Stability or instability: the impact of brand concepts on logo design preferences

It is generally accepted that logo characteristics have significant effects on consumer brand preferences. However, little is known about how logo stability and instability drive consumer attitudes. To address this gap in the logo literature, the authors draw on a new perspective of brand concepts based on human values and explore why and how this logo characteristic exerts influence. Across three studies, the authors show that consumers prefer a stable logo brand when it embodies conservation concepts, while they prefer an unstable logo brand when it embodies openness concepts. The underlying mechanism for this matching effect is processing fluency. Furthermore, the matching effect is attenuated for people who are low (vs. high) in visual information processing. Overall, these findings shed light on when and how marketers should adopt stability/instability in logo design.