Do you need a logo if you own a colour? A lesson in branding from the Giro d'Italia

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm in love with the world of cycling. I love the sport, the community, the history.

You may (or may not) have found yourself flicking past the TNT Sports channel and wondering who watches these elite athletes cycling coastal roads, across iconic towns and cities, and up and down picturesque mountains for five hours at a time? Me. I do.

The Giro d'Italia takes place during May and, if you know anything about it, you probably just pictured pink.

Not a logo. Not a typeface. Not a tagline. Just pink.

Pink is to the Giro what yellow is to the Tour de France, and La Maglia Rosa is the pink jersey worn by the leader throughout the race. One of the most distinctive brand assets in sport, it didn't get there by accident. It got there because, in 1931, someone decided that pink would be the jersey colour, committed to it completely, and never looked back.

Nearly one hundred years of one colour, one signal, one unmistakable mark of leadership.

That's not just good branding. That's belief.

Most brands do the opposite. They hedge their bets. They refresh. They update their colour palettes, redesign their logos, change their visual language to align with the latest trends. And in doing so they quietly erode the very thing that makes them recognisable – the accumulated equity of repetition.

Here's the uncomfortable truth. What most people actually remember about a brand before they think of the logo is usually something quite simple. A colour, a shape, a sound, maybe even a feeling.

La Maglia Rosa doesn't need to have the words “Giro d'Italia” slapped across it in a big bold font for people to know what they are watching. It doesn't need to explain itself. It just needs to show up on a mountain climb in the Dolomites, in a sprint finish in Rome, on the shoulders of the race leader, and the whole story lands in an instant.

That's what a genuine distinctive brand asset does. It carries meaning without explanation. 

Seen in a flash, recognised in an instant.

The learning? It's not just about just picking something distinctive in a brand workshop and writing it into your brand guidelines. It’s about showing up, again and again, until it becomes synonymous with your brand and living in people’s heads, not just in your deck.

So, when it comes to thinking about your own brand, the question shouldn’t be about whether your logo is well-designed. 

The real question should be: what do you truly own?

Want to build something people recognise in an instant? Get in touch.