Brands have a place in our hearts. How about our brains?

Visualize the brand logo for Burger King. Now for Starbucks. OK, which one has a crown? If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. While instantly recognizable, logos often occupy a fuzzy place in our minds.

Inspired by a recent study, we decided to conduct an experiment. Armed with markers and crayons, our agency staff attempted to draw iconic logos from memory. Did we have near-perfect recall… or had our brains undergone a logo-botomy? As it turns out, a little of both.

Takeaways from our logo challenge
Aside from an obvious need for art lessons for our marketing people (sorry, guys!), our handiwork revealed the following:

Even people in the brand business (us!) are hard-pressed to remember the finer points of logos. Yet overall, our recall was solid. Not surprisingly, we do better with wordmarks featuring a simple graphic accent than we do with pictures.

Brand affection or familiarity doesn’t necessarily improve recall. Some of us could accurately depict brands we hadn’t interacted with in years. Others had trouble with the logo on their laptops or coffee cups.

Many people remember older versions of a logo. Which validates the idea that a brand can update its logo for a younger market and still not lose its older audience. In fact, they may not even notice the change so long as the logo retains key characteristics.