Steal These Ideas!: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star, 2nd Edition

Insist on Strong Visual Imagery

Symbols or logos make brands last forever in our brains, a little like shorthand for the brand. At their best, they are overpowering and universal like the Nike swoosh, IBM for International Business Machines, UPS for United Parcel Service, BMW for Bavarian Motor Works. My guess is that most car buyers today don't even think BMW stands for anything other than BMW. Combining their logo with a powerful, elegantly simple tag line, “the ultimate driving machine,” BMW consistently comes out on top of the fiercely competitive luxury car segment.

You know you have arrived when your symbol is so strong that nothing else needs to be said. For many years, Shell Oil had the word Shell inside its yellow shell logo. The logo ...