You’ve seen ’em – Google is famous for them. Logo design doodles. Every once and awhile, their logo morphs from their typical blues and reds into something that represents the day. Sometimes it’s someone’s birthday or the anniversary of something big, and sometimes it’s just for fun. Regardless of the event, it’s likely you’ve noticed one or two of the over two thousand logo design doodles that Google has done over the last seventeen years. Almost every single one has been different, and an entire design team now devotes their lives to creating them on the daily.
But why is this company doing them in the first place? After all, they’re a professional business. They have an image to uphold, and being able to draw with digital crayons all over their logo can be interpreted as lax, if not downright silly. So why would a company ever want to portray that kind of “feeling” about their business?
It’s a good question, but the answer might make you feel like maybe it’s time to start making doodles yourself.
Not All Doodles are Unprofessional
Your doodle doesn’t have to be some crazy celebration of Dr. Suess Day or a game you play for a few minutes while you wait for something to download. In fact, doodles can be simple homages to things that are important to your business. Perhaps you have a special doodle for the anniversary of your company, or one for Mother’s Day because you’re a mompreneur and that is part of your heritage. You can make these doodles as fancy or as down-to-earth as you’d like, depending on the overall feel and tone of your business. You can do fun things without losing the respect of those who follow you.
It Reminds Potential Customers and Customers That You’re a Person
Often, people lose sight of a company’s faces. You walk into Walmart and forget that it’s owned by people and run by hundreds of people underneath them, and simply judge the entire experience as the “experience of Walmart”. That will be either good or bad, but either way, it will build a relationship with your customers as your brand. There are some ways around people forgetting you are not just a corporation – team pages, for example – but all in all, the feeling people have about your company is going to come from how ‘friendly’ your company is. It doesn’t matter if you’re awesome and genuinely care. If your company is not projecting a positive image, customers will simply scoot out the door. So how do you remind clients that there are people behind the scenes and that they have a customer’s best interests at heart? By doing friendly things as your company.
While there are MANY friendly things that you can do, such as adding human experience to your ads, having excellent customer service run by responsive agents, and even using the right color palettes, one of those things is definitely logo design doodles. They show potential customers that your company has people and not just machines thinking about what you may like, and in doing so, gives them a sense that you care about them. Obviously, this is a very important point to get across – caring is what will generate and maintain loyalty.
They’re a Break from the Norm for your Team
If you take care of your team, not only will they take care of your customers, they’ll run your entire business willingly for you while you provide direction. Beyond making sure your employees have a friendly and encouraging work environment, encouraging fun among your office can really make employees feel warmly about where they work, and they will want to take care of it more readily. Providing fun activities such as logo design doodles for them to do can generate some laughs and some creativity among officemates.
You Can Pin ‘Em
Harnessing all the social medias is no joke, but it’s essential for a business to master and reach new clients on as many channels as possible. The world is big, and the internet certainly feels bigger! You have to find a way to earn that solid ground that every business owner needs to take a few breaths. Pinterest has over 70 million monthly domestic users, which is actually more than Twitter, and you bet all of them are looking for cute ideas for something. Since you don’t know what that “something” is, you need to put your something up for people to see. Maybe you don’t make a pinnable product or service, but different and fun versions of your logo will still attract repins and referrals!
Acknowledgment is Important
It’s almost certain that there are some important events that influenced the bearings of your business, and acknowledging those sources is not only kind, but meaningful. In the end, simply acknowledgment means something to you, to your employees, and to your future greatest fans – which means monetary gain, loyalty, and more lies ahead.
