As a mother to two little girls, ages 5 and 13 months, I am simply amazed every single day by what they know, what they learn, and how their personalities progress. It’s like getting a surprise everyday…whether it’s something good or bad.
Just over the past few weeks, my pre-schooler suddenly started having real conversations with me…not the usual one-word answers when I ask a question, or her ignoring me when I’m asking her to do something she should have already done. So this past weekend I was in total awe of her while we were on our way to my surprise Mother’s Day picnic.
We’re riding along in the car, the girls are in the back, and the baby drops one of her toys on the floor. We’ve had this toy since my 5-year-old was a baby so it’s nothing new. It has a cloth strap with Velcro that you can strap onto a stroller, shopping cart, or whatever. The strap is white with black, outlined circles scattered around. My preschooler said, “Mommy, did we buy that toy at Target?” As I turned around to look at it, I said, “I don’t remember sweetie.” She immediately says, in an authoritative voice, “Mommy, I KNOW we must have got it at Target because it has circles just like Target.” I looked at my husband and told him I felt a blog post coming on!
Remember when my daughter mentioned the circles on the toy and immediately associated it with Target? The circles on the toy were not red, they were black. There are also other colored circles that resemble a target. She knows her colors, but she does not know how to spell other than her name and a couple of other short, easy words. She knows Target because we shop there a few times per month. But the fact that a 5 year old can associate thick circles with Target stores says a LOT about branding. It’s way more significant than her recognizing a McDonald’s from a mile away…which she can because of the big, yellow arches towering over everything else in sight and the fact that she would probably eat there every day if we let her.
Another example that didn’t hit me until this weekend with the whole Target branding was a few months back, when she was still 4, told me daily that she wanted Yelly Kelly shoes. I had no idea what she was talking about and started doing research online for these shoes that she saw on TV. I couldn’t find anything and then remembered that sometimes she has a problem correctly pronouncing certain letters. After a few days I thought, oh they must be Jelly Kelly’s because she sometimes pronounces the letter “J” like a “Y”.
So I did some more research and came up with nothing. The only thing she could tell me about them was that they had Strawberry Shortcake on them (one of her favorite characters) and sparkled like jewels (she is her mother’s daughter!) Finally one day I happen to be in the room with her when the commercial came on…for Lelli Kelly. The commercial featured a few young girls sporting the adorable Lelli Kelly shoes with a cute little ditty that my daughter had been humming for weeks. They have a ton of styles from hi-tops to boots to sandals to pumps.
First, the shoes she mentioned that had Strawberry Shortcake…didn’t have anything to do with the character at all. They simply had cute little strawberries all over the canvas shoes…another example of associating an item, the strawberries, with a character, Strawberry Shortcake. Needless to say my research on the shoes proved to be a disappointment for my daughter because I’m not willing to pay $70 for 1 pair of shoes for a 4 year old that she’ll only wear a few months at best no matter how darn cute they are. But one day we were at JC Penney’s to shop for a spring wardrobe and she spotted a pair of Lelli Kelly shoes…or so she thought. They actually weren’t Lelli Kelly’s at all, but Sketchers that looked very similar. But as far as she was concerned, they were Lelli Kelly shoes and wanted them badly.
In business, we are not only defined by our products or services and how we conduct our business, but sometimes business owners forget that our branding is just as important. It is all about the image whether you choose to believe it or not – even an iconic symbol that can be recognized worldwide like the red circles of Target’s logo. It doesn’t even matter if you use the product or service of a particular company because their image stays with you. If you see a swoosh symbol, chances are you immediately think Nike. If you see an apple, then you think…Apple of course.
Have you ever noticed that you recognize those companies by their icons alone? Nike and Apple don’t use their name in their logos at all, probably a couple of the only companies to do this, yet they are both recognized throughout the world. And if you visit Target.com, you’ll notice they only use their icon, not their name on the website.
So does your business need an iconic image as part of your logo? Not necessarily. There are plenty of well-renowned companies out there with textural logos: Google, FedEx and Yahoo to name a few.
Are you making the same mistake as many business owners do by trying to over-complicate things? Can you apply the wisdom of a 5-year-old into your business? Look at your logo from a 5-year-old’s perspective. Is it visually striking? Is it memorable? Is it simple? Because if not you should go back to the drawing board? Or, of course, I’d be happy to help!
By the way, my 5-year-old graduated from pre-school today and I am one PROUD momma!
