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Home » Marketing Articles » A Logo Without Your Name Can Be A Big Branding Pain

A Logo Without Your Name... Can Be A Big Branding Pain!

I often get asked to develop a small business's logo as a symbol-only logo. But for many small businesses, this isn't the right choice for a couple of reasons.

Designing a symbol-only logo is a much more complicated (and often more expensive) process, because the symbol has to:

- Carry a lot more meaning - there's no text to help explain the business. It's important that your logo has some meaning and a role in explaining your business - and that's a lot for a little symbol to do all by itself.

- Be entirely unique all on its' own. I don't need to tell you that there are a whole lot of logos out there. A lot of the basic shapes - and even some of the more complicated ones - are already "owned" by big corporations. But you can still use variations or combinations of those shapes when they're designed into a logo with your company name.

- Communicate to your audience. The more obscure the symbol design that you create, the less likely that your customers will understand its meaning. Or they may interpret it incorrectly. Either way your clients will feel alienated - and that's never good.

If you do create a symbol-only logo, you'll have a couple of challenges with your brand identity:

- It will take a lot more time and effort to educate your target audience about your business. Think of all the symbol-only logos that are really memorable, like Nike or Apple. The reason that those are so memorable and well-known is that each of those companies has a very large advertising budget. They can afford to dedicate people and time to getting the word out. Their deep pockets build visibility and encourage recognition. Small businesses just don't have those kinds of resources.

- Trademark infringement can be more of a problem - from both sides of the fence. It can be very difficult for your designer to design a logo that won't look like any other trademarked logo out there, regardless how hard they try.

1. First of all, it's hard for a designer to comprehensively research all of the other trademarked logos just to see what you're up against. However, the Trademark Office has more thorough tools and methods of researching the other existing logos out there and they might find one that you overlooked.

2. Secondly, logos and trademarks can be a bit subjective. Just because you and your designer think that the design that you've created doesn't infringe on other logos, the Trademark Office might reject your application based on their interpretation of "similarity"

3. And you're not just worrying about what the Trademark Office thinks. Any other business with an existing trademark could also challenge your application. They can even ask you to cease-and-desist using your logo after it has been trademarked if they held their trademark to a similar logo first. While surrendering might not seem like such a bad thing, remember that you'd also have to destroy any existing printed collateral, forfeit your trademark (and the trademarking process isn't cheap!) and redesign all of your materials. You'll also lose the equity and memorability that you will have built up in your logo if you do have to redesign.

If you do finally manage to design and trademark a symbol-only logo, you'll have to be extra-vigilant about making sure that other companies don't design a mark that's similar to yours. You are ultimately responsible for "policing" your own trademark and will have to stay up-to-date on trademark applications.

Alternately, you could hire someone to keep an eye on new trademarks for you but that can be expensive.

You can easily avoid all of these complications by designing a combination logo that includes both a symbol and your company name. Once you've designed your combination logo, you should always use the components together. This helps avoid potential legal issues like those mentioned above.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

The Difficulty In Medical Bankruptcy

As the world becomes more and more unhealthy, medical bankruptcy becomes more likely as people fight to cure various diseases and ailments associated with their lifestyle. Unforeseen medical bills can also wreak havoc on individuals that are unable to work while they are seriously ill. This may also be the case for individuals who have health insurance. Medical bankruptcy may be treated with a bit more sympathy by some courts, depending on the situation of the individual.

Examples of Groups Filing for Medical Bankruptcy

People who are 65 and over are more likely to suffer from medical bankruptcy than younger and healthier age groups. It goes without saying that the body becomes more prone to illness the older that we get. This makes it inevitable that as we get older and can longer work to pay the bills, we may be faced with medical bankruptcy in the case of a serious illness, if we have not taken preventative measures prior to the diagnosis.

Another group which is likely to file for medical bankruptcy is that of young single mothers. If their spouses have abandoned them and their children, and do not pay any child support, the mother will be left to pay these high expenses by herself. It is a difficult situation for any parent who has a sick child to care for, and if it is the parent who is sick herself then there will be no one to earn the money to pay the bills.

Low wage earners are another group that may find themselves filing for medical bankruptcy. At times it may be difficult to find jobs that can support all of a family's needs, so finding the money for unexpected medical bills can be a nearly impossible task for this group. Poor education and lack of practical skills can be attributing factors to this problem, and will require further investigation when the time arises.

Some people will file for medical bankruptcy simply because the medical systems are not willing to work out any payment schedules for them to repay their debts. Cases such as these have risen steadily over the years, and are now quite a common occurrence in bankruptcy courts around the country. Since many folks do not have large amounts of money readily available to pay mounting hospital costs, the only choice for some is to declare medical bankruptcy.

If you fall into any of these categories, you may find the claiming medical bankruptcy is the best choice for you to get out from under the weight of your bills. This bankruptcy is normally seen in a more sympathetic light than others by the courts and lenders, since the circumstances are generally unforeseen and unavoidable.