Branding Crimes: 1. Missing Logo
Yes, the Interface is the brand, and we all appreciate that Toyota (no, it’s not Reuters or Havoline) now uses legible font sizes—but few interfaces qualify to leave out the main orientative element… And this one certainly doesn’t. So where is the logo? And how could this happen?
Here are three most common scenarios:
- The decision to leave out the logo in the upper left or right corner goes back to obnoxious paper based branding guidelines: “Use the logo as a lay over in pictures only…”
- It’s another award winning internal decision: “…we are Toyota and we do whatever we want with our site…”
- Toyota just hired the most advanced web design agency around: “Leaving out the logo is a small step for Toyota and one giant leap for web design…”
You have to see it to believe it—but don’t click anything if you dislike popups. And if you still wonder why car websites have low traffic: Read this.
Update: Some links on the subject
Putting the logo in the upper left is an old standard that obviously is not obvious enough for people outside our field. Maybe we should have provided this info in the first place, instead of tricking you into silly comments ; ). So here is some info to chew upon:
“A recommended standard is to put a corporate or organizational logo in the upper left corner of the screen (upper right corner in countries using a right-to-left language).” Jacob Nielsen, 1996
“The company logo in the upper left corner of a webpage has become one of the most standard elements on web interfaces. Designers began placing it here because the occidental reading direction moves from left to right and because of this the company’s logo is likely be the first thing seen on the page. Studies have confirmed that features in the first screen quadrant are indeed noticed faster than others placed on the bottom right. Of course this can change if stronger graphics dominate other parts of the screen.” usability.About.com
A conference on Improving Web Usability (9th Annual Accessing Higher Ground 2006, Trace Donald, Auburn University) states the following key point on Page layout:
1. Keep a consistent navigational structure
2. Locate your name or logo in the upper left corner of each page
3. Link it to your homepage
4. Locate Search boxes in the upper right corner
5. Don’t link to the page you are on
Recent Discussion started by CNN’s CD: Why do we insist on placing the logo in thetopleft corner?
This is beyond comprehension! Made my jaw drop when I first looked at it. Obviously Toyota is an incredibly successful company and a very strong brand right now, but that will change if they continue to make decisions like this.
But isn’t this some sort of satellite site, perhaps for their motor racing?
http://toyota.jp still has the logo prominently in view…
Hi there, Designing websites and keeping in mind the various requirements is an uphill task.
One needs to have a sound knowledge for it!
Regards
Robbo,
It’s not a satellite site (actually, “.co.jp” is harder to get, it used to be higher status). Yet even if it were just a satellite site, it wouldn’t change a thing…
Well this was really worth seeing before believing. I totally agree with the designers of this site as far as the use of the corporate logo is concerned. Your choice of example still picture does not do justice to the series of images with Toyota not only beautifully placed inside their space but also Toyota all over the story. After all, it’s cars they sell, not logotypes.
Pauli,
Of course I take an example that illustrates my point. Your comment surprises me though. Are you a webdesigner? Usually web designers don’t consider Flash movies part of the basic design grid. The logo is part of the information design grid. Hiding it in a flash movie creates confusion, no matter how obvious you make it in the movie. The first look of an Internet user usually goes to the upper left corner. If the logo is missing there, he takes a look at the right. If there is no mark in either of these areas he gets confused. This stuff has been researched over and over again, so it’s not about taste or opinion, beautiful or not… Anyway, maybe you prefer this shot:
I guess the thinking was something like this: The company name is in the big image twice, we don’t need to repeat it anywhere. The logo is in the address bar. We don’t want to place too much emphasis on the Toyota brand because we also have Lexus. This is website for the company, not for the Toyota brand. If they want to know about the Toyota brand cars, they should go to toyota.jp.
The mistake is that the navigation to the Toyota.jp and Lexus.jp sites is too small. They overlooked the case where a consumer accidentally goes to toyota.co.jp instead of toyota.jp. They could solve this by making the navigation to these two sites bigger and placing it over the flash image.
Worse, the English version of the page seems to be missing the navigation bar for toyota.jp and lexus.jp altogether.
I saw the Japanese version first and iA’s comments make a lot of sense when looking at that version of it. Most of the images in the Flash billboard have “Panasonic” in much larger type than “Toyota”. The English version displays a different movie in the billboard. The “Toyota” logo is present in the left side of the space while the movie loads, drawing your attention to it. Also, most of the images (save the Havoline one in the article), the logo is set off from the image on which it sits. It’s still clear where it is. It seems to me that they should be more judicious in selecting images so the logo is always set off.
Since the billboard is really promoting 50 years of Toyota Racing, it’ll be interesting how they treat the logo in a different promotion.
The over-reaction is a bit laughable. I could tell straight off that it was a Toyota site, but that’s just me.
I doubt this will have any effect on their brand, if any. Everyone chill.
Hasan,
It’s not about what you or I feel. And that the Japanese version is being perceived as a Panasonic website by two test persons I tried it with is not even relevant. What counts is:
Bez,
I know. He probably means “don’t link to the page you’re on”. I didn’t want to change the mistake, as it’s really unclear what he means. Maybe I should just take that out.
Most people think branding is putting your logo on each of your 35 PowerPoint slides (doh!), especially in Japan.
So, it surprises me little, but it illustrates brilliantly that even branding giants like Toyota are not immune to such blatant branding blunders.
Well spotted.
So people get there (or anywhere online for that matter) either by a link from another website or by typing in the url right?
Don’t mean to say you are wrong i just think you are cutting the case a bit too onesided.
Personally oftentimes i get much more frustrated with corporate sites that contain multiple logos on each page than if they’ve chosen to tone it down or place it alternatively.
I’m not saying it’s the case with toyota corporate but looking over the whole world wide web i can think of a lot of cases where this form of alternative placement or use of an identity plays to a brands advantage.
Saying that all over the web in any case the logo should be clear and big and in the upper left corner is just too reductionist.