There it is. Finally! Your brand new and very beautiful company logo. You’ve waited a long time for this moment, but as exciting as seeing it complete is, there is a lingering question in the back of you head – now what?

The truth is, most business owners aren’t really sure how to get the most out of their logo. They understand that the logo needs to go on business cards, the company website, and maybe some stationary or a brochure, but beyond that, the power behind the symbol of their brand eludes them. In this article, I’ll be covering not only some of the basic uses of logos, but also how to expand upon your brand with your logo elements as well as how to protect your new design and ensure that your company’s identity stays unique.

First up…

Marketing 101

The word “logo” derives from the Greek word “logos” meaning “speech”. In order to grow your business you are going to have to spend a large amount of time talking about it to others. This is called marketing. Through marketing you will develop your brand identity, connect with your target audience, sell your product or services, and grow your business. Your new logo is a key ingredient to your successful marketing campaign because it will do a lot of the speaking for you and your company.

-Using Your Logo For Prints

The first step business owners will take to start their marketing campaigns will be to place their logo on their printed* materials. This can mean business cards, company letter head, brochures, fliers, posters, labels, and more. By having printed materials you are putting your logo into the hands of your audience for them to keep. The problem however, is that sometimes those printed materials are easily disposable. Once the printed material is tossed, the connection between you and your audience is severed. Because of this it is a good idea to explore printed materials that people will want to hold on to. Things like t-shirts, calenders, pens, magnets, stickers, even toys are more prone to stick around over a single piece of paper because they maintain a repeated and valuable secondary use.

Now that you have your logo, start to explore sites that specialize in promotional products. For example: PromoPeddler.com and Branders.com offer a wide variety of products for you to put your logo on. When ordering promotional products, take into consideration not only your budget, but also the shelf life of each product. Remember, you want to keep your logo in the hands of others for a long time. If the value of the product or the product itself wares out quickly, then so will your campaign.

*Side Note: When working with any printing company the first step is to check their printing specification requirements. This usually refers to file types, document sizes, and color information. By talking to your printer before handing over your logo, you can save yourself time, energy, and money.

-Using Your Logo For The Web

Knowing that your logo goes on your website is for the most part, a no-brainer. However, it is important to consider the placement. I have seen websites that tuck their logo off to the side and in between other graphics or text. By utilizing this type of placement, the logo can become camouflaged and ultimately loses impact. On other websites I have seen the logo immensely large and in the center giving off the impression that the company is shouting at the viewer. Keep in mind that your logo, over the Internet, can act like a digital greeting. Much like a handshake, your logo can say a lot about you and your business. Questions to ask when placing your logo on your website are – Is the logo prominent and clearly visible? Is the size of my logo overwhelming at first glance? Is the logo being dwarfed by other competing graphics?

Other than your website there are lots of places you can put your logo when it comes to the Internet. A good mantra to adapt is “Where ever I go, my logo goes with me.” What I mean by this is to use your logo as much as possible on sites other than your own. Get a Gravatar and start commenting on the blog posts of other websites. Create a “steal this” button. Develop advertising banners to be placed on other websites. Create backgrounds or special graphics for social media websites such as Twitter or Facebook. Hand out logo button links to your affiliates for their websites. The point is, the more you make your logo travel around the Internet the more effective and remembered it will be.

-Expand upon your design

Now that you have your logo, take some time to study it and brainstorm how you can expand upon the design. Believe it or not, your logo is not limited to just one graphic. Usually there are three main features of a logo that can be used for marketing. One – the company name, Two – the image design, and Three – the colors within the design. By dividing these three features up you can expand upon your logo and create a marketing flexibility that will increase the size of your brand. The company name can be best utilized for small printing or advertising. The image design can possibly become animated and turned into a moving graphic. The colors, if used correctly, can be great memory triggers – for example the colors yellow and red can be associated with McDonalds as they are not only on the logo, but also on Ronald McDonald’s clothes.

However, it’s a good idea that how you choose to expand upon your logo stays consistent throughout your marketing campaign. If you have multiple employees, then it’s a good idea to create a style guide that lists colors and their printing or hex codes, how the logo is to be used and where, as well as how the logo is not to be used. By making sure that the use of your logo and it’s elements are consistent, your brand will become stronger, more concrete and therefor, more memorable.

Design Protection

-What is a trademark?
Quote dictionary.com: “A trademark is any name, symbol, figure, letter, word, or mark adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant in order to designate his or her goods and to distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others. A trademark is a proprietary term that is usually registered with the Patent and Trademark Office to assure its exclusive use by its owner.”

In other words, a logo once trademarked becomes the property of the company and thereby can not be used by another party without the soul permission of the owning company usually stated in writing.

There are three symbols that can signify a trademark. The first is an SM – this stands for Service Mark. A Service Mark is a protection for services rather than a product. For example, delivery services, plumbers, cleaning agencies, are usually service marked and will have the SM mark on their company vehicles. The second is a TM – this stands for Unregistered Trade Mark. An Unregistered Trade Mark does not benefit from government protection but rather falls under the practices of common law and is not always globally recognized. For example, France does not recognize the TM symbol and you would have no grounds to protect your mark from misuse by anyone in that country. The third symbol is an R with a circle around it – ® – this stands for Registered Trade Mark. A Registered Trade Mark is more globally protected and also protected by the higher branches of governmental law. For example, in the United States, if a registered mark was infringed upon and the company was a large company then the case could be presided over within the Supreme Court if a ruling was unable to be reached in a smaller court.

-Why should I trademark my logo?

If you are a small company or business, you may find that trademarking is low on your priority list. However, regardless of your company’s size, it’s a good idea to move forward with the trademarking process. One reason for this is that if you decide to sell your business somewhere down the road a registered trademark will add to the value of you company.

Another reason is one I am currently facing myself. If someone tries to register a domain name that is similar to your company or product name, you may be able to shut down the webiste based on your trademark registration. This benefit makes trademarks important for Internet businesses where confusing names could direct traffic away from your web site. For example: I own “designbyfirgs.com” and have built my business under the “Firgs” name for several years. This year I discovered that someone other than myself has registered “firgs.com” back in March. However, until I can legally trademark the “Firgs” name (something that I am in the process of doing) I can not ask that person to release the use of the name and they are free to use it however they please. Once I am legally trademarked, I will have the right to ask that person to release the firgs.com domain and the use of the name to me.

Trademarking is a form of identity protection. If you would like to protect yourself, your product, or your company’s identity then you can only legally do so through the trade marking process.

-How do I begin to trademark my logo?

Each country will have their own trademark laws and processes and it’s best to begin by researching what those laws and processes are. Get on Google and run a search. Talk to other companies that you know have gone through the process. Set up a meeting with a trade mark lawyer to discuss your options.

If you live in the United States however, I recommend taking the time to visit your local SCORE office. SCORE is an organization run by retired entrepreneurs that are available to offer free and confidential advice to new entrepreneurs to help them grow their business. Through score you can learn what you need to know to start the trademarking process with an informed and trustworthy guide.

There are also websites that you can visit for more information: trademark.com, trademarkmyname.com, and uspto.gov just to get you started.

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Your new logo if marketed and protected correctly can serve your business well in the future. If done right, the confused question of “Now what?” can soon change to a more confident statement of “That’s what!”.