Your Logo Can Make or Break Your Cannabusiness

So you’re starting a cannabis business. And like all startups, there’s probably a list of things you need before launch. At the top of this “to-do” list should be a logo.

But what kind of logo do you need? And does it really matter who designs it?

You might not like the answer, but the truth is that your business’s logo is directly tied to its success in many different ways. You ABSOLUTELY want the best you can get!

How Your Logo Affects Your Business Performance

Most people look at a logo and just see a picture. Because of this, most first-time entrepreneurs believe that anything can work as a decent business logo.

They’ll use clip art, their friend’s doodle, or a spinoff of a popular brand and call it good. After all, it’s only a logo right?

Wrong! A business’s logo is its biggest identifying trait. It creates your first impression and reminds past customers of your brand. So if you cut corners on anything at all in your business, this shouldn’t be it.

There are three key ways that your logo influences your brand performance:

Customer Perception

Your logo is like a business signature or stamp. It represents your business in a quick and simple format, often making the first and last impression a customer will have of your company. The quality of that stamp speaks to the investment you’ve made in your company, and should show how seriously you take your business and the wellbeing of your customers.

Creating Trust

Trust goes hand in hand with customer perception. If your logo looks too generic, poorly designed, or copied from stock art, it will create a poor perception of your company. This, in turn, breaks down trust.

A good logo will be designed specifically for your audience, communicating your company values in a way that is attractive and appealing to them. In this way, a well-designed logo creates a sense of trust in both the quality of your business, and in your product or services.

Creating Loyalty

From trust comes loyalty. But in order to nurture these two feelings together, you must be consistent.

Consistency comes from having a logo that is unified with your brand voice and identity. When there is a harmonious connection between the logo, brand, and product/service that you provide, customers will become loyal.

Loyal customers will share their love for your brand with others, helping you bring in new business. And they’ll keep coming back for more themselves. Trust me, you want all the loyal customers you can possibly get!

What Makes a Logo “Good”?

So we’ve talked about how a good logo will help your business, but what actually defines a logo as good?

Visually Appealing

It should come as no surprise that an attractive logo will stand out from the crowd. Humans are naturally drawn to things that look polished and well-designed, so the better the logo design, the better impression it’s going to make.

A logo should be aesthetically pleasing and balanced, but it should also catch your eye in a unique way. This will do much better for your business than logos that are generic, drab or lack luster.

Market Relevance

Your logo can look beautiful and be incredibly well designed, but if it doesn’t speak to the right audience, it’ll wither on the vine.

If you are a brand like Harley-Davidson, for example, you wouldn’t want a logo that looks like the Toys “R” Us logo (and vise versa). It just wouldnt sell for you!

To truly be effective in marketing, it’s important that the logo attracts attention from the group of people most likely to want your products.

(This is especially important in the Oregon cannabis industry, where it is against OLCC regulations to have a branded product that looks appealing to children.)

Memorable

What’s your favorite brand?

When you think of that brand, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? In most cases, when a brand is truly effective, people immediately think of the logo. Then, the product or service associated with that logo.

A good logo creates a memory and strong emotional connection to the product or service. As a flagship of that brand, it’s an easy icon to hold in your mind and recall in milliseconds.

But if your logo isn’t memorable, people will struggle to remember anything about your business at all!

Simple

The simpler a logo is, the easier it is to remember. But you also don’t want a logo that’s so simple it blends in with the crowd!

Take a look at the examples listed above. Logos can be a bit more complex than Target’s and still be effective, but a balance will always needs to be met.

While logos with a little more complexity (such as with Starbucks) might be a bit harder to remember initially, they have leave a stronger mental footprint once they “click” with the right audience.

However, a logo should NEVER over-complicate the design. Illustrations and multi-subject images are far too detailed for any of us to remember, so while you might be very proud of the excellent artwork, the logo will fail to perform well for your business overall.

Conclusion

It can be easy to overlook the benefits that a good logo has to offer. But as one of the most important elements in building a brand, your logo deserves as much love and attention as anything else (and in some cases, even more!).

When choosing a logo for your cannabis business, it’s important that you consider whether it will help or hinder your long-term success.

If a logo wasn’t designed to reflect your company values, attract the right demographic, and make a lasting impression, it is going to do more harm than good.

But if your logo speaks the same passion to your audience as you feel for the brand, it will do wonders for your business!