The logo for the 2012 olympics in London was revealed the other day.  The brand was developed at a U.S. equivalent cost of nearly $800,000.  According to London 2012 organizing chairman, Sebastian Coe,

“This is the vision at the very heart of our brand.”

 Already, an online petition for a new logo has been started and gained over 40,000 virtual signatures in the first 2 days.  One british citizen was upset that the “0″ looks too much like Australia.  Most simply called it “rubbish”.  I certainly agree.  I wonder where the money went.  Were there focus groups?  Were people asked what image they get when they think of the olympics and London?  Did they respond with “Shards of glass?” 

More than likely this mediocrity is the result of something that’s pretty common: Too many cooks in the kitchen.  I’m certain the olympic brand probably has to go through some kind of board of directors made up of a group of self-important people who each want to press their own agenda.  In projects like this, the end result is often some sort of compromise.

Compromise can be good in things like marriage and contract negotiations, but it’s seldom a good thing in design.  Usually you end up with elements from multiple designs that all good, but very different.  The result is often bad design.  I’m extremely confident that given $800,000, we could come up with a logo that kicks the pants off this one.  I’m also pretty confident that the firm they hired already did…it just wasn’t chosen.   

As business people, we all need to take a look at our people skills every once in a while. We strive to communicate with our clients, our potential customers and our internal staff with a level of respect and understanding. A recent email I received from The Guerrilla Marketing Association sums up their idea of the importance of interpersonal communication.

Human Relations

Because you are specialists in human relations, I know you would be delighted by taking this course in human relations:

• The six most important words in business: “I admit that I was wrong.”
• The five most important words in business: “You did a great job.”
• The four most important words in business: “What do you think?”
• The three most important words in business: “Could you please…”
• The two most important words in business: “Thank you.”
• The one most important word in business: “We.”

To read up on marketing advise you can use for your business, check out Jay Conrad Levinson’s “Guerrilla Marketing” series of books. Over 14 million copies of those books have been sold. Entrepreneur Magazine lists Jay as one of the “foremost business marketing experts in the world.”