The world’s greatest logo!

By Wally Olins

Whenever I’m interviewed about branding I almost always get asked: “What is the world’s greatest logo?” By which I suppose the interviewer means, what is the world’s most recognised brand?

Well, a brand isn’t a logo. A logo is literally a symbol, a symbol of what the brand stands for. Of course, there are some symbols, or logos, that are full of meaning, which represent a universal idea recognisable in all human societies. But many of the world’s greatest and most memorable logos have no intrinsic meaning at all — they simply are the visible manifestation of the core idea behind the brand.

And there’s one logo in particular that encapsulates this. It’s the Red Cross.

Over the last 150 years or so, the Red Cross has become the ultimate symbol of an organisation that stands for humanity. In its behaviour in battle zones and elsewhere, the Red Cross is so completely vulnerable, neutral and defenceless that it has become virtually invulnerable. You just don’t attack the Red Cross.

It’s the great global brand — the exemplar of what a brand should be. And yet, as far as I know, not one of those drearily predictable brand valuation organisations has even recognised its existence, let alone attempted to put a price on it.Why? Because, like so many great brands, its true value is incalculable — it is literally priceless.

The logo is simply the Swiss flag reversed. It has no religious connotations even though the Red Crescent, its sister organisation, implies that it has. Everybody, everywhere in the world knows the Red Cross logo and respects it. Everyone, everywhere in the world recognises what it stands for. It runs hardly any advertising campaigns but its logo and its name are instantly recognisable.

The story is that after the Battle of Solferino in 1859, in which Austrian, French and Sardinian (Italian) troops slaughtered each other in enormous numbers, a Swiss citizen, Henri Dunant, wandered on to the battlefield where he saw thousands of wounded soldiers from both sides lying screaming in agony, as they waited to die. He was so moved by the suffering that he set up what became the Red Cross. It has no nationality, no prejudices and no interests other than humanitarian aid.So the lesson we learn from this is that the world’s greatest logos embody and enshrine in symbolic form all the characteristics that make the brand so unique. Great logos communicate great brand values instantaneously.

Perhaps people wanting to build brands should remember that. Building the brand takes time, trouble, research, discussion — and then a strategy, followed by an idea — a clear, simple idea. Like Apple, whose idea is simplicity — or the Red Cross, which stands for humanity. After you have the idea, you can start to visualise it. You can tell your customers, your staff, your suppliers, your investors what it means.

Of course, the brand needs to be enshrined in a logo — but the logo is not the brand.

Wally Olins is chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants and is one of the world’s leading practitioners of corporate identity and branding. Wally has advised many of the world’s leading organisations like 3i, Repsol, BT, Prudential, Renault, Volkswagen and Tata on identity, branding and communications. He has acted as adviser to both McKinsey and Bain on branding and marketing. Wally has written several books including the seminal work ‘Corporate Identity’. His book ‘Wally Olins On Brand’ is being published in over 20 countries. He was awarded the CBE in 1999.