Consumer behaviour is changing and it is looking to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Throughout the boom of the last few years, we have seen very small business adequately competing with the bigger brands. And many of them have been amazing success stories, particularly online. People were willing to buy products and services from a company or website they’d never heard of, if the price was lower. Things have changed however and hundreds of website companies are going under, the fall out of which is a growing lack of customer confidence. What this means is that people are going back to preferring known and recognisable brands, even if it means spending a little more.

With the recession causing people to loose their jobs, some have looked to the internet as a portal for their salvation, but starting their own business. But even in the recession, web business is booming, Barclays showed that even in the credit crunch 98,000 new business popped up over only a three month period. It is by no means the easy option. Around the same number of businesses failed during that period too!

I believe that most new online business fails due to bad branding. You brand and logo are the first things that your future customers see. This is how you are judged by those who keep your business afloat, the people logging in everyday to buy your goods, that see you as a logo and that logo is critical to the process. But it’s so often the case that startup owners put off paying professional logo design in the initial stages. They think “wait till I get a few more customers, then I can afford it”.  In the meantime they try and do it themselves, or get an amateur “designer” friend to design a logo. Lots of companies merely go for free options such as clipart and templated designs that look cheap and unremarkable.

This isn’t acceptable for a Brand. Businesses, big or small need to appear strong enough to survive this economic crisis.In times when people are worrying about each and every penny they spend, a brand needs to appear stable and constant. New websites need to appear to be much bigger than they actually are to survive. As i have mentioned, consumers are now more then ever going to the big brands for what they need. Ultimately, a brand that consumers thinks of as credible and dependable will be the brands that they will recommend to family and friends and so on.

The bottom line is this. Around half of all new businesses go bankrupt in the first few years. Experts agree that one of the main reasons for failure is poorly thought out  and shoddy marketing. A custom logo design helps you create the right image for this marketing to succeed. So do yourself a favour - start looking at some sample logos in your industry and see what the successful ones have in common.Finding yourself a talented graphic designer is key to your business, not only surviving but thriving in this current climate.