How Important Is Your Logo: Starbucks Will Soon Find Out
Starbucks has emerged over the last 20 years as one of the top consumer brands in the world.
Initially, Starbucks logo emphasized their premier product, coffee, while focusing on their recognizable, yet storied name, who interestingly, emanates from the first mate character in the infamous Herman Melville Novel, Mobey Dick.
- And after all that success and recognition, now they have decided to revamp their ubiquitous image. But at what cost?
In a Knowledge @ Wharton article entitled, Logo Overhaul: Will Customers Still Answer the Siren Call of Starbucks?, the issue is explored. Interestingly, this is exactly the type of issue that BrandMiners typically finds itself engaged in, daily. After all, it asks the central question:
- How does “branding” impact marketing and a firms ultimate success?
- How do you begin to tackle the art and science of marketing in a meaningful way?
The Issue is Critical: Recent logo redesign failures like Gap and Tropicana within the last few years, combined with successful logo evolutions that actually strengthen the brand — none more heralded than Apple which migrated from a multi-colored apple that highlighted the company’s strength in computer graphics to the silver apple — simply highlight the importance to the growth and bottom-line of top firm, worldwide.
So, you thought all marketing was art? Did you know – Researchers found that more rounded logos were favored by people from interdependent, collectivist cultures, including many countries in Asia, while angular logos were more popular in individualistic cultures, such as the U.S.
With Starbucks entering a new phase in their evolution, and a clear desire to push into Asia, how successful will the new logo iteration become? Well, only time will tell, but this is exactly why mining the brand, and all it’s valuable nuances and data-points, is so very critical to a firms success.