Three quarters of PR people confuse consumers

Prontaprint (a UK design and print shop) just launched publicity of some research they did on companies and consumers and logo design.

Headlined as "Three Quarters of UK Businesses Confuse Consumers with Company Logo", the press release boldly claimed that "Three quarters of UK companies admit that their business logo may be causing more confusion than clarity to consumers trying to work out what products and services they actually offer". This, I thought, was a pretty interesting idea and dived on into the article to find out more.

I read on. Apparently half of companies admitted that brand identity wasn't too important when they launched their business. 78% of people state company logo and colours as top of the list (alongside value) of factors that influence their purchase decision. The press release also reports to be shocked that 88% of businesses have no plans to change their logos. Shocking indeed.

This is all very interesting, but where's the beef to back up this claim of 75% of company logos confusing consumers?

IS there any beef to back up this claim?

Getting further down the article, Prontaprint state that over three quarters of companies confirm that blue is their primary logo color, while simultaneously selecting red as the color most effective in reaching customers.

The remainder of the press release contains some invigorating comments from Prontaprint's head of marketing who expresses surprise at the results and exhorts sensible business people to get themselves to a Prontaprint immediately for some logo redesign.

And nothing more on the topic of research results.

Is that it? Is the fact that over three quarters of companies use blue but prefer red the divine revelation we were searching for?

Is there truly any confusion to report? Or is Prontaprint's press team just stretching some dull findings for as much media mileage as possible?

To their credit, I at least bothered to read their press release. So you could say their job was at least half well-done.

Perhaps I'm just not clever enough to understand what they were trying to say about custom logo design. Who knows? This press release has left me 100% confused.