The Nike swoosh was designed in the early 1970s by a graphic design student for $35.00. Phil Knight, Nike's founder, wasn't particularly fond of the logo but he needed something fast, so he went with it.
In the thirty-plus years since, the company has spent unimaginable amounts of money drilling it into our heads that the now-famous swoosh stands for Nike.
The Nike swoosh, the stylized Coca-Cola signature, and the ubiquitous UPS logo have meaning for consumers because those companies have spent a fortune getting us to associate specific symbols with their enterprises.
While a logo may look cool on a Web site, it won't help get your company's message through to the customer. Why? Because most logos are designed to look good, not communicate an entire idea about your organization.
In 1976, Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins brought to light an antidote for the shortcomings of logos. Dawkins coined the term meme, which he defined as a basic unit of cultural transmission that passes from one mind to another and instantly communicates an entire idea.
For example, the skull-and-crossbones symbol is a meme that conveys "dangerous to life." Other well-known memes are the hitchhiker's thumb, the Red Cross, and the nuclear mushroom cloud. Memes, with their power to communicate a complete thought in a flash, have the potential to revolutionize your marketing--without spending a king's ransom.
A well-conceived meme can cut through the marketing clutter and instantly inform clients what your practice does.
One consultant, who serves as an executive coach, uses this meme: the image of an individual wearing a baseball cap and the ubiquitous headset worn by professional football coaches. One look at this meme and you know the consultant is a coach.
The concept of memes is relatively new to marketing, and many will shrug it off as a fad. That's a mistake. The potential power of a meme makes it worth adding to any marketing strategy.
Also, want to add one more thing- logos are infectious. Why else would people pay an extra $80.00 for a plain cotton black t-shirt just because it has a Nike Swoosh logo. I've even seen people with tattoos of the nike swoosh and the mac apple on their arms. It is definately like they are affected by a brand virus that is driving them to make copies.
Posted by: damian 777 | February 06, 2006 at 12:05 AM
There are many different definitions of what is and is not a meme- and some memeticists might not agree with me but I think logos are memes. When Dawkins first defined memes in The Selfish Gene he used religion as an example. He defined religion as a powerful memeplex made up of smaller memes that have a symbiotic relationship- ritual dances, stories, the idea of God, promise of heaven, and threats of eternal damnation Hell--- and icons and symbols like the cross and the icthus. So, I believe that logos are smaller memes that make up larger memeplexes.
A brand identity system - its slogans, music, and icons/logos is a memeplex made up of smaller memes. Oxford dictionary definition of meme is: A meme is a unit of cultural tranmission transfered from person to person through a process of imitation (copying). A logo is a unit of culture (pop culture), it is transmitted from human to human and it is spread through a process of imitation-copying.
Posted by: damian 777 | February 05, 2006 at 11:57 PM
I don't think what you're talking about is really a "meme" -- a meme is more like an "infectious" thought-form that gets transmitted from one individual to another through culture & media.
You're just talking about good logo design as a way to convey a company's intangibles.
A meme for the executive coach would be more like "Sports metaphors work for business. To be a good 'player', you need a coach." -- and then the logo conveys that this consultant is a coach in the business world, but the logo is in no way a meme at all. The meme in this case might be transmitted by a tagline or in associated marketing copy.
Posted by: Tracy Ruggles | June 28, 2005 at 09:09 AM