From the brand logo to brand associations and the corporate identity: visual and identity-based logo associations in a university merger

Brand logos are a fundamental part of the corporate visual identity, and their reception has been vigorously researched. The focus has been on the visual traits of the logo and their effect on the reception process, whereas little attention has been paid to how the logo becomes part of the brand. This article narrows this research gap in investigating how a new logo is evaluated, how the perception evolves, and what underlying dimensions emerge from the reception process. We adopted a longitudinal free-association approach and followed the qualitative and quantitative changes in logo associations among first-year students at Aalto University as it was going through a merger accompanied with a radical visual-identity redesign. We show how the new logo faced initial resistance before it became a source of positive brand associations, and how it became anchored in the university´s corporate identity. We argue that logo evaluations span three dimensions: they may be congruent or incongruent with the disposition of the individual toward the change: they may be congruent or incongruent with the visual preferences of the individual; and they may be based on the visuals of the logo or on its identity-expressing capabilities.