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Love for logos: Evaluating the congruency between brand symbols and typefaces and their relation to emotional words

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Abstract

Simple line segments and shapes convey emotional meaning, with rounder shapes being linked with positive emotions and generally preferred over more angular shapes. We assessed the hypothesis that brand components – specifically typeface and logo symbol – with similar scores on visual analogue scales (anchored by sound/shape symbolic stimuli) would be associated with a higher frequency of positive emotions. We also evaluated whether roundness or angularity were correlated with positively valenced emotions. Nine different brand logos were tested; each was separated into its logo symbol and typeface. Half of the 80 participants rated the logotype while the other half rated the logo symbol using a variety of shape symbolism scales. The participants were also asked to choose the emotions that they associated with each of the brands from a list of 20 emotions. Brand components that presented (dis-) similar scores in terms of the shape symbolism scales were coded as (in-) congruent. Those brands with more congruent scores also presented more positive as compared with negative emotions. These results support the view that more congruent design elements in brand logos can give rise to higher emotional engagement. They also help to explain the way in which consumers perceive brands.

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Notes

  1. Note that the visual presentation of the brands may change over time. The brands tested here were from the end of 2013, beginning of 2014.

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Correspondence to Alejandro Salgado-Montejo.

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1Currently conducting his DPhil studies at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory, University of Oxford. His research focuses on how visual information can convey emotion and influence decision making and reward estimation. He has worked with several multinational corporations in topics, such as packaging development and evaluation, food, behavioural finance, design, film, marketing, innovation, social behaviour and entrepreneurship. He has presented in diverse events and academic symposia which include TEDxOxford, The Royal Institution, ESOMAR, SXSW, FENS, EBBS and The Pangborn Society Meeting.

2DPhil student of Experimental Psychology at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. His research focuses on crossmodal correspondences and visual attention, and its applications to multisensory experience design. He has participated in both academic and industry congresses including SPSP, IMRF, Pangborn, SXSW, ABA, Digital Biscuit and ESOMAR. His research has been published in journals, such as Food Quality and Preference, Journal of Sensory Studies and Flavour, and has been covered by several media news, for example, BBC, ScienceShot, Daily Mail and NPR.

3Electronics engineer and MSc in intelligent systems design. He has focused on topics of AI and the development of models of cognition and conceptual representations, as well as the simulations of social behaviour and the evolution of emerging patterns. He has worked and carried out research with psychologists on evaluating and enhancing experiences through understanding, modelling and predicting human behaviours. His work is driven by interests in intelligence, the emergence of complex behaviours and the recognition of patterns in human activities for proposing more embedded and natural ways of interaction, and the creation of collaborative learning between humans and machines.

4Assistant Professor of Analytics at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He has a MSc in Analytics from North Carolina State University and is pursuing a PhD in Engineering. His research interests are in analytics of databases of human behaviour and Human–Computer Interaction in the field of judgmental forecasting. His work has been published in refereed academic journals including Computers in Human Behavior and the Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration.

5Received his PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1995. He is a university professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory. He has published over 500 articles in top-flight scientific journals over the last decade and has been awarded the 10th Experimental Psychology Society Prize, the British Psychology Society: Cognitive Section Award, the Paul Bertelson Award, recognizing him as the young European Cognitive Psychologist of the Year and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrefour; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davivienda; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.A.C.I._Falabella; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta; http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homecenter_Sodimac; http://www.revistapym.com.co/noticias/rediseno/agua-manantial-renueva-su-imagen; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(gum)

Appendix

Table A1

Table A1 List of emotions presented to participants

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Salgado-Montejo, A., Velasco, C., Olier, J. et al. Love for logos: Evaluating the congruency between brand symbols and typefaces and their relation to emotional words. J Brand Manag 21, 635–649 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2014.29

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