The origin of logo promotional products goes back to the nineteenth century. It was time, when the industrial manufacture of products became important. New products were distributed in large geographical areas, even nationwide and new competitors appeared. Consequently, the offer of products of the same kind increased notably. At the same time, a major part of the population was still illiterate and would not easily differentiate the product of one industrial leader from the same product of their competitors. That is the reason why manufactures began to include a symbol, a sign or an emblem to their products, labels and packages so that all the buyers could easily recognize the product they wanted. Later, they began to add the name of the company or of the product (the name was shaped in a specific way) to the sign. These combined logotypes for the first time contained a sign and a name. They became extremely popular very quickly and more and more new logo promotional products were designed.

During many decades, owners, advertising professionals and graphic designers attempted to create a sign or an emblem that together with the name of the company, product or service, would appear as a logotype.

Nowadays, a logotype consists of either a name or a name and a sign. Large corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to update and implement their logo promotional products. They usually demand a logo preview to be sure it will work. Many small businesses simply turn to local graphic designers to do a corporate logo.

Due to the design, the color, the shape and eventually additional elements of the logotype, a company or products can easily be differentiated from the other logotypes. For instance, Coca Cola's script is well known all over the world and is associated with the red colour. Its main competitor, Pepsi, has taken the blue colour, though they have abandoned their script logo. A box of Kellogg's cereals has a unique typography and a distinctive red colouring due to which it can be easily recognized on a supermarket's shelf from a certain distance. The same is true with Hertz Rent-A-Car Company. Due to the shape and the yellow color of its logotype, the company can be easily recognised from afar.

Evaluating what the mark means to a consumer, you should also mention the following logos:

You can sum up automotive brands with their corporate logos - from the Chevrolet "Bow Tie" mark to the circle marks of VW, Mercedes and BMW, and to the interlocking "RR" of Rolls-Royce. All these logos stand for a brand and clearly differentiate the product line.

Among other globally recognised logos are: the Nike "Swoosh" and the Adidas "Three stripes". These are two well-known brands that are defined by their corporate logos. When Phil Knight started Nike, he wanted to find a mark as recognizable as the Adidas stripes. He hired a young student (Caroline Davidson) and paid her thirty five dollars for the design of his logo. Later, it became one of the best-known marks in the world (she was later compensated again by the company).

As you can see, logo promotional products can bring the recognition that you want your product to have; give a hard thought on the logo, as it may represent you for life all over the world and be a key in the success of your company.