Katie Fang's Blog

Nowadays, probably coffee and Starbucks are synonyms.Going to Starbucks for a coffee is a daily activity for coffee lovers. And now the question is – why Starbucks is playing with its well-established logo?

Lots of companies are going with the market trend, which is somehow playing its role in the betterment of the environment, whether it’s a marketing strategy to increase its revenue or simply doing “good deeds”. However, Starbucks is heading towards another era – brand transformation.

The original Starbucks logo is consisted of a siren and its name in a circle, and now its dropping Starbucks Coffee and the circle in its logo, leaving a simple image of the siren.

Some think that Starbucks is playing with fire- messing around with its well known logo is a death sentence; others say that Starbucks is so big that they don’t need to have their name on the logo to promote itself anymore.

Well, I have to admit that it’s a bold move. In the beverage industry, lots of companies are emerging, maybe they are not as big as Starbucks, but certainly their cheap prices and convenient locations have lots of local loyal customers. So what makes Starbucks think that changing its logo will possibly assist in winning its battle?  First, because Starbucks is unique. It is not selling you a cup of coffee, but selling you the STARBUCKS EXPERIENCE. Therefore, by removing the text provokes the concept of ‘Starbucks’ rather than a cup of ‘Starbucks Coffee’. Second, the fact that Starbucks chose to omit its title on its logo suggests some future possible marketing strategy, such as establishing new product lines (something other than coffee).

What do you think about it? Is it a good thing or a bad thing for Starbucks to drop the name from its logo?