That kind of thing never bothered me. 

That kind of thing never bothered me.  

Doesn't bother me either. It's called...

It's called brand recognition. Many companies outside of our hobby never change their logos. They're iconic, people grew up with them. I have other things that bother me, like why some of my engineers fail to follow instructions during an operating session. Now that bothers me...

Neal

Not really a priority

For me either, it’s about the models or products related to model railroading, not web design, sorry.

I'm guessing you guys have

I'm guessing you guys have been in hobby for years more than 5 years..

The main way for new people to get involved is take a guess which company website which forum is worth investing their time and money ...they should be asking themselves the question will this company be around in 5 years because this hobby takes 5 years to get committed. And if you are not in the USA it is more so. Your brand appearance website mostly gives you confidence that you can buy track from this company or engine from that company because you want support to be there in the future.

...

If you have ever made those kinds of decisions of what to buy and what to use based upon the company logo and letterhead, you deserve the cheapest junk in the box that they can possibly place there because it is what is in the box that matters.  Everything else will simply help you find it later, and in a sea of everything looking new and modern, finding these companies with old logos is even easier.

It's far better to spend $50,000 on a new product run than a new logo and letterhead.  A new logo only means the company has a graphic design artist on hand.  Nothing else.

Not so!

A well designed website does not mean that. Some products look great on screen, but actual products are not up to par. You want to learn who’s a better product, you read reviews or ask on hobbyist web sites. People will give you more solid advice. Now, there will also be many opinions, so you will have to digest that. But, guessing a well designed website guarantees nothing.

agree with others

It doesn't mean much to me either. I'm from the 'text' generation of computers. 24x80, vga, green on black, rectangular cursors, etc. Ah, those were the days.

So when I hear about a brand, I slap http://www. on the front and .com on the end and go there and scroll down past whatever logo they have without a second glance. Big splashy logos and non-scrolling title bars that take up vertical real estate in my browser are basically annoyances. 

This whole thing comes across to me as a pet peeve. You're entitled to them, I'm not going to argue with you, but I don't share your concern. I have plenty of my own pet peeves already.

Logos and such?

Shouldn't be the reason folks buy the products. They should spend time learning about the hobby and building their skills then buy what they need. The hobby is a lot more rewarding if one spends more time modeling than shopping. I think the emphasis on consumerism make it a lot harder for the newbies to learn basic modeling skills these days compared to the old days when we had no choice but to build or customize to get what we wanted....DaveB

I'm not so worried about the

I'm not so worried about the logos and branding. I'm more just worried about functional websites that are easily navigable and don't make me boil with rage. 

Speaking of branding. I miss the old Athearn Blue Box. The 3 versions I'm familiar with Steam, Diesel and modern Diesel. It is/was such a mainstay branding choice. The modern Genesis brand is cool, but the RTR and Roundhouse Branding just suck. Wish they'd make some sort of updated version of the old boxes.

Bingo

There you go, that's what folks will notice most right away.

functional web sites, and editing

When you get to the size of a Walthers or a Kalmbach, I think the OP has a point. But his post illustrates what, to me, is a higher priority: hire an editor!

Model railroaders who have been around for a while have learned that there is no correlation between marketing expertise and quality products. I agree that less experienced hobbyists have some obstacles to overcome when getting to know the landscape of this cottage industry, but when it comes to allocating scarce resources I would urge vendors to start with having someone off the street proof read their copy on ads, packaging, instruction materials, (and forum posts!). 

A slightly different thing.

For me, it's not the logo or such. It's the instruction sheet that comes with the product. Or booklet. But the minimal literature that comes with Bachmann makes me cringe. Look at the nice stuff that comes with most quality locos, BLI for example. And how do you know up front how good they are? You buy a loco based upon several things. Among which is price. But also reputation - and that's where we rely on forums. To hear from the person that first bought something. So you can imagine how disappointing it is when you open the Bachmann loco and can't even find the CV's they "should be" providing. (Oh yeah, contact Soundtraxx) And when you try to find out how to remove the shell, you have to go to YouTube to find out how. And finally, when you remove the coupler to remove the shell, you go through Heck (or use your favorite word.) trying to re-install the coupler.

So being in the hobby for more than 5 years we are biased?

The logo's seem to be what they are and not any disadvantage that I can see.  Moot.  As Joe commented, website presence, ease of use and design probably has a mum much greater influence on appeal. 

Logo....no

I don't really care about the logo. If this or that company has a top quality item, that is what I want. If they have a crap logo, I'll be sure to recognize it the next time I shop. I have seen a lot of junk wrapped up in a neat box and I don't judge quality by a logo.

