A rant on overdoing brand work aka easy branding

The difference between sticking a company’s logo everywhere and brand building is not as subtle as it may appear to some. There is this misconception coming from the old (offline) days, that putting a logo on any product makes it more valuable. While this is certainly true if such value association pre-existed in customer’s mind prior to purchasing, it doesn’t really add anything in 2020. What’s more, it doesn’t translate linearly into digital experiences either. Not at all. Once I’ve opened my web app, I know where I am. A big logo as part uf UI doesn’t help here – quite the opposite, it distracts and takes the valuable real estate of my device’s screen. Especially that we have clear favicons and user friendly address bars in all modern browsers.

As our landscape is over-saturated with branding already, I’d say that the reversed process of unbranding is much more beneficial for end users. Think of it in terms of re-engineering the customer’s brand experience. As a  customer, do I really want to see logos everywhere? Of course, differentiation on the market is necessary. Don’t get me wrong. But once purchased,  when using a product daily, how does it add to my experience? Does it make my day any better?