Some companies use image-based logos (e.g., Pepsi and Apple), while others use text-based logos (e.g., GameStop and Kohl’s). This research examines the influence of brand familiarity on consumers’ responses to these distinct logo formats. Four studies show that when consumers are familiar with a brand, they respond more favorably to image-based logos than to text-based logos. However, when less familiar, consumers prefer text-based logos over image-based logos. Studies include secondary data analysis on the real-world performance of several hundred global brands with logos of varying image-to-text design ratios. Three controlled experiments then identify processing fluency as the mechanism underlying the observed effects. Together, results provide insights for logo design optimization across companies and over a brand’s lifetime, identify brand familiarity as a key consumer-based determinant of logo design effectiveness, and reveal a novel moderator to the common empirical finding that images are favorable to text.

一些公司使用基于图像的徽标（例如百事可乐和苹果），而其他公司则使用基于文本的徽标（例如GameStop和Kohl's）。这项研究研究了品牌熟悉度对消费者对这些独特徽标格式的反应的影响。四项研究表明，当消费者熟悉品牌时，他们对基于图像的徽标的响应要比对基于文本的徽标的响应更好。但是，当不那么熟悉时，消费者更喜欢基于文本的徽标而不是基于图像的徽标。研究包括对具有数百种图像/文字设计比例徽标的全球数百个品牌的真实表现进行的辅助数据分析。然后，通过三个受控实验将处理流畅性确定为观察到的效果的基础。总之，结果可为整个公司以及整个品牌的生命周期提供徽标设计优化的见解，