Ask HN: Use of customer Logos | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Use of customer Logos

7 pointstoast766 comments

We've been having a chat here about the use of client logos on our product website. We currently don't have any, and don't have any immediate plans to add any. The main reason is, when we approached some fairly big name clients of ours earlier this year we were met repeatedly with, "I need to speak to legal/branding/marketing/CEO". This invariably resulted in silence or a resounding "we love your service, but we are in a competitive environment and we can't let our competitors know our processes blah blah".

Now, I'm fine with that, but what really interests me is that I know of many other sites that show many of the same logos from clients that declined our request.

The question is how many folks here list their headline grabbing customers' logos without permission. OR if you did get permission, how did you go about it?

I briefly worked for a large bank as a buyer and part of our contract with any supplier was a clause that they could not publicise us being their client without our explicit permission. The main motivation for that was simply that we did not want our name plastered everywhere, since most of the benefit from that would accrue to the supplier not us. I expect most other large companies are the same.

Yeah that's what I'm finding. It basically comes down to who is bigger. Smaller companies would love the exposure, larger companies consider it "association" and don't allow it.

Frustrating when you see Sony, Johnson&Johnson, Google, EA, MySpace, Travelocity, Staples, Dell and Microsoft plastered all over your competitors sites...but you can't use the same logos on yours.

I've never done it, but I suspect the easiest way to get "permission" (and I use the term loosely) is to add a section to your standard T&Cs, which customers agree to when they sign up, that allows you to identify current customers in your marketing materials.

I had considered doing this, but I get the feeling it wouldn't help should the company in question ask us to take it down. :)

Yeah, it's probably a bit late for that with current customers that have given you an explicit denial.

It is common courtesy to ask, if you provide a link to their homepage there is an added SEO benefit for them.

When you contact them you should request a proper size logo, be sure to uphold the image quality.

In my experience, companies are generally excited.

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