Retail Alphabet Game

John Dodds points us to the Retail Alphabet Game, which has been around nearly as long as me, though I never saw it before.

Part of the surprise of the game is that when it’s easy, it’s really easy. Most of the time, it’s impossible.

I think this tells us something insightful about logos, though I’m not certain what it is.

I also think it tells us something even more insightful about names and experiences. I won’t forget, probably ever, the horrible way a flight attendant called Sigma treated me on a Northwest Airlines flight on Monday, but I honestly can’t remember their logo. And thirty years later, I still remember the incredibly nice people at the Cleveland Airport Hilton, but yes, I admit, it might have been a Sheraton.

Big companies don’t hesitate to drop a fortune building and then repeating a brand image. But that little umbrella over the T in citibank (that’s a hint for edition 4, folks) has zero emotional resonance.