed over like last week’s meatloaf.

That’s quite a task. After all, a logo is the single most powerful visual statement that your company can make. It’s your first chance to make a great impression with your audience — and could also be your last. (Dun dun dunnnnnnnn)…

Since the task is weighty, most businesses create “committees” to make decisions about the logo process. And while committees in and of themselves are not problematic, they can derail a project if not kept in check. They can go bad…. fast. If you find yourself here today because your committee is more dysfunctional than the squawking hens on The View, the following is an approach for getting everyone back in line — and averting a huge corporate identity crisis.

1. Figure Out What You’re Ordering

The first thing you have to do as a team is come to a consensus about WHAT you want to say to your audience. And quite simply, if you don’t know exactly what you want to convey, your art will end up trying to say everything… and as a result… won’t say anything at all.  And that’s the worst thing you can do.

You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen logos that have so much going on that you’re not sure what the heck they’re selling. It looks like everyone wanted a little piece of their idea thrown in there. You probably saw that logo…and kept moving.

Unfortunately, a common mistake that committees make is thinking that more elements make something stronger. In fact, the more things you add to the equation, the less potent the message becomes.

Making a logo that says everything and nothing is the equivalent of making a coffee that’s half decaf with milk, sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, mint, caramel, topped with a shot of espresso! (Don’t forget the whipped cream.) The end result is something that no one would want to drink. Instead of all the intriguing features coming together to make something better, they would produce the opposite result… and make it worse. Much, much worse. Would you want to drink that? If someone gave it to you and said “This is awesome! Here, have a sip…” would you have to force yourself to swallow it? Yet, that’s the abuse we inflict on innocent consumers and businesses everyday with bad logos, and the carnage of lost relationships lines the halls of shame.

In essence, that’s when marketing leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

That is why it’s important — no, imperative — to first decide which flavor of coffee your company wants to be, before you do anything else. The key word here is FOCUS. Before you pick up your cool and awesome iPhone to call a rock star design agency or lift one pencil to sketch a great logo idea on your coffee-concoction-stained napkin, you gotta know what you wanna say. We already know you can’t say everything, so you need to decide which flavor truly defines you.

So which flavor defines you? This is the hard part. It’s arduous, challenging, and intimidating to decide. Committee members might arm wrestle or get their feelings hurt or filibuster with a horrible story about how their opinion is the best. But at the end of the day, none of it is personal. When it comes to your corporate image, it’s essential to decipher the difference between personal opinion and a solid marketing message. Struggling through the personal opinions to come out on the other side with a clear and concise blueprint will ensure that your logo stays on-target with your value proposition. Personal preferences aside, what do you want to communicate? That kind of bears repeating. Say it again, with gusto: What are you trying to communicate? 



Of all the important things to say about your company, are you saying that you’re a basic, dependable coffee with sugar and cream? A modern and hip raspberry mocha? An exquisite, luxurious and exclusive dulce espresso? A economic there-for-you-in-a-pinch gas station brew? Once you decide who and what you’re about and what you want to say about it, then the logo will flow naturally from that process. But, in case you missed it before, the logo is not going to work if you don’t know what kind of coffee you are. And, what kind you aren’t.

2. Order Your Drink.



Once you decide WHAT flavor you are, then you have done all the hard work and congrats, barista, you get to move up to the fun part. Now design it! Make your logo representative of the raspberry mocha that IS your company. Make three and decide which is best. Here’s where the committee SHOULD come in. The question in this stage should not be, “Is our company a raspberry mocha?” Rather, the question should be, “Which logo is the best way to communicate that we are a raspberry mocha?” Let the committee validate your message, not redefine it. Get it? Big ups, my friend.

The best logo WILL communicate that you are a raspberry mocha. Success! Suddenly all those people who love raspberry mochas will know that you’re all about raspberry mochas and buy tens of thousands of your concoctions. They might even buy apparel and become a fan of you on Facebook, or maybe decide to write a nice tweet about  #delicious @raspberrymochas. They’ll tell all their friends and suddenly you’ll have a raspberry mocha cult on your hands! But that’s a completely different blog.

3. And Sluuuuurrrrp….. 



You have a tremendous opportunity to influence many people through a single mark. Three seconds — one microburst — to influence every person to feel a certain way about YOUR company or organization. What do you want them to feel? What do you want them to know? What do you want them to do? Then ask yourself whether your logo does that.  If it doesn’t, epic failure. #1 or #2 was derailed. Go back to the beginning.

And next time you’re tempted to throw the entire company’s opinion into your company’s ID, take a mental taste of that horrible coffee mixture and consider the brilliant words of my favorite all-time philosopher, G.K. Chesterton: “I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.” I’ll drink to that!