A group of people working together towards a common purpose can form a community. In some instances, we call it company, in others neighborhood, in yet others we call it agency. When the group is really cohesive around its common purpose, they think of themselves as a tribe.
Brands go way back with us. They are our shortcut to meaning, the symbols we use to trade experiences via emotional impact. Images can remind us of events we enjoyed. Think about the stickers with product or group logos many put on their laptop cases, for example. They signify to us and the world that we like or identify with a certain product, brand, band, and so on.
If narrative is the shortcut the brain uses to make sense of the world, symbols are a short hand for the way something feels. Go way back in your memory and you will know why you kept the stubs from that concert you went to with your first group of friends. It’s not just the photographs, but the objects themselves that remind you of the experience when something was unique.
Logos as visuals
Today’s logos represent brands visually. With enough communication behind them, logos are used instead of phrases to point to a specific product, service, or story. Recall the Coca-Cola holiday advertising a short year ago, a product served as the punctuation for the fond memories of someone’s narrative – a life. Trace the history of the logo, and you will see that it has changed little since the beginning. It doesn’t need to – as a symbol, it’s still quite powerful.
Meaning of logos
The term “logos” had its origin in ancient Greek, it meant word. Since the time when language was invented, we use words to express what we think and communicate with each other. We should call ourselves lucky that someone also invented the written word, given how it enables us to transact, negotiate, connect, and with technology applications and tools it allows us to be social at a distance.
Language is very powerful. We take words as signs of actual events occurred in the past, described in the present, or, as it’s bound to happen, of things to come.
On New Year’s Eve, I asked a simple question on Twitter: Which word will you choose to focus on for 2010?
The words collected were: innovation, branding, determination, love, learn, simplify (2), revitalization, execution, intention, energy, nature, learning, health, collaboration, aloha, focus, diligence, integrity, service, organization, happiness, Alaka’i Managers, persistence, believe, servant leadership, conscientious, thoughtfulness, sharing, rest, volunteer.
Are these signs of things to come this year? Which brands will embody these ideas? One item of note – the words trust, transparency, authenticity, and honesty didn’t come up. To me this means that they are just a baseline, they should be there at this point.
Times Square image by Francisco Diez under a Creative Commons license
This post was written by Valeria Maltoni. Was this helpful? If so, please feel free to follow my writing by subscribing to this site's full-text RSS feed. I also write at Conversation Agent. Want to connect elsewhere? Find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Contents © 2006-2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.
