The current climate is causing a real shift in how consumers use the internet. During the boom years of the past decade, we saw a huge number of small startup businesses trying to compete with the big boys. Lots of these companies are been over night success stories online. People were willing to buy products and services from a company or website they’d never heard of, if the price was lower. But business are loosing the battle against the recession every day, many of them most likely leaving customer orders unfulfilled, thus consumer confidence is at an all time low. What does this mean? well it means that all of those bargain hunters are returning to the big brands that they recognise, even if that means spending more money, because they don’t want to take the risk.

Although in times such as these when people are worried for their jobs or loosing them, some start to consider their dream business online and of being their own boss. Research from Barclays last year showed that there were 98,000 start-ups created in the UK within a three month period, despite the credit crunch. Yet it’s a tough road to go down. While nearly 100,000 new start-ups are taking off another 100,000 are crashing to the bankruptcy pile!

For me, without a doubt many startups fail because they underestimate the importance of branding. Your logo and identity is the first impression customers have of you. It’s crucial to what people use to judge whether you are trustworthy or not. But it’s so often the case that startup owners put off paying professional logo design in the initial stages. It seams to be a matter of “Lets wait and see what happens, then we will design something”.Then they design one themselves in photoshop and thinking that looks fine, load it up to the site. Many go for free clipart template business cards and stationery design from somewhere like vista print.

This is a big no-no. You need to look like a professional organisation that’s in it for the long haul.In the middle of a recession, most consumers are nervous about who to trust, so a brand needs to demonstrate that they are trustworthy and dependable. You also want to avoid looking like a very small business, even if you are one. So, these days online customers are looking back to the bigger brands or at least who they deem to be the big brands. So basically, these days users care more about who a brand is and less about what they are, a good brand is much more likely to be recommended to friends than one that consumers are less sure about.

The bottom line is this. About 50% of all new start-ups are forced into bankruptcy within only a few years. Many experts say that one of the top causes of business failure online is bad marketing. A custom logo design helps you create the right image for this marketing to succeed. So do yourself a favour - start looking at some sample logos in your industry and see what the successful ones have in common.Find yourself a professional designer who can carve out a unique identity for your brand and ensure its success in such a stormy climate.