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The iconic golden arches of McDonald’s stand tall and strong for all the world to see. Although the fast food chain has roots dating back to the 1940s, the brand remains a symbol of success among countless others – with over 40,000 restaurants in 118 countries across the globe.

While the logo has evolved to embrace aesthetics and innovation over the decades, it’s still easily identifiable as the sun. This blog discusses the fascinating journey of McDonald’s logo history, highlighting the changes in its design trends over the years. More importantly, we’ll dive deep into the essential qualities of the logo that make it instantly recognizable by all. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started.

The Evolution of McDonald’s Logo – From Past to Present

The story of McDonald’s logo evolution begins in 1940 when two brothers, Maurice and Richard McDonald, decided to open a small barbecue restaurant in San Bernardino, California. The original McDonald’s logo was much different from the one we see today. Back then, it was very basic, just a simple rectangle logo made up of three lines of text in black on a plain white background.

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By 1948, McDonald’s tweaked the logo, switching the color of the background and letters while adding an image of a smiling chef. More importantly, the logo was edited to incorporate several details to showcase the main selling points of the fast food chain.

For instance, the word ‘barbecue’ was replaced with ‘hamburgers’ as the latter was gaining more popularity in the US. The logo reflected the change that McDonald’s was now a hamburger joint. Plus, the super competitive price was added to both top corners, drawing attention to its budget-friendly meals. And finally, the phrase ’Buy em by the bag’ highlights another trending option – takeaway foods. This logo stayed with the brand for five years.

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But by 1953, the logo changed completely. Color was introduced along with a mascot named Speedee, a hamburger-faced chef, in the center of the logo. ‘McDonald’s’ in red lettering appeared for the first time, which we see still associated with the brand today.

While ‘15¢’ remained on the logo to indicate the price point hadn’t changed, a red banner reading ‘Coast to Coast’ symbolized the expansion of the brand in franchises. This logo stayed with the company for several years.

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As the logo changed, the McDonald brothers were also interested in altering another aspect of brand identity – building a restaurant with a golden arch on each side. Stanley Clark Meston saw the potential in such a design, not only to help the brand stand out dramatically but also to bring attention to the fast food chain. This double gold arch design played a key role in McDonald’s logo evolution, staying with the brand for years to come.

In 1961, the first version of the logo with the iconic golden arches was created by Jim Schindler. It was inspired by the architecture of the company’s restaurants designed by Meston, and it’s similar to the one we know today. The double arches overlapped to form an ‘M’ shape with the classic yellow and red colors of McDonald’s with the brand name appearing under it. The text remained consistent with just a few moderations over the years.

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By 1968, the logo was slightly modified. The inner ends of two arches converged into a single line instead of overlapping, making the logo look more like a letter ‘M’. The diagonal line was removed, and the brand name written in black crossed through the arches.

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In 1975, the design of the logo remained simple and classic. However, some changes were made to its colors. A red background text was introduced, while the McDonald’s text switched from black to white. Since this original McDonald’s logo is still used by the company, it is the most recognizable version of the brand, making the insignia instantly recognizable across all age groups.

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The drastic changes witnessed through the McDonald’s logo history ended after this phase. The logo had only slight variations incorporated into its design. For instance,  in 1992, the red background was removed, and a red trapezoid was added below the golden arches.

However, this change stayed for about a year before the brand removed all lettering to leave a plain logo – just the golden arches on its own. This minimalist version has remained more or less the same since then, looking modern and stylish for decades. And yes, the logo still makes people all over the world smile. The only difference is the use of a new tagline in 2003 – I’m lovin’ it to the logo.

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Lessons to Learn From McDonald’s Logo History

There’s no doubt McDonald’s logo is a great example of branding done right. Let’s highlight some of the key points:

1. Powerful Logo Design Elements

There are several design elements to consider, such as:

Shape

First off, the simplistic shape of the logo used by McDonald’s has been quite consistent for the past several decades. So people are already familiar with the golden arches that resemble an ’M’, helping to tie in the name of the fast food chain with the logo and reinforcing the brand. In fact, the shape of the logo can be traced back to the architecture of their first franchise, opened by Ray Kroc in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.

Color

The logo utilizes two signature hues – red and yellow – to grab people’s attention. The use of these colors has become an essential aspect of brand identity and has stayed with the company for nearly half a century on its signs, packages, buildings, etc.

While McDonald’s color choice was influential in building its visual branding, the colors, on their own, also have a deeper meaning. Psychologists claim that the color red does more than recall the traditional red-and-white checked tablecloths used at diners across the US. It helps stimulate appetite and excitement. On the other hand, yellow is associated with happiness. So the brain processes these colors to create images of cheerful dining experiences.

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Font

McDonald’s introduced a custom sans-serif font in the 1960s, called McLawsuit, which is still being used to this day. The clear typography not only streamlines the logo’s appearance but also makes it legible in any size. The rounded edges and simplicity make the brand feel approachable and friendly. Additionally, the absence of visual clutter means there are no distracting elements. This allows the logo to stand out boldly, enabling people to instinctively associate it with the fast food chain.

2. Brand Visibility

While the logo appeared on everything, from packaging to advertising to signage, the McDonald’s corporation invested in developing the visibility of its brand even more. For instance, restaurants were made easily accessible on the US highway system. Moreover, they ensured most people lived within a three-minute drive of a McDonald’s joint. So customers were sure to encounter a McDonald’s wherever they went.

