Walking through any town and you’ll be literally bombarded with colorful signs, the iconic logos of numerous brands that you recognize instantly for who or what they represent.

Recently, The University of Amsterdam conducted a study using famous logos without word-marks to measure brand recognition in early childhood.

The study stated that between the ages of 3 and 5 years is when most of us start to recognize that logos stand for products, and 7 to 8 is the age when we can consistently recall a logo. The study group consisted of 234 children aged between two to eight years old from day care centers in the Netherlands, and showed that those aged between two and three were able to match logos and products 67 percent of the time, while eight-year olds were able to match products and logos with 100 percent accuracy.

Color coding

Have you noticed how some logos stand out even when they’re so simple?  The color of the logo plays a huge role in grabbing the attention of consumers. Take for example BlackBerry’s logo, it’s black and simple but looking at it, you know straight away it’s a serious brand, something that caters to executives. That’s because the color black denotes boldness, seriousness, and luxury – traits that are associated mostly with the enterprise.

Samsung’s blue logo makes you feel like it’s a brand you can trust; that if you purchase their products, it will will be something you’ll be using for a long time. That’s because the color blue denotes comfort, faith, conservative, understanding, clarity, confident, calm, and trust.

Most Valuable logos

For 13 consecutive years, Coca-Cola held the #1 position in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, that is until last year when it was unseated by Apple. The Cupertino firm is now at the top of the list, followed by Google, then Coca-Cola. Interbrand’s Best Global Brands methodology analyzes the many ways a brand benefits an organization, from delivering on customer expectations to driving economic value. It considers three factors: the financial performance of the branded products or service; the role the brand plays in influencing consumer choice; and the strength the brand has to command a premium price, or secure earnings for the company.

How much do logos cost?

Believe it or not, some famous logos were created for free, or they didn’t have to pay anyone to create a logo for their company. Microsoft’s redesigned Windows logo launched in 2012 was designed by an in-house design team, but if they hired a branding firm to do it, it would have cost anywhere between $250,000 – $500,000. Google’s original logo was created by its co-founder Sergey Brin who used the free graphics program GIMP.

Twitter’s iconic blue bird logo was bought from iStockphoto for only $15, and now, it’s a logo recognized around the globe. For others, paying a few hundred thousands to even a million dollars is needed just to make their logos stand out. In 1997, BBC commissioned a new logo that would look better on screen and spent $1.8 million for it.

Stick to what works

We have often seen brands come up with a brand new logo. Some we hate, some we love. Then there are ither logos that never seem to change. Some brands have stuck with their original logos, with only a few minor changes, for decades, including Coca-Cola, GE, Johnson & Johnson, GoodYear, and Campbell’s.

In the tech industry, Apple, IBM, Nokia, and Canon’s logos have drastically changed through the years. Apple’s original logo depicts Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree which was changed in 2007 to the monochrome Apple logo, which has seen minor changes since then. Even so it’s served the company well, for Apple’s logo is now one of the most recognized brands in the world.

Logos are very powerful as they can easily influence a consumer’s purchasing decision. When faced with the dilemma of choosing between two similar products, consumers usually go for the one from the most trusted or popular brand, even if it may cost a bit more.

To find out more about the Color, Value, & Evolution of Logos, check out the infographic below: