When consumers open an app or walk down a grocery aisle, they see a wide variety of brand logos. Some brands rely on entirely flat, two-dimensional designs. Others incorporate shading and visual highlights to make their logos look like physical objects.
A team of researchers recently investigated how these design choices influence consumer behavior. Taku Togawa and Naoto Onzo of Waseda University wanted to know if a three-dimensional logo provides a measurable advantage over a flat design. They also sought to identify the specific conditions under which these different logo formats perform best.
Their findings, published in the Journal of Marketing Research, show that three-dimensional logos can increase the likelihood that a consumer will purchase a brand’s products. This effect is not universal, however. The researchers found that visual clutter and the type of product being sold dictate whether a three-dimensional logo will actually help a brand.
The Path from Visual Depth to Brand Trust
To understand how a visual design choice influences buying behavior, the researchers outlined a specific sequence of psychological events. The process begins with depth cues, which are graphical techniques like shading, perspective, or cast shadows. These cues create the illusion of three-dimensionality on a flat screen or printed page.
When consumers see these depth cues in a logo, it prompts them to mentally simulate a physical object. The researchers refer to this response as logo realism, meaning the logo feels like a tangible form that exists in the real world. This perception of realism then triggers a sense of brand trust.
People often rely on visual cues to assess trustworthiness when they lack complete information about a product. The researchers argue that consumers unconsciously associate visual realism with reliability. As a result, the trust generated by a realistic-looking logo makes the consumer more likely to purchase the brand’s offerings.
Testing Logos in the Field and the Lab
The researchers tested this chain of events across a series of field and laboratory experiments. In one field study, they ran a Facebook advertising campaign for a fictitious headphone brand. They showed users ads featuring either a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional version of the same logo. The three-dimensional logo generated a significantly higher click-through rate.
A second field study tracked actual purchases. Working with a marketing consultancy, the researchers sent promotional emails to over 240,000 pharmacy customers. The emails advertised a new bandage brand and contained either a flat logo or a shaded, three-dimensional logo. Customers who received the email with the three-dimensional logo were significantly more likely to purchase the bandages in the following two weeks.
To confirm that brand trust was driving these behaviors, the researchers conducted controlled laboratory experiments. Participants viewed advertisements for fictitious watch and furniture brands. Across these tests, participants who viewed three-dimensional logos consistently reported higher levels of perceived logo realism and brand trust compared to those who viewed flat logos.
The Impact of Background Clutter
While the initial studies showed a clear advantage for three-dimensional designs, the researchers suspected that the surrounding visual environment might change the outcome. Translating depth cues into a mental image of a physical object requires cognitive effort. Specifically, it relies on visuospatial resources in the brain.
If a logo is placed on a highly complex or cluttered background, the brain has to process multiple visual elements at once. The researchers hypothesized that this visual load would leave consumers with fewer cognitive resources to process the logo’s depth cues. To test this, they presented participants with packaging for a fictitious chocolate brand, varying both the logo’s dimensionality and the complexity of the background patterns.
The results supported their theory. When the background was simple, the three-dimensional logo successfully increased perceived realism, trust, and purchase intentions. When the background was complex, the three-dimensional logo provided no advantage over the flat design.
Matching the Logo to the Product
The researchers also investigated how the nature of the product itself influences the effectiveness of a three-dimensional logo. Products and services vary in their tangibility. Material goods like furniture are highly concrete, while services like consulting are abstract.
The researchers theorized that a logo mimicking a tangible physical object would work best for concrete products. To test this alignment, they created a fictitious fitness brand and manipulated its perceived abstractness. Half of the participants read about an equipment-based gym utilizing tangible machines. The other half read about an equipment-free fitness class focused entirely on body-weight exercises.
Participants then viewed an advertisement featuring either a flat or three-dimensional logo. For the equipment-based gym, the three-dimensional logo increased brand trust and purchase intentions. For the equipment-free class, the three-dimensional logo offered no benefit over the flat design.
Applying the Findings to Brand Strategy
The study provides marketing managers with specific guidelines for evaluating their visual brand identities. The findings indicate that three-dimensional logos are most effective for brands operating in trust-sensitive categories, provided the logo is displayed in an environment that allows its depth cues to be easily processed.
If a brand frequently displays its logo in visually complex settings, such as cluttered digital interfaces or highly colorful packaging, a flat design may perform just as well as a three-dimensional one. Redesigning a flat logo to include depth cues in these environments is unlikely to yield meaningful behavioral changes among consumers.
Product tangibility should also guide logo design decisions. Companies selling physical goods or services that involve heavy interaction with tangible objects are well-positioned to benefit from three-dimensional logos. Conversely, for digital platforms, cloud-based software, and other highly abstract offerings, three-dimensional visual effects provide little incremental value.