3. Progressive Efforts to Develop Brand Recognition

The design is based on the familiar arch used in the physical architecture of their restaurants. This strategy enables customers to instantly connect the logo with a feature they have seen at the location, an aspect that builds brand recognition in consumers of all ages.

But most of the McDonald’s appeal is directed towards children, like Ronald McDonald, the brightly-painted playgrounds, the tasty finger foods, and the free gifts in all their Happy Meals. Believe it or not, research suggests that children can recognize a brand logo before they recognize their name. Once you’ve got the kids hooked on the brand, they’ll likely be loyal customers for life.

Final Thoughts

The McDonald’s logo has an interesting story behind it. The success of this fast-food chain lies in the history and legacy of the Golden Arches. The story of McDonald’s logo history emphasizes the importance of basic elements such as shape, font, and color in creating a powerful logo.

Over the years, McDonald’s has perfected its visual identity, using a minimalistic approach with the right color palette to evoke the desired emotions from its customers. The logo stands as proof of the effectiveness of simplicity and consistency in branding.

The 4th of July is right around the corner, which means you do not have that much time to up your social media game or run promotions. Considering the fact the 4th of July is the biggest retail day of the year, there is absolutely no reason why you should miss out on it. Last year, sales were estimated to exceed $7 billion, and this year it will most likely increase by leaps and bounds.

So if you want a nice bump in sales, especially if you have had a hard time during summer, then you should take advantage of this 4th of July before it is too late. To aid you in your cause, here are some of the best marketing ideas that will allow you to fire up your 4th of July game like never before.

Offer Discounts

This should be a no-brainer when it comes to great marketing ideas for all seasons. For the 4th of July specifically, you will need to hold special promotions and sales. If you are wondering why, because it will work without fail. Shoppers are most active during this time of the year, and this is the perfect time for you to engage with them.

By running sales and specials for the 4th of July, you will let your target audience know you care. Incorporate a 4th of July theme in your campaign. Even if you can’t, there is nothing to worry about, but only as long as you run promotions and sales during the holiday week.

Patriotic Promotions and Sales Offers

If you have some great offers for the 4th of July, make sure you promote them on social media. Let your customers know that they should shop at your store.

Promote posts for your merchandise, and if need be, set up a Facebook ad with a patriotic offer of your very own. Not only is this is a quick way to get the word out, but it will attract old customers as well as new ones.

If you are concerned about overspending, fear not. Facebook ads are relatively cheap, not to mention easy to pull off. What is interesting is you can customize them for your current audience, or for an audience that has a similar demographic.

Show Your Patriotism on Social Media

Promoting posts about your merchandise on social media is not going to be enough. You will have to post pictures of your employees and customers celebrating their patriotism. There is no harm in showing your store either.

Wish everyone a great holiday, and share your posts as well those created by your customers. Got the extra mile by posting holiday graphics on Instagram, changing your Twitter or Facebook cover photos or sending out email specials.

If you are open during the holiday week, make sure you let your customers know about it so that they can visit your store.

To get your customers into the holiday spirit, create a DIY photo with patriotic props and backgrounds. What is the best about this approach is that it is inexpensive, and you will end up engaging your customers, making them happy in the process.

For each and every post, use a custom hashtag, encourage your customers to use those hashtags while sharing their content. If you want to increase the organic reach of your posts, share and tag your customers.

Add some Flare to your Push Notifications

Believe it or not, mobile messaging matters quite a bit, even more so during the days leading to the holiday.

Be strategic about your push notifications, spend as much time as possible to find the right words. With well-timed and quippy messages, you can increase your click throughs by entertaining your customers instead of solely focusing on selling something to them.

So while spreading the word about special events, holiday discounts and app-exclusive deals, make sure you do it in style.

Think Outside the Box

Some other great business marketing ideas involve thinking outside the box. Do not restrict yourself to strategies that have already been adopted by other businesses and brands. If you want to leave a lasting impression, then you will need to show your audience, and others too, that you are different from the rest.

Apart from the usual sales and promotions, you can tell great independence stories. Share your own or your customers’ to let them know that no sacrifice is in vain. For instance, you can tell a story about your own business and its struggles to reach where it is today.

On the other hand, you can commemorate the event by remembering those responsible for keeping the people and country safe. If possible, donate money to support a cause for veterans, or highlight the great things a local firefighter has done for his/her community.

These are just a few ways you can separate yourself from the rest of the crowd this 4th of July. The possibilities, are quite literally, limitless.

The aforementioned marketing ideas are great if you are not sure what to do this 4th of July. Make the most of this information so that you benefit from greater reach and an increase in sales. Remember, all of this only works if what you do is something your customers can relate to.

If you are looking for more top marketing ideas, you will find plenty more online. For this reason, make it a point do your own homework beforehand to find strategies and ideas that will best suit your business in particular. However, if you are not sure where to start, or if you are in desperate need of assistance, there is no harm in getting professional help, this applies to all aspects of marketing, be it content or website design.

It is that time of the year, and Superhero fans ranging across the DC universe are “justifiably” intrigued (pun intended). DC has finally announced not only the official series of Justice League logos for all of the individual members of this elite club but also released some really nifty footage from the all-new ‘Justice League Movie.’

