Power of a Great Badge

Have you noticed that some car makers do not feel the need to spell out their names? Next time you’re on the road glance the back of any car. Most have their names spelled out in close proximity of the logo or somewhere on the back of the car except Honda (Ridgeline and CR-V are the exceptions), Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volkswagen. These four have gone without spelling out their names for the past couple decades or so.

These companies are confident that people will recognize the brand by the mere presence of the logo by itself the same way that people do with brands like Apple, Nike, McDonald’s. And they’re right. Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volkswagen have all done a great job of building a name for themselves. But the instant recognition also has lot to do with the design of the logo itself. These memorable logos usually consist of easily recognized simple shapes and lines.

Mazda and Chevrolet are among the few that recently decided to ditch the text on some of their models. However, I think Mazda is not really ready to do this yet. Mazda’s identity as well as its logo is somewhat weak in my opinion.

I’m not counting the ones that have small writings in the logo such as; Ford, BMW, Rolls Royce, Porsche or Nissan.