The Logo Life Cycle: An Abstract

Logos are an integral part of a firm’s corporate identity and serve as the visual “face” of a firm. Because of their importance, virtually all firms have a logo, and logos have received extensive attention from researchers in marketing and related disciplines (e.g., Management, Graphic Design, Psychology, and Art). Logo-related research has examined such topics as logo selection and modification (Henderson and Cote 1993), the influence of logo design on logo visual processing fluency (Janiszewski and Meyvis 2001), and which of the many components utilized in logo design are most likely to increase brand strength (Henderson et al. 2003). Although extant research has provided important and essential insight into logo design, the approaches taken have utilized individual logos at a single point in time. An unfortunate consequence of this “snapshot in time” approach is that it does not provide insight into perhaps the most common problems managers face, which is the modification of their firms’ logos over time (e.g., how frequently should logos be updated, and to what degree redesigned logos should be similar/different to firms’ previous logos). This research addresses this shortcoming by examining logo life cycles. We first identify industries with firms that have had a significant number of logo changes over multiple decades (e.g., automotive, airline, and Major League Baseball). We begin with descriptive research identifying basic logo life cycle metrics (how long are logos utilized before they are changed, industry averages for logo change, etc.). We then evaluate the degree of logos’ perceptual fluency and conceptual fluency change over the logo life cycle, and the effect fluency has on the amount of time logos are utilized by a firm (“logo life”). We accomplish this by identifying the degree of change in the logos’ perceptual fluency of alpha-numeric and image design elements (e.g., if a design element in a logo is made larger or more clear, it increases the perceptual fluency of the element), and by identifying the degree of change in the conceptual fluency of the alphanumeric, image, and color design elements of logos. The managerial implications and the limitations of the research are then addressed, followed by suggestions for future research.