As far as the logos are concerned, it is perfectly evident that the good people at DC have really gone over and above the call of duty (just like the superheroes they have created). Let us take a look at these logos one by one

Look Up, It’s A Bird… It’s A Plane…. No, It’s Superman!

The Kryptonian’s ‘Superman’ Logo has always struck deep into the hearts of the people who idealize him. The ‘Red Color Gradient ‘has been liberally mixed with the dark red color of blood. This is why it almost immediately strikes the viewer as mute testimony to his superhuman strength and other powers; all contained within this logo. In fact, it is difficult to tear one’s eyes away from a logo that just throbs with an alien power, of the kind that can dispatch evildoers in the blink of an eye. This logo is the ultimate showcase for massive power, held firmly in check by the inner goodness of the one man who has the privilege of wearing it.

The Dark Knight Rises In All His Glory

The ‘Bat logo’ is as old as Batman himself. It is the embodiment of a young boy’s transformation from a privileged and pampered child to the masked vigilante that evildoers love to hate and fear. It is an important reminder of the power of tragedy and how it can transform anyone into a wonderful source of justice. The simple yet powerful symbol of the bat is all black and designed to scare bad guys and anyone else who is in the thrall of the raw power behind the ‘black bat’ logo.

Wonder Woman: The Thrilling Amazon Princess

The new ‘Wonder Woman’ Logo is slightly reminiscent of the old WWF (World Wrestling Federation before its transformation,) thanks to its twin ‘W’ look. But here all resemblance ends once and for all. Nevertheless, the solid beak shape of the ‘middle W’ basically represents a bird in flight and is quite different from the old version of the same logo. The new braces on this logo also bring about a complete change in the overall look, and it portrays Wonder Woman as a bird that will tear down and sink her talons in the forces of evil. With this logo, it is easy to visualize her as an immortal individual who can tangle with the very gods and come out a winner!

Aquaman: The Undisputed King of the Seven Seas!

To say that this logo is unique would be a mild understatement! Aquaman has been part of the DC universe for almost 80 years, and his logo has gone through many iterations over the past few decades. However, this time around this logo has a muted and darker look. Especially since the emblem itself is redolent of the mysteries of the underwater world in which the man lives. It has intrigued not just Aquaman fans alone but conceptual designers, all over the world. Everyone is eager to see what the new Aquaman equipped with his emblematic logo will do in the upcoming Justice League movie.

Flash: Sheer Poetry in Motion

If ever a logo can be said to showcase poetry in motion. It would be the electricity bolt that Barry Allen carries on his chest to show the world that he is indeed ‘the fastest man alive.’ For a man who is faster than ‘greased lighting,’ this is a suitably apt logo. It brings with it a time-honored tradition in which the electric flash logo and the golden flash logo merge to create a highly symmetrical symbol that is a cause of great excitement for Flash’s myriad fans, all over the world.

Part Human, Part Machine… Complete Cyborg

This new logo is not just attractive but singularly appealing as well. It heralds the Cyborg’s entity as a brand-new member of the Justice League. The Cyborg is an interesting take on the ‘meta-human’ concept since he still retains his humanity while being a part machine. The DC comic reading fans will be used to this logo, but the people who have seen this bright red dot only in the movies. Well, all we can say is that they are in for the treat of a lifetime!

Conclusion

For all those fans who have been eagerly waiting for the all-new ‘Justice League Movie,’ the new justice league logos are a tantalizing teaser of what is to come. Going by the logos alone, we can safely assume that the movie will be the kind of blockbuster that will certainly keep the audience to the edge of their seats.

Whirlpool Corporation is an American company and one of the world’s best-known multinational manufacturers of electronic home appliances. It currently boasts of revenue figures well above $20 billion per annum.

As a matter of fact, the organization itself has constantly been striving to come up with ‘state of the art’ domestic appliances that will be able to improve the living standards of the people who buy Whirlpool products. In keeping with a mindset that inspires such innovation, Whirlpool has over 70 research centers that are located all over the world.

But all products and brands have a particular life cycle regardless of how well known and accepted they are amongst their target audience. Here, Whirlpool is certainly no exception to this rule. This is indeed precisely why back in 2010, the Whirlpool Corporation made the critical decision to modify its logo design. They changed the original font type to sans serif. Apart from that, they also altered the hook around the text. Finally, they also changed the ‘whirl’ in their ‘Whirlpool,’ as well.

It is pertinent to note that a logo is the visible face of a brand. And any changes to a logo means that the perception of the target audience will also change in line with the vision and the mission around which the brand coalesces and operates.

Whirlpool: Ushering in an Age of Large-Scale Expansion

Keeping this factor in mind, people at Whirlpool decided to reflect their massive expansion plans in their logo too. And the best way forward was to solidify their identity in their chosen target market with a well-crafted logo design that would easily reflect their expansion process in many different categories. Especially since they are going for both horizontal growth and depth in their product portfolio.

Whirlpool’s new logo design is in stark contrast to the old one. While it may not seem to be very different to the layman’s eyes but when the two are juxtaposed together, it is easy to see that it is a far more straightforward than its older counterpart.

