Starbucks' New Logo Signals Intent to 'Think Beyond Coffee'

CEO Howard Schultz Promises New Product Offerings in Spring

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Starbucks Corp. today unveiled the latest iteration of its logo -- a move that CEO Howard Schultz said signaled the java giant's intent to "think beyond coffee."

Starbucks revealed the logo -- which drops the green ring with the text "Starbucks Coffee" and more prominently displays its famed siren -- to employees in its Seattle offices and on a webcast. Mr. Schultz said in a video post on the company's website that while allowing the siren to come out of the circle indicates Starbucks' intention to broaden its focus, "make no mistake: We have been, we will continue to be and we always will be, the world's leading purveyor of the highest-quality coffee."




In a blog post today, Mr. Schultz said: "Starbucks will continue to offer the highest-quality coffee, but we will offer other products as well. ... You'll begin to see our evolution starting this spring." He didn't say what products were in the offing, but it's clear the company has had its sights set on being more than a coffee chain for a while. It is once again selling breakfast sandwiches, which were once banned because the smell supposedly infringed on the coffeehouse atmosphere.

The new logo is part of a celebration of Starbucks' 40th year, and it is the fourth in the company's history. Starbucks revamped the logo in 1987 by dropping the brown and embracing green; it also changed the formerly bare-breasted siren to a more modest sea nymph. The company again modified the logo in 1992.

There have been a number of high-profile logo changes in the past few years; Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gap all tweaked their iconic symbols. Notably, all have received further tweaks since the initial rollouts. Pepsi-Cola, which initially rolled out three different smiling logos, scaled back to just one. Tropicana reverted to its straw-in-an-orange imagery after consumer outcry and a drop in sales. And Gap quickly scrapped plans to roll out a new identity when consumers panned the logo's Helvetica font and gradiated blue box online.

An Ipsos Observer poll conducted by Ad Age in the midst of the Gap logo debacle showed that more than half of consumers expect companies to ask for the public's input before making a major change to its logo, packaging or product. Thirty-six percent said they didn't expect that, and 12% said they weren't sure.

Starbucks appears to have put a great deal of thought into the logo rollout: Mr. Schultz scheduled a call with associates, and the company posted a video explaining the change as well as a post on its website. Even so, consumers are generally quick to judge a logo change. "If you ask customers what they think, they'll say a logo change is just a logo change," said Tony Spaeth, president of Tony Spaeth/Identity. "It's easy for people to demean a logo change. Does that really reflect their genuine perception of Starbucks? I don't think so."

Brand consultant Denise Lee Yohn said consumers are "always resistant to change, and given what happened with the Gap logo, there's probably going to be a backlash in the social-media world." Sure enough, there were a few dissenters, with some tweeting comments such as, "Starbucks has to be feeling pretty confident to drop name from new logo" and "Is new Starbucks going to last as long as the new Gap logo?"

Mr. Spaeth said he thinks the Starbucks logo rollout will fare much better than the Gap logo debacle. "The big difference is that Gap management didn't really understand the significance of what they were doing and that the public was interested. Howard Schultz is very much on top of this and regards this as a very significant step forward. It's being undertaken with supreme confidence and pride."

GAP INTRODUCES NEW LOGO, MASS CRITICISM ENSUES

But Despite the Outcry, Retailer Remains Mum on Scope of and Reason for the Shift


NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It appears Gap is rolling out a new logo and critics aren't being too kind about the shift.

The new logo has replaced the retailer's iconic blue box, which had "Gap" emblazoned across it in capital letters, on the brand's home page. Now, a gradiated blue box is perched at the top right side of the "p" in Gap. The original logo can still be found on the retailer's Facebook and Twitter page, however.

The logo is pervasive in American culture, appearing on some 1,200 stores in North America. Gap also operates nearly 300 stores in Europe and Asia. Gap is the 84th most-valuable brand in the world, according to Interbrand's 2010 study. The group values the brand at nearly $4 billion.

Of course a brand is more than a logo, but as far as logos go, Gap's is an icon. Across the internet detractors have been picking apart the new look, with the most common sentiment being that it looks like something a child created using a clip-art gallery. A Twitter account @gaplogo has even popped up within the last 24 hours and is rapidly attracting new followers. It appears to be a parody account, given the irreverence. Posts detail, for example, how the "marketing team is huddled in a corner eating Ben & Jerry's and drinking scotch" and the "creative director just quit."


There are also references to another infamous rebrand: Tropicana. "Peter Arnell just called. He didn't say anything -- all we heard was laughing on the other end of the line," reads one tweet. "I'm not going the way of Tropicana's logo. Nowayjose," reads another.


Gap has remained mum. No official press release explained the shift, and calls for comment were not returned. It's not clear whether an agency worked with Gap to create the logo. The retailer has worked with Laird & Partners, as well as MDC's Crispin Porter & Bogusky in the past on creative campaigns.


Sales at the retailer have been tepid in recent months. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 4% during the second quarter.