Design is subliminal but still has value

As someone who has been in the design industry for multiple decades I would say that a company's identity does have an impact but more in a subliminal way. And, its effectiveness is determined by the intended audience and the perceived value. We all make decisions on comparable products in many ways based on how those products are presented. Reviews or actual experience with a product might change our perspective, but identity can make a good, or not so good, first impression. 

For example, one would expect Mercedes Benz or Tesla to have a corporate identity that looks very sophisticated versus, say, Chevrolet (don't crucify me if you like Chevy, but they do make value-oriented vehicles). The intended audience for those high-end cars are typically high-wealth individuals looking for luxury and a status symbol versus an average family that needs something affordable and more utility-driven. 

In my opinion, an identity (this would include a logo, packaging, manuals, etc.) should reflect some aspect of the actual product. How that is developed and presented is a matter of style and design skill. In the cottage industry realm, some companies do this well because they have some understanding of the impact of design, while others not so well. Not because they don't have good intentions, but more so because they don't have the design or marketing experience and/or talent to create an aesthetically pleasing and effective identity. My guess is this is what the OP had in mind. 

@rrfaniowa   agreed and said

@rrfaniowa   agreed and said very clearly.

But my point is... if you don't have the budget or design skills - doesn't matter just go with simple, clean and plain. TCS website is a good example of this. And here is one from Australia 

https://www.australianmodeller.com.au/collections/auscision-models    

Just using 2 colors white background. Doesn't cost a lot to have less goudy colors. As for wanting something that functions that is a must have. But like with our train layouts we don't only want just function we need also to work on the appearance as well. 
This is only a suggestion, just trying to help. I'll try avoid the aussie humour next time it does seem to rankle some.          

Fancy websites

Hi,

just as many here, fancy websites tend to put me off. Recently there have been websites that look like a fancy powerpoint presentation, even scrolling you screen by screen. More often than not, they cleverly hide the lack of (to me) meaningful content.

Yes, some websites are very outdated in their look and feel. However, I do know how much effort it is just to style a single button in a specific way. You can literally spend days on the design of just one element of a website. Or you can spend days on developing new model railroad products.

Also, with all those new websites, they tend to pull in many external ressources (stylesheets, scripts, ...) which all need to be reviewed by someone competent regarding security issues that the website owner may expose their viewers to. Which again - in old, outdated designs there tends to be much less of that. Again, a lot of time spent not developing new model railroad products.

What I really look for is whether the website is being updated regularly. A site with a clever design that says "News" and the last entry is more than three years old? Much less useful than a site with a 1990ies design that has some message dated last month. Very few exceptions. Actually, most of the exceptions are only accessible via some kind of web history archive...

Have fun!

Let's face it...

... a lot of manufacturers in this hobby are one person, or at least a very small team.  That person or small team does the design, testing, manufacturing, packaging, website creation, shipping, customer service and advertising,  It's very difficult to be a jack-of-all-trades and excel at all of them. 

Often the left-brain engineers don't possess the right-brain intuition to conjure good art.  The right-brainers seem to be less valued and are often expected to give their services for free (or worse yet, "exposure").  Artistic services can be expensive, and arguably so, because the elements they produce are what actually make the sale.

Thanks, Scott Thornton

I think Scott nailed it in his post.

I also wanted to give a big thumbs up to Scott Thornton because he’s the one who designed the MRH shield logo for us, which we absolutely love. He also does a lot of design work for Iowa Scaled Engineering's graphics and ads, if you’re wondering why they always look so good.

He also pushed the ProtoThrottle in the early days, which I find to totally rock as the ultimate in a realistic handheld train throttle.

Go Scott!

  "Artistic services can be

Maybe if you are selling fancy clothes or lipsticks but for most stuff.  I look at quality of product , do I need it ,and how well it works not how well it is marketed....DaveB

Buying decisions are mostly based on emotion

We might think our buying decisions aren't based on emotion, but if they were all about quality, efficiency and how well it works, we'd all be driving around in vehicles that look something like this:

We'd like to think we're rational, not emotional.  However we're more influenced by marketing than we pretend to know.  Read this:

https://www.inc.com/logan-chierotti/harvard-professor-says-95-of-purchasing-decisions-are-subconscious.html

  "but if they were all

only if it cost less than my 15 year old Tacoma :> ) .....DaveB

Nope, not me, not enough

Nope, not me, not enough cargo capacity. I drive a chevy van. And that thing has no headlights or radiator grille.

  "one would expect Mercedes

Yet the Chevy bowtie probably has sold many more cars?...DaveB