As a matter of fact, the main design idea for this radical shift in identity has a lot to do with reinforcing the twin notions of elegance and novelty. The two traits for which the Whirlpool logo and by extension, the brand itself is renowned for, the world over.

If we were to study the logo more carefully, we could easily see that the brand has also shifted the concept of customer orientation very nicely in their new Whirlpool logo.

In a nutshell, the easily recognized loop centered around the middle of the typographical arrangement has been consciously and deliberated altered to a continuous and concentric circle. In marketing parlance, this is known as the “Ring of the Promise.” This ring, in fact, depicts the continuous commitment of the Whirlpool brand to their customers. This commitment is in the form of a promise to provide highly improved quality and integrity in all of their electronic products. This unspoken promise to the end consumer bears mute testimony to the extremely high standards for which this brand is justifiably renowned.

The Graphical Aspect of The Whirlpool Logo

From a purely graphical point of view, the elaborate “Swirl” in the logo that is located directly above the alphabet “W” was itself an addition dating back to the early 1960s. It was supposed to denote the fact that the brand manufactures laundry products for the discerning consumer.

Perhaps, this is why the very name ‘whirlpool’ was almost synonymous with top-end washing machines and several other laundry products. However, this swirl has been completely removed from the logo because the company has diversified both its target market as well as its products portfolio.

These days, they manufacture an extensive range of large and small electronic household appliances that they distribute pretty much all over the world. Actually, the brand was able to capitalize on the core values of their original product line and the goodwill it had generated for them, for so many decades.

Building on Customer Trust

Their end consumers implicitly trusted the Whirlpool brand, and this meant that this trust and goodwill was directly transferred to the new products that they developed and launched into the target market.

And now the brand is one of the leading producers of all manners of household appliances and has effectively overtaken many of the original top brands in this field.

Keeping the above in retrospect, we can see how it also applies to the development of the Whirlpool logo as well. Here, the graphical and visual balance of the current logo is far more appealing than its older counterpart. This has a lot to do with its light minimalist touch. Not only is the logo both more precise and refined, but it is also far more readable as well. In fact, it is entirely in keeping with the brand’s latest and most modern and topographical illustration.

Many of the alphabets in this logo have made the transformation from 3D to a flatter 2D look. Apart from the alphabets, the ring that is the cornerstone of the logo has been effectively transformed into a 3D objet d’art. The selection of the color follows a neutral scheme marking. This is done to ensure that its esthetics legibility and readability remain constant.

Conclusion

In light of the above, we can safely deduce that Whirlpool has quite successfully met both its customer-oriented as well as its expansion-oriented goals in this all-new logo design.

We all love Subway, don’t we? Well, most of us do. What’s not to like about it? You enter the shop and choose everything from the bread and the fillings to seasoning and sauces – all of which come together to make a sumptuous wrap we call a Sub. Sure, the company has had its ups and downs over the years, but it has constantly tried to keep itself relevant according to the customers’ preferences. This was the reason why the old Subway logo was replaced with a new one in 2016 after almost 15 years.

Subway logo evolution

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Subway started in 1965 as a single sandwich shop founded by 17-year-old Fred DeLuca. The goal for DeLuca was to earn money to pay for medical school. He received a loan of $1,000 from Dr Peter Buck, a family friend, to set up the sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He named him “Pete’s Super Submarines” after Dr Buck.

Soon, the two men opened another shop and then a third. Then came the moment for the first marketing pivot. To boost brand recall and recognition, they decided to shorten the name from Pete’s Super Submarines to Pete’s Subway. At the time, they introduced the yellow logo with the arrows around Subway.

In the 1970s the brand dropped the word Pete’s from their name. According to one theory, this was done because on the radio – the social media of that time for marketing – Pete’s Submarine sounded a lot like ‘Pizza Marines’ which impacted their customers’ brand impression. Then, the number of Subways multiplied as the two partners decided to begin franchising.

This brought incredible growth and popularity to the sandwich shop. Today, it is one of the largest restaurants in the world in terms of the number of franchises. On its website, Subway claims to have more than 37,000 restaurants in over 100 nations. The company has more restaurants across the world than any other chain, even beating giants like KFC and Mcdonald’s.

The Subway logo history also reveals interesting insights into how the company always tried to keep up with the changing demands as the years passed by.

Why old Subway logo was changed?

Since 1965, when it was Pete’s Super Submarines, the company had several logos. The original Subway logo was actually the blue and red Pete’s Super Submarines logo. Over time, it changed to Pete’s Submarine and then to Subway.

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After a couple of evolutions, the company settled on its most recognizable logo till then. In 2002, the Subway logo featured italicized bold font – in white colors for SUB and yellow for WAY – with green outlines. The tips of S and Y ended in the iconic arrows which came to be identified as Subway’s brand identity.

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Another version of the logo, designed in the year 2015, featured the same typeface but this time with green colors and without any outlines. Basically, they turned the logo into a monochrome, reduced the font size, and removed outlines to create the new iteration of their logo with the iconic arrows retaining their places.

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The green and white logo remained Subway’s face for almost 15 years till 2016, when the company decided it was time for a logo redesign. The new Subway logo had a modernized design as per the contemporary needs.

The inscription was bold but not italics, with the rounded sans-serif typeface. The white and yellow font colors were changed to yellow and green, and font outlines were also removed. With the removal of italics from the typeface, the arrows on S and Y appeared more pointed and sharper.

