Silent Branding: Importance and Power of the Business Signage

August 11 2022 - If your business has a physical office, it must have a physical sign. Unfortunately, small businesses often fail to appreciate the importance of making that sign unique, adding a logo and registering both in the business’s name. Instead, they will go for generic signs that don’t leave any lasting impression on people’s mind. Business signs are important and when done right, they can also be a very powerful branding tool. In this post, we are going to explore that idea and how companies of every size can benefit from the use of clever signage.

The Basics: Logo Vs Signage

Although the terms logo and signage are often used synonymously, they are not exactly the same thing. Starbucks has the entire name in its logo, while McDonald’s does not, although both companies do have their own unique signages as well. The logo is generally a symbol that may or may not include the company’s name, but the signage is a company’s signature which will always include their name. The two often overlaps as business signages are usually accompanied by the company logo in most (but not all) instances.

Brand Signs: Creating a Lasting Imprint

Company logos and signs serve as identifiers in both real life and the digital world. If it’s visually impressive, then your customers enter the place of business with a good impression. When they have a good experience in there, that good first impression turns into a lasting, positive imprint. Since human beings tend to associate letters, words, and images with experiences and emotions, that is a reliable inference you can count on.

In fact, this connection is so strong that even when popular companies are taken over, the new owners will seldom change their brand name, sign, or logo. For example, Motorola as a company has changed multiple hands. It is even doubtful whether they can even be identified as the same 93-year-old brand that dominated the mobile phone market before Nokia. However, the Moto M logo’s core design has not been changed beyond recognition even after almost a hundred years.

Physical Signage: Why Quality is Both Extremely Important and Symbolic

Physical signs represent more for smaller businesses than what their digital counterparts can ever manage. For example, a permanent and prominent business sign may soon become a landmark for the locality. It will be included in addresses and delivery instructions to help people navigate to the right place. A business that gains landmark status in its own company name, automatically gains the free marketing and local recognition that comes with it. There is just one factor here that may go against the company’s impression if they are not careful.

The sign on your office building which states the company name in bold, elegant letters, accompanied by the carefully chosen business logo is directly representative of the company itself. If it looks cheaply made or a lack of maintenance has allowed the signage to become dirty and/or damaged, then that landmark becomes a source of embarrassment for the company. People will still navigate around it, but they will also associate your company name with dilapidation. Contact Signman, Bristol sign makers, to discuss customised options for high-quality monument signs, blade signs, pylon signs, signposts, awning signs, letter signs, wayfinding signs, electronic signs, or any other form of business signage.

Digital & Physical: Power of the Company Symbol

Multinational companies like Apple, McDonald, Amazon, Audi, etc., have created such a powerful impression on customers over the years that the very symbols, letters, and signs that they use to represent their respective company names are sufficient for most people to recognise them immediately. Unlike the big names though, a smaller company is still in the process of making a name for itself. To be able to do that successfully, their signage must be catchy enough to attract the attention of their respective target audience. This applies to both physical signs and digital logos, although the latter is exclusively visual, while the former does have that sense of tangibility about it.

For example, we all see the Amazon brand name and logo come up nearly every time we Google for information about a product. This creates familiarity and although we may not like seeing so many Amazon ads, it creates a sense of familiarity in all of us through repeated exposure. Research shows that people will often prioritise familiarity above all else while taking a purchase decision. This is mostly a subconscious factor as we associate reliability with familiarity. There is after all, a reason why the adjective "well known" is such a powerful personal and commercial advocate.

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