A question I've been pondering lately: Why doesn't logo design (especially by large design agencies) incorporate customer surveys?
A question I've been pondering lately: Why doesn't logo design (especially by large design agencies) incorporate customer surveys?
A logo can be described as the face of a company, why isn’t it treated like other business decisions which require proof via quantitative or qualitative data. Instead, based on my observations, it seems like the CEO or designer just make decisions for the logo based on their own subjective opinions.
I mean getting consumer input wouldn't be too hard?
Generally a lot of research, including customer surveys, goes into the kind of rebrandings/logo redesigns you see everywhere. So people mostly already do what you're suggesting.
What you're getting at might be that things don't get A/B tested, which is fair, but it's more questionable. You can't build a brand by aggregating opinions. A strong brand is built on a vision and strong decisions by the original founders to give the brand a certain image. If you ask consumers, they'll have differing opinions about what the brand should be, and that will most likely dilute the image.
That sounds like Design By Committee. Like David said, most companies do run it by some kind of focus group to minimize risk. A new logo isn't great out of the gate. It becomes great after years of providing a reliable service/product to customers. That's why old company logos still inspire faith even if they're not good "design" by today's standards.