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Design elements

In terms of design, the new logo still had green and yellow elements but looked minimalistic in line with the demand of the late 2020s. A number of brands redesigned their bulky logo to create simplistic versions that look easy on the eyes and can be responsive on smaller screens, like mobile phones.

The company also created a monogram out of its new logo, this monogram which was then designed on the company’s packaging. The monogram only features S formed out of two arrows, each pointing in the opposite direction.

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If we talk about the Subway logo meaning, it features two iconic arrows, depicting entry and exit. This means that customers could grab their food swiftly and have it while on the go. This aligns with the company’s reputation for serving food with convenience.

The vibrant yellow and green colors in darker shades used by the company were in line with the practice of most restaurants and eateries to use bright colors in their branding elements. This obviously has a psychological element attached to it as sharp colors improve people’s appetites, convincing them to make a run to the restaurant and grab their favorite meal.

Let’s now discuss some of the reasons why the company might have felt the need to leave Subway’s old logo and come up with a new design to become its identity.

1.  Competitive edge

At the time Subway redesigned its logo, the company was not doing very well in keeping up with its competitors like Chipotle and Firehouse Subs. So, in a sense, the new logo was a means for the company to revamp itself and compete with its rivals with a new face and energy.

This is what the Subway CEO said when the new logo was launched:

“The Subway brand is recognized throughout the world, and this new look reinforces our commitment to staying fresh and forward-thinking with a design that is clear and confident without losing sight of our heritage.”

This clearly hinted at the company’s ambition to get in the race with its competitors and compete with new energy with a new logo.

2.  A new face of the brand

At the time of the launch of the new logo, a Subway spokeswoman told CNBC that they saw this as a way to refresh their look while remaining true to the brand’s origins by using the vibrant color palette of the mid-’60s when the brand was founded.

Subway always had a reputation for offering a meal different from its competitors. A fully customizable sandwich with the bread of your choice, the filling of your choice, loaded with veggies, drenched in your favorite sauce – wow!

Subway logos over the years have tried to reinforce the company’s USP – freshness. Subway positioned itself as a healthier alternative by promoting nutritious and wholesome meals. Their “Eat Fresh” slogan resonated with health-conscious consumers seeking better options on the go.

But, over time, it started losing out to the competitors who were offering a more diversified product. What Subway needed was a fresh start. By updating its visual identity, Subway hoped to reinforce its relevance, attract new customers, and also get its MoJo back to win lost customers who might have gone to other options.

After the logo redesign, the company launched a new loyalty program called “Subway MyWay Rewards.” Under the new scheme, Subway introduced personalized deals and rewards for customers based on their buying history. This idea was to improve the rate of customer retention and increase footfall in their restaurants.

3.  Evolution based on people’s preferences

For Subway, the new logo was the “next step” in its evolution. This was also stated by Subway’s president and CEO Suzanne Greco, who stated that they were on an exciting journey to meet the changing tastes of their guests.

So, the company didn’t only stop at changing its logo. It also made tweaks to its menu and brought in a more diversified range of products. It started using the rotisserie chicken and carved turkey breast in its Subs and launched a new tech division called Subway Digital to revamp its website, mobile application, and digital payments – all for a more seamless customer experience.

4.  New marketing efforts

After redesigning its logo, the next logical step for Subway was to familiarize its customers with it. This required an ingenious strategy to present the logo in such a way that it could attract the most eyeballs. So, what did the company do? They started airing their ads with Subway’s new logo during NBC’s coverage of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. This only seemed like the most logical marketing step because where else would you find more eyes than the most popular sporting competition in the world?

The company also used online mediums for its marketing before the revamped logo and symbol were rolled out at all Subway locations in 2017. Another marketing strategy used by the company was to make the new logo a part of the campaign to highlight its USP – fresh and locally sourced offerings. Earlier, the company had pledged to not use artificial colors, flavors and preservatives in any of its products. This was done to reinforce the brand perception of Subway offering fresh products.

The new campaign was named #SearchforBetter, and it was created by a Boston-based company. The new campaign was also launched during NBC’s coverage of the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Conclusion

The decision to replace the old Subway logo was a conscious effort on the part of the company to pivot its brand position and adapt to the changing demands of its customers. The new logo gave the company a fresher and more modern look, which was in sync with contemporary demands. Subway’s rebranding was helped by an elegant design that had a modern look, but also the elements to reflect the company’s pasts – like the iconic arrows and green and yellow color.

Fanta has been around a long time. Since the days of the second world war in fact. When it was initially launched, it was just a means of covering a small European niche because Coca-Cola itself was in short supply all-over war-ravaged Europe, way back in the early 1940s.

However, with time, Fanta went on to become the second biggest brand under the Coca-Cola umbrella. And it has grown and evolved over the years not just in terms of flavor and the Fanta logo itself, but also, its target market. From being a wartime drink for soldiers, it has shifted focus to the trendy young teenager market while retaining the interest it had always invoked in its primary target market.

The Bottle and The Logo

Fanta had always made it a point to differentiate on the basis of taste and color. But it went a bit further and created a funky twisted bottle that was its very own take on the differentiation factor that set it apart from its more regular and mundane competition.

