Yes, a logo or visual identity update won’t do as much for your company, when you’re just starting out.
I’m not saying it won’t do anything at all, but indeed there are more difficult problems to be dealt with at that time.
However, that’s not the case for everyone. It all depends on what stage you’re at in your company. It’s like some sort of a Maslow Pyramid for companies.
At the bottom of this pyramid there’s a working, helpful product. Then revenue, profit, company image/reputation and so on.
At the same time, you want to build on top of this pyramid with strong elements. There’s no pyramid where a level preceding another level is weaker. The former has to maintain the heavier one.
As a consequence, I think there are two ways we can look at this “pyramid as a company” metaphor:
- You can either build a new “pyramid” every time you want to update something. To get out of the metaphor, it’d mean creating a new board of directors, logo or software application every time your company hits a new milestone.
- Or, you can just update on the previous foundation. It implies investing more time, effort and it also implies having the long-term thought before it happened — just so you have a strong foundation.
In other words, case #2 means you can update the older logo/board of directors/software app, if all these have had a strong foundation.
#2 makes more sense on paper, even with the time and money investment. More often than not, SaaS CEOs go on route #1. Why? Because… “it’s just easier to start from the ground, given how complicated the situation is”.
And the situation was complicated because there wasn’t any solid foundation.
By solid foundation, I precisely mean thinking about one thing:
How painful it might be in 3 years from the company’s foundation to completely change a board of directors/the software app/a logo.
Most don’t think about that.
You should do, after reading this. Just so you don’t create a new sand pyramid every time you hit a new threshold of success/growth as a company.
Build a stronger, limestone pyramid — it takes longer, but it compounds.
About Ch Daniel
I’ve updated this signature in July 2020, so older mentions of the signature might not make sense.
I currently don’t write on this blog anymore. I wrote daily for 9 months on this very blog, but now I’m focused on building the CH Group.
If you want to follow my newer articles, check out the CH Group’s blog.
See everything I do here: Chdaniel.com
