A few weeks ago I watched a favorite show of mine, “Sunday Morning on CBS.” One of its segments was an interview with Phil Knight, the co-founder and chairman of Nike. While he and the correspondent walked through company headquarters, there it was on the wall — the original artwork of the Nike swoosh logo. The artboard was discolored with age, the logo immaculately rendered with a ruling pen and French curves, its edges cleaned up with Pro White touch-up paint.

A Swoosh?

Phil was nonplussed at the time it was first designed, saying it looked like a big fat checkmark. Being decisive and pressured by business deadlines he said, “OK, that’s the best we can do. Let’s go.” Sometimes you have to let a logo get its footing in time, just like the company, to be successful.

The hours it took to delicately create the Nike logo in 1971 can now be done in thirty seconds on a computer. And because of Nike’s status and the ease in which it is to render, over the years the look has been replicated by thousands of companies around the world to make their logos seem “cutting edge.” It has indeed gone viral. And I must add: it is to the chagrin of many designers. There are several anti-swoosh blogs out there.

Milton Glaser’s Iconic Logos

There are very few logo designers whom you can mention in the same breath as Milton Glaser. The industry icon is the man responsible for the legendary “I Love New York” logo from 1977. Almost immediately after it was introduced, the “I Heart” graphic began to have legs outside of New York. “I Heart Grandmom,” “I Heart Soweto” or my favorite — “I ‘Spade’ My Dog” — started showing up everywhere. And the phenomenon continues to this day. Clear Channel recently changed its corporate name to I Heart Radio. And how about the “I Heart Lax” television spot that’s running now: “I love my laxative.”

Ew.

Social Logo Trolling

Recently, the state of Rhode Island commissioned Glaser to design a logo and create a slogan to help increase tourism to the state. While I personally like the large white sail of the mark and the tagline, the overwhelming majority of Rhode Island residents disagreed — vehemently.

Common complaints are that it’s too plain and not representative of the area in general. Several had issues with the slogan, “Cooler & Warmer,” and had their own creative fun dissing it. However, the biggest issue most Rhode Islanders had was that it wasn’t done by a native son.

Thus, it was instantly vilified on social media. In response to the public outcry, the state’s chief marketing officer was shown her walking (sailing?) papers. The tagline was axed (I guess Rhode Islanders aren’t cool, nor are they very warm.) The logo remains, though the governor tried to stop the fuss by suggesting that businesses can make the logo “their own” by placing their logos in the sail’s white space. Yikes.

Unfortunately, one giving their (usually) negative two cents in social media is becoming the norm for newly minted or updated corporate logos. It takes a bit of thick skin for a company to hold firm and keep the course with their communications and branding strategy. Brand building is a slow process that builds brand recognition and loyalty among its customers over time. Though social media needs to be considered, and the voice of the consumer is important, you need to balance it with your long-term goals as well.

So, who wants to go to Rhode Island with me? I hear it’s nice this time of year.

Isn’t it a joy to encounter a useful device that is ingeniously easy to use, a complex subject you’ve been struggling with clearly presented in a way that is easy for you to get, or an idea so clever in its simplicity you exclaim, “I wish I had thought of that!”? In the complex, information-overloaded world we live in, simplicity stands out. In the B2B marketing world, simplicity is an essential tool to get your message out and make it stick. But it is hard work. Where do you begin?

Start with your customer’s perspective. Sure, your product or service has a lot of great things going for it—but they don’t care. They are more interested in how it’s going to solve their problems and relieve their pain points. Don’t confuse features with benefits. Once you have figured out what’s important to your customers, how do you communicate that simply?

Frenchman Blaise Pascal once said, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” Being simple is being concise and to the point. It takes time, work and some tough editing decisions to get there. In your branding and messaging it means finding your core. In his classic marketing book Positioning, Al Ries described how companies try to own a single word or phrase in the minds of customers. The quintessential example is “safety” for Volvo. The goal in finding a company’s brand essence is to express its value proposition in as few words as possible—three or less if we can. In advertising you want to identify one main point the ad delivers on the brand. That’s right: ONE. The point needs to be relevant and distinctive. It’s tough getting to the core, but it’s certainly worth the focus of your B2B marketing efforts.

Finally, make it easy for your audience to receive your message. Have you noticed how much easier and intuitive it is to use several features on your smartphone than it is to learn the handful of functions available on your office phone? Your website, for example, should be like the smartphone; make it simple for people to navigate and find what interests them. Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think has several good tips for simplifying Web usability.

Trimming down your messaging to a few simple basics will require some labor and tough choices. But in the end, your efforts will have paid off in creating content that will promote your brand clearly and efficiently and draw more attention.