In its continued efforts to turn its USP (unique selling proposition) to an SCA (sustainable competitive advantage, the brand has never really stopped evolving. This way it has been saved from the inevitable stagnation that has been the bane of its competitors.

Fanta believes in the age-old adage: Eye view is buy view.” This is precisely why it’s all-new bottle gives it a truly unique look that has been expressly designed to ‘catch the eye’ of the buyer.

The Fanta logo has been similarly redesigned as well. In fact, this year, Fanta enthusiasts from all over the world will really get to enjoy the ice cold and refreshing favorite drink with an entirely new and fascinating twist. Yes, the good people at Fanta have not only changed the taste of this globally acclaimed beverage, but they have gone even further.

That is they have changed both the logo and the shape by creating a fanta’stic’ new bottle that has a has been endowed with a ‘one of a kind shape.

Switching from The Old To The New

This is not exactly a subtle change in their logo. On the contrary, the marketers at Fanta headquarters have really gone to town with their original logo design and have switched from their usual ‘lower case and well-rounded text’ to bigger and bolder upper case ‘hand-cut paper’ style of typography.

Another fun feature that enables the Fanta logo to stand out is the ‘smiley face’ that has been creatively weaved into the letter “A.” this gives the whole logo (and by extension the brand itself) a playful look in a really elusive way. Apart from that, the colors have also been given a ‘touch up’ of sorts. And they have now been updated to a much brighter version of the original drink. This change has been made keeping in mind the fact that Fanta is a unique drink that targets not just the multicultural youth of today’s Generation Z. But at the same time it also ‘aspire to inspire’ the core energetic spirit in all the youngsters of the world.

The design team of the brand did not just pick this shape and logo out of a hat. On the contrary, they took their time to come up with this brand-new logo and shape. In fact, it took them all of two years before they got their logo designed ‘just right.’

Creating a Brave New World

As far as the bottle is concerned, it ushers in a brave new world. Especially keeping in mind the fact that this unique bottle and logo has gone against the more traditional and symmetric designs that dominate the cold beverages industry, as a whole. The designer, Gregory Bentley believed that it was time to raise the bar and break out of the shackles of conventionalism. This is why he tried a hand at being completely different and in the process created a shape that has become a trendsetter for the whole industry.

The ‘Fanta’ brand is second only to Coca-Cola itself in terms of age, and it is currently available in around one hundred different flavors all across the world. This logo and shape have a dual purpose. It has to maintain ‘Fanta’s brand value’ by creating synergy between the old and the new designs so that the new one can really take off from where the ‘old’ left off.
The new one is now already available in certain select countries in Europe including Poland, Romania Italy, Serbia, and Malta. This newly designed logo has been crafted to create a sense of excitement amongst the younger audiences while the different taste will tantalize their taste buds.

The ultimate aim of the new logo is to attract the younger generation and at the same time retain the dynamics of the old taste, shape, and logo so that it will not alienate the many generations of people who have been enjoying this really refreshing drink from their childhood to their old age.

Conclusion

The new logo retains a sense of continuity with the old one, and at the same time it also stands out amongst the many other drinks on the shelf so that the consumer pauses and takes a look and buys the product.

There is no denying the fact that lead generation is an integral aspect of online digital setup. Lead generation is essential for every type of business. The process facilitates you to identify prospective clients so that you can match your target audience with brand’s offerings.

The significance of SEO lead generation is of paramount stature. It helps increase your brand visibility to prospective customers. With people and businesses becoming increasingly dependent on Google, in a bid to find the goods and services, the role of SEO is on astonishingly inclined plane.

It has been estimated that for around 60% of marketers, lead generation is their brand’s biggest challenge. Such a daunting task can be accomplished by making smart use of SEO blogs.

Blogging is a mighty effective SEO technique as it plays a crucial role with a number of things that are significant ranking factors. When you have a blog that has a huge following and is updated quite regularly with SEO blogs of high-quality, or is based on the topics relevant to your audience – it can strike a massive difference in the performance of your overall website visibility in the search engines.

SEO Trends to be Followed in 2019

Here are some top notch SEO trends that will help you dominate the ecommerce arena – escalating your revenues.

. Content Marketing

This is indeed an amazing option for brands that have high-quality and interesting content to share with the world. It can be a great bridge to connect you with your intended market as it can provide you with great search engine optimization for your website.

Not only content is critical from an SEO point of view, but the fact of the matter is, the copy that fails to generate interest of the reader will reflect poorly on the description and appeal level of the products as well.

. Social Media Marketing

The use of social media is at its all-time peak. Social media helps you refine the entire lead generation phase as it allows for a more objective and targeted approach. 62% of the marketers strongly believe that social media has proven itself to be an effective channel in lead generation. It presents the businesses a fabulous platform to interact and serve their customers.

Social media advertising works wonders, especially nowadays when you hardly come across a person who doesn’t has a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account. Advertisements running through these mediums are highly engaging as it facilitates you in setting up the location, age, gender, and interests among many others.

. Higher Customization

Customized marketing is not at all a brand new concept. It’s something that has been around for a while now, but growth and evolution has been simply magnificent. Now in 2019, customers have arrived to a level where they expect this personalization to reach a new level.

In the world of B2B interactions, 75% of consumers report that they expect companies to send them customized offers – keeping in mind their specific sets of needs and wants. More than half of the consumers expect the brands to be proactive in predicting their needs and make suitable suggestions in the first point of contact.

. Use Long-Tail Keywords

Using long tail keywords is on a definite rise. It takes 6 to 12 months for businesses to start witnessing growth in traffic via SEO lead generation techniques. Search engines prioritize websites that have been around for quite some time.

(Source: Neil Patel’s Official Blog)

This waiting time can be reduced by the professional and expert use of long-tail keywords. These keywords include two or more phrases. The reason for the success of these types of keywords is they are less competitive and easier to rank on the search engine.

. The Era of Automation

The magical advancements of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are being recognized. It’s not at all surprising that automation is quickly becoming one of the biggest lead generation strategies of 2019.

The research report at McKinsey found out that 60% of businesses are already in the process of adopting it. The aggressive uses of chatbots are one of the best uses of automation. With the help of these automated chatbots, you can easily provide 24/7 services to the clients, serving it to the best of your abilities.

Advance versions of these chatbots can even secure orders for your brand, paving the way for you to turn a lead into a client. Modern day marketers use automation to process and analyze data. For instance, a digital marketing campaign generates tons of data points.

SEO is a strategy that builds on itself, which makes it a scintillating aspect of online world. With the passage of time, the ability to generate lead through SEO increases as you figure out more innovative forms of content and web optimization. SEO trends play a vital role in giving the direction to the brand as well as site’s ranking success.

In the modern era, the relevance of consumer experience is at its peak. Customer experience design revolves around the phenomenon of putting the customer first – to build and deliver solutions that are both effective and enjoyable.

The game changer in online businesses is customer satisfaction. As products and services continue to emphasize customer experience, the key factor of brand differentiation is creating a brand experience that can trigger emotional aspects of the customers and tends to define the buying journey of a product.

The Importance of Brand Experience

Brands are typically defined by the experiences that they offer…

Helping is the new selling…. The key is making brand experiences easier, quicker, and smoother than anyone else. The more helpful a brand is, the higher the probability of its success.

You need to remember that customers want facilitation; all they look for is an omnichannel experience that engenders some sense of control into them.

The mega success of giants like Amazon and eBay can easily be boiled back down to the simple point of them making it extremely easier than other previous prevailing alternatives.

Consumers are flooded with a barrage of messages from various businesses, both online and offline on daily basis. As a result, it is more important than ever to build emotional connections between consumers and your brand, in a bid to hit and make mark in customers’ subconscious.

How to Create Better Brand Experience

Here are a few relevant tips that can be of significant help in building a brand experience.

> Know Your Customer (KYC)

Incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in retail branding is due to the opportunity it provides for gathering refined piece of information for their target segment (audience). This extensive knowledge about the market has substantially helped brands to come up with the kind of product that can quickly appeal to their clientele and fulfill their needs for long.

NIKE

The brand Nike has emerged successful as a sports retail brand. Nike built an empire by broadcasting itself not just as a shoe store, but rather a brand that showcases oriented lifestyle. They have an impressive strategy when it comes to knowing their customers’ needs and wants.

> Engage Through Effective Advertising

We are living in an always-on world, so customers expect brands to be proactive in anticipating their needs and then come up with a quick solution to fulfill the said need. The communication (advertisement) of this solution needs to be sound and efficient.

Successful brands focus immensely on customer engagement; they target value creation, and not just revenue extraction.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s has been thriving to use advertising to drive its business. The launch of their product “Happy Meal” has been quite impressive. This customized product offered an ideal platform to connect with mothers’ sentiments, through an ideal blend of emotional storytelling and rational reassurance to shift attitudes and make an impactful statement.

This was followed by the tremendous “That’s What Makes McDonalds” campaign, in which the TV commercial charmingly and engagingly told the truth about the ingredients of a Happy Meal – celebrating the food and connecting it back to the source.

> Make Use of Influencers

Influencer marketing is now the real mainstream and that too, with a good reason. Customers often rely on recommendations of other individuals they encounter on different social media platforms or through celebrity marketing like shoutouts or podcasts.

By associating yourself with an influencer who has trust in you and whose reach, resonance, and engagement meets your requirement, you avail yourself of the credibility that goes along with an already established relationship of interest.

Starbucks

Since almost 20 years, Starbucks release a special edition of their cups around the holiday season. Two years back, Starbucks decided to come up with something special. They released a limited edition of red colored cups decorated with 13 paintings made by customers from around the globe. This collaboration was done to add the personalization phenomenon into their marketing.

These cups became part of Starbucks’ #RedCupArt campaign, in which the customers were invited to paint. This option of painting was also available in stores.

Starbucks Influencer Choices

Starbucks made good strides in outreaching the innovative illustrators and invited them to express their valuable opinions regarding the holiday cup. Following are some of the influencers Starbucks linked with:

Sam Larson, an amazing artist from Portland. His love for coffee cups is quite evident if you go through some of his top content. More than half of his followers are artists themselves.

Heather Rooney, an illustrator and a renowned YouTuber with more than a million followers. While going through her followers, you can see that almost 64% of her followers are quite into art, drawing, and design.

Kelly Klapstein, a lettering artist, who is quite a regular when it comes to posting on her Instagram channel. She posts lettering videos that are being watched by thousands of people, and hence a good pick for influencer marketing.

