Logo design: lessons learned from interbrand's top 100 global brands

. The purpose of this paper is to classify Interbrand's Top 100 Global brands based on their logo design. Content analysis was used as the analysis tool in this study. It is a commonly used technique in corporate branding. All data, including brand logos, were collected from Interbrand's official website. This study used longitudinal data of 20 years (2001 to 2020) by Interbrand. During this period, 177 brands appeared in the Top 100 Global Brands list. Four major logotypes were observed. First, "Shape only Logos" are logos with distinct shapes and intensely work independently without using its brand name like Audi, Mercedes, Apple, McDonald's, and Nike. Second, "Text Only Logos" are logos made of simple and clear typography with a potent color combination like Samsung, Intel, Uber, and Nokia. Third, a combination of text and image represents the brands and logos, but the text is placed outside the distinct Shape like Amazon, Microsoft, Toyota, Cisco, LG, and Puma. Fourth, also a combination of text and image used to represent the brands and logos is made up of text inside a distinct shape like BMW, SAP, GE, UPS, Ford, Volkswagen, and Kia.


Introduction
The logo is one of the essential brand elements of the contemporary business world [1].Logos are generally defined as a clear graphic element used to identify brands uniquely [2], acts as a signature or seal of the company [3].There are two essential elements of logo design (a) 'Text-based-logo'; and (b) 'Image-based-logo' [4].These two elements are also referred to as 'textual' and 'visual' design [5].
Image-based logo or visual design logo work better with familiar customers, while unfamiliar customers prefer text-based logo [4].Similarly, descriptive logos are easier to process and thus elicit more vital impressions of authenticity, which consumers value [5] and positively influence brand evaluations, purchase intentions, and brand performance.The purpose of this paper is to classify Interbrand's Top 100 Global brands based on their logo design.

Methodology
This study used 20-year longitudinal data (2001 to 2020) from Interbrand's Top 100 Global Brands [6].A total of 177 brands that appeared in the Interbrand's Top 100 Global brands list are part of this study (Table 1).All data, including brand logos, were collected from Interbrand's official website [6].Content Analysis was used as a primary analytical tool in this study [7].It is a commonly used technique in corporate branding [8][9][10][11].
Average brand ranks were computed for the last 20 years or the number of appearances any particular made to Interbrand's top 100 global brand list during this period.Brands were also classified into four quartiles based on average brand ranks.

Analysis
Based on literature pointers and content analysis using two dimensions, "text" and "shape" of the logos, Interbrand's Top 100 Global brands were divided into four types (Fig. 1).Shape only Logos: Brand logos with a distinct shape works independently without using its brand name, like Audi, Mercedes, Apple, and Nike (Fig. 2.).Text Only Logos: Brand logos with simple and clear typography with a strong color combination like Google, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Prada, Time (Fig. 3).Logos with Text inside Shape: A combination of text and Shape and logos having text inside a distinct shape, like Kia, Nivea (Fog.4).Logos with Text outside Shape: Also a combination of text and shape and logos having text outside a distinct shape, like Adidas, Adobe, Puma, and Marlboro (Fig. 5).

Conclusion
This paper aims to provide types of brand logos using two variables, "shape" and "text."Interbrand's Top 100 Global brands were analyzed to provide evidence in support.Visual content analysis was used as the analysis tool in this study.It is a commonly used technique in corporate branding.All data, including brand logos, were collected from Interbrand's official website.This study used longitudinal data of 20 years (2001 to 2020) by Interbrand.During this period, 177 brands appeared in the Top 100 Global Brands list.Four major logotypes were observed.First, "Shape only Logos" are logos with distinct shapes and intensely work independently without using its brand name like Audi, Mercedes, Apple, McDonald's, and Nike.Second, "Text Only Logos" are logos made of simple and clear typography with a potent color combination like Samsung, Intel, Uber, and Nokia.Third, a combination of text and image represents the brands and logos, but the text is placed outside the distinct Shape like Amazon, Microsoft, Toyota, Cisco, LG, and Puma.Fourth, also a combination of text and image used to represent the brands and logos is made up of text inside a distinct shape like BMW, SAP, GE, UPS, Ford, Volkswagen, and Kia.

Implications
These findings have implications for practitioners and academicians to understand better the underlying patterns and changes in the logo designs for top global brands and devise the appropriate strategies.In addition, the findings invite future research on probing the reasons behind the adoption of four types of brand logos by brand managers or by major decisionmakers.

Fig. 6
Fig. 6 illustrates four types of logo designs placed with the quartiles of brand ranking.Many interesting observations were made by examining the above figure.Firstly, Shapeonly logos are the strongest type among all other types.Secondly, Text-only logos show strong confidence in the brand name itself.Thirdly, logo designs speared across all four quartiles.Finally, first quartile brands (top 25 brands out of top 100 global brands, ranked by their average rank) enjoy relatively more in two categories text-only logos or shape-only logos.

Table 1 .
Brands Appeared in Interbrand's Top 100 Global Brand List.Brand Logos with Text Inside Shape.