Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that a sports branding company called “Distinctive Bat” conducted a survey which concluded that the Detroit Red Wings’ logo and jersey are the most recognizable logo and jersey in the NHL:
The Red Wings come out top in both the logo and jersey distinctiveness stakes. Among other NHL teams, the Anaheim Ducks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers also consistently featured in the top five.
“Across both logos and jerseys, a clear pattern emerges – some NHL brands are almost instantly retrieved in memory,” Freddie Bell, Research Director at Distinctive BAT, said in a statement. “Others require greater mental processing before they can be correctly attributed.”
That isn’t necessary when the Red Wings are the subject.
“Detroit’s iconic red winged-wheel logo is a near-literal visual expression of the team name,” Bell said. “The asset and the brand name occupy much the same mental territory. Fans don’t need to perform any interpretation to connect one with another.”
Similarly, the San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs all benefit from the synergy between what the team is called and what consumers see.
“Taken together, these results point to a broader principle,” Bell said. “Brands become easier to identify when their visual and verbal assets reinforce the same memory structure, rather than requiring people to create new ones.”
Continued; a Red Wing is a Red Wing is a Red Wing. James Norris, Detroit’s first owner, imported the logo if his Montreal “Winged Wheelers” hockey club, flipping it from a vertical logo to a horizontal wing, and the rest is history.