Successful brands have a strong identity that consumers can relate to. The chief reason for their success is the ability to gain deep understanding of psychology of their audience. Brand experiences are a great way to showcase your thought leadership and convey it to the consumers. Brands have been amazingly effective in communicating the great experience into the mind and heart of the customers.

In the present era, videos in the workplace aren’t just limited to only marketing and training. It’s also a sales tool that drives conversions and purchases.

Humans love binge watching as our brains process videos 60,000 times faster than text.

Videos are entertaining, visual, and massively underused to convert leads. Despite this, having a video on the landing page can boost conversion rates by 80%.

There is no denying the fact that videos have come a long way since the early days of the internet inception. In fact, 95% of people have watched an explainer video to know further about a product in detail. This makes it a fascinating medium and tool to integrate into your firm’s sales program. So, it is necessary to create a high-quality video, and you can easily do so using a free video editor which contains all features to edit videos for your sales funnel.

Video Marketing

With the correct pack of tools, your marketing department can efficiently and reliably fill the top of your sales funnel having an ideal prospect, which can considerably facilitate in moving them along the on-boarding process faster.

Facts & Figures

• 52% of marketing experts name video as content with the highest ROI.
• 76% of marketers plan to use videos in a bid to boost their brand awareness campaigns.
• Consumer internet video traffic will move from 64% in 2014 to over 80% by the end of 2019.
• 96% of B2B firms are hoping and planning to use videos in their content marketing over the period of next 12 months.

How Videos Can Increase Engagement & Conversion?

The power of using marketing videos, is enhancing rapidly by the day, and companies that are failing to capitalize are missing a big opportunity to engage with their intended audience.

Online videos will account for more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020.

Videos put you in the now and boost your organic reach. Brand videos are proving to be an instrumental medium in forming solid relationship, and engage consumers in every step of the funnel.

Videos that last up to 2 minutes get the most engagement. Facebook has been rated as the most impactful social media channel for video, as an average Facebook video receives 135% more organic search than a Facebook photo.

According to a recent survey by Content Marketing Institute, 62% of content marketers termed videos extremely effective and beneficial for the sake of higher audience engagement, and lead generation.

(Source: www.semrush.com)

How Video Marketing Works At Different Stage Of The Funnel

Normally, the marketing funnel can be broadly categorized into the following categories.

(Source: www.wistia.com)

Here’s how videos comes into the equation with each stage of the funnel.

I. Awareness:

In this stage, your potential customer is having a problem, and you have a solution, it’s just that you haven’t found each other yet. What better medium of connecting with each other, than videos.

Successful marketers take this opportunity to come up with a kind of video that tell people about your brand via videos that appear in targeted search and social media ads.

II. Consideration

In this phase of consideration, people are aware of the problem, and are looking for solution. You want to help them with their decision process.

Videos are not only a useful medium for transmitting tons of information in a short period of time that can be beneficial for the intended market, but they are also quickly becoming a preferred medium for content consumption online.

III. Decision – Conversion

The decision stage is the conversion time for your potential customers. They have already done the research at their end, taken the feedback of your offerings, and are almost ready to sign up.

Video is an efficient conversion tool as it gives viewers a revealing inside look at the brand, and the different offerings it has. Since emotion is quite a strong factor in the process of decision making, videos at this stage of the funnel benefit a great deal from a human touch to pack an emotional punch.

How Brand Are Using Videos

Brands are looking to come up with those brand value that can serve the purpose of creating their UVP, Unique Value Proposition. It can only be possible and effective once they have complete understanding of their marketing goals, and the demographics of their targeted audience.

This is just marketing short-speak for the purpose of creating an outline about your content, and the reason of being it special.

* Reebok’s “25,915” Days Campaign

Grab Attention in the first 10 seconds:

Your potential award-winning 3 minute video is worth absolutely nothing, if you don’t hook up with the audience within first 5-10 seconds, then only you can have dividends for your efforts. Internet users typically have a quite short attention span. Best brand videos are the ones that can capitalize in the initial few seconds.

In Reebok’s “25,915 Days” campaign, they grab attention within first 10 seconds of the video by broadcasting the woman from the opening sequence, when she is younger to go with some creative placement of numbers that matches the theme of their brand video.

* GoPro

Compelling Story

The content of your video should be interesting and compelling. There is no point in taking the same old content that has already been published in hundreds of other places.

Videos, especially brand videos, allow you the liberty to be more expressive about the offerings of your brand in a bid to depict your values to your precious customers.

The video from GoPro has done exactly that. Out of all the user-generated content GoPro could have enticed to forward their typical adrenaline-junkie targeted marketing, they rather chose to put money into post production of the video.

The reason this video scored big was because the people at GoPro saw a good opportunity to showcase a different side of their values that don’t always get seen in their traditional and standard marketing.

The video caught the eye-balls across the globe, as it was quite inspiring, and compelling. It shows the importance of humanity. These sorts of gestures televise wonderful feelings to have people associate with your brand.

Video is an effective and persuasive medium; it’s highly engaging and leads can use it to make their way through the entire funnel at a rampant pace. You only need to set up content journey. If you want your video to be successful, then map your content to the funnel, set up your ideal content mix, and connect your video marketing to ROI.