
Debbie & andrew's Harrogate sausage label. I heard Debbie speak at the WIRE Conference a few years back. Learn from the big brands and adapt ideas for your product & budget.
“How can you make a drill for $15?” Farmer Bill knew it made no sense and yet for a while he couldn’t resist the lure of such a cheap tool. If it breaks, you chuck it away and buy another one. That seemed fine until he worked out he’d got through 4 drills in 6 months. They didn’t just break, they were poorly made and did a poor job. It was frustrating.
Then he got a Dewalt drill. A professional drill. Not only did it stay the course, it was a pleasure to hold, a pleasure to use and made every job just that bit easier. And Farmer Bill felt more skillful using that professional drill.
The right logo is like that Dewalt drill. It’s built for the job, ready for every application and gives your business that extra confidence and robustness.
Today we’re going to look at specific 3 ways the right logo can benefit your farm retail business:
1) Strong identity
2) More impact
3) More versatility
1) Strong identity
Go ahead, get your arty friend to draw you a nice line drawing of a turkey or go to clip art and pull up a chicken image. Or your web designer can surely run up a quick little logo for your website. Individually these images may be nice, even appealing but they won’t give you a strong business identity.
What you’ll end up with is a mish-mash of logos and pictures. Un-useable in large format printing, they won’t come out well in magazine adverts either. Most importantly they won’t imprint a strong identity in your customers’ minds.
So don’t take short cuts, invest time and effort getting the right logo. An easily recognisable logo that reflects your business values. You won’t regret it. It will give your business a consistent identity. Your customers will get to know a good logo and associate it with quality farm produce.
The right logo shows a business has pride in itself. It values its appearance, just as a job applicant might get a new suit to give the best possible impression at interview. The new suit bolsters her confidence, so too, the right logo can give a new business more confidence in those crucial early years. How else does the right logo benefit a business?
2) More impact
The right logo has a positive impact on your business whether it is on a small meat tray or the side of a Transit van. It doesn’t become a fuzzy blob when it’s reduced down nor blur and bleed when it’s blown up. It can be used on different media from PVC banners to pencils.
The right logo makes an impact with its simple design, bold colours and pleasing shapes. It doesn’t have people turning their heads sideways trying to work out what it is. It’s never obscure. In fact it does its job quietly, almost at the subconscious level, not drawing attention to itself for the wrong reasons.
Don’t let a poorly designed logo fail the impact test. Go for the right logo from the outset, then enjoy the benefits its versatility will bring your business.
2) More versatility
Your logo never sleeps.
If you have the right logo, it will be available in different file formats, at various sizes and resolutions which are suitable for use in different media. Media like large pop up banners, T-shirts and freezer safe labels.
Let’s say you try and use a low resolution logo in an advert in a glossy magazine. You will mess up your advert because the logo will look fuzzy and amateurish. For large scale printing like banners or vehicle livery you will need a different file format again. For a web page, too large an image file and you could slow down your page loads. The right logo comes out crisp and clear every time. And you do want it to work hard, now you’ve invested in it, right?
So where could you put your logo to work?
Everywhere. Yes I do mean everywhere. Here are just some of the places you can put your logo:
1. Website
2. Vehicle
3. Business cards
4. Leaflets
5. Posters
6. Banners
7. T-shirts
8. Mugs
9. Pens
10. Tea towels
11. Farm sign
12. Products
13. Invoices
14. Outer packaging like poultry boxes or mail order boxes
15. Adverts
As you can see the logo goes here, there and pretty much everywhere.
Why are we plastering it all over everything?
Especially if you are a new business, you want people to get to know who you are and what you do as fast as possible. Logos are very powerful visual symbols that are easily embedded in people’s minds.
But only if they see it often enough. That’s why you want a versatile logo you can put in front of your customers as much as you can. Even better if they take it home with them and see it every day on a mug, pen or fridge magnet.
Sounds like the right logo’s going to cost money
Yup!
Getting the right logo depends on good logo design and professional production. Good business logo design is a specialism within general design. It adheres to certain tested design principles. It takes into account ideas such as brand values, commercial use and copy right issues. You may not be sure what all those things involve. That’s why you pay a professional to do it.
A strong identity, more impact and more versatility are just three of the benefits of getting the right logo for your farm retail business.
Don’t settle for a half hearted attempt at a logo, because you’re trying to do it on the cheap. Just like the throw away drills, it’s a false economy. Like that Dewalt drill, invest in your business logo and enjoy the pleasure and confidence you get from having a professional tool for the job. Then work it hard!
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Juliet has spent more than 15 years selling farm produce from quail to kohl rabi at farmers’ markets, online and via top London butchers. Look out for her book on marketing farm produce, due out late 2012.