As a resident of Vancouver, I see a lot of umbrellas. Back when I lived in California or at school, I’d see umbrellas but they were generally plain or I wouldn’t be paying attention to them. However, here in Vancouver, I see a lot of umbrellas with some sort of company or organization logo on them.
Clearly a company put a serious amount of cash into this venture (a quick search online reveals prices range from about $10 to $20 per unit) and the products were likely given away to employees. Perhaps other places, like the Vancouver Public Library (I don’t believe they carry umbrellas, but we will use them for the sake of example), might print an umbrella with the library name as a fund-raising attempt. Either way, personalized umbrellas are expensive.
As I walk down the street, I see tons of different logos and names to the point of habituation. I just stop caring what the logo is or the brand on the umbrella is; it is just an umbrella. As a design student, I try to make myself take a second look as I am interested to see what the company or organization is as well as looking at their logo. It is interesting to see what a company uses to represent itself. However, I’d imagine the average person would simply ignore logos after a time. In a lot of cases, the logo doesn’t even have a company name attached or there is no explanation of what services a company actually provides. So is the entire point just to get one’s logo out there and make people more familiar with a company’s brand name even if they don’t understand anything else about the company?
As I understand it, the inherent idea behind such a venture is to spread awareness and subconscious recognition of a brand name or logo. Say you are presented with a choice of 5 companies to pick from. If one had seen, even passingly, one logo more than the others, one might be more inclined toward that product as they feel more “comfortable” with that company. My question, though, is if this sort of advertising is really effective? However, I suppose given the price-point of billboards or other sorts of advertising, umbrellas are quite a cheap way to, at the very least, increase recognition of a company or a logo. Still, I feel that there must be a better way to advertise.
