Starbucks Rebrands Seattle’s Best By: Brent Pleasant, Patricia Moon, Brittany Risser

Fresh Image Old Logo New Logo Old Tagline New Tagline “Smooth Roasting Since 1970” “Great Coffee Everywhere”

Why the Change? Wants to grow into billion dollar business – Expand to fast food channels, convenience stores, and vending machines Wants to create an emotional brand for consumers – New universal sign for good coffee Create a global identity Starbucks has saturated market – New product to gain market share in other venues

Reaction to New Logo Too generic – Looks more appropriate for a blood donation center 68% of 2000 people thought Starbucks should “try again” “Clean” and “modern” lines does not say coffee – Old logo had vintage feel, like from mom-and-pop Too similar to corporate letterhead of: Lukoil Vodafone

Rebranding Failures PepsiCo redesigned Tropicana packaging – Looked too much like store brand – Original symbol evoked fresh taste McDonald’s Arch Deluxe – “Burger with a grown up taste” – Image of sophistication – Consumers turned off by high price, high calorie count and confusing commercials

Why It Doesn’t Work Failure to clarify positioning – Consumers might become confused Consumer’s emotional attachment to product Lack of internal alignment – Change should be evident throughout organization Lack of true change – Cannot just have new packaging – Must have goals and objectives to back up position

Will Rebranding be Successful? Launching the product in a fun way – Street team: “red capped invaders” took over Starbucks headquarters Street team Placed large red refrigerators in biggest markets, Portland and Seattle – Nothing marked on outside – Inside contained free cold lattes and mochas Product hasn’t changed…only the image they are trying to convey

Sources coffee-stirs-up-heated-opinions 87e7d194aa9af6a2e1cbbc44?pn=2 best-coffee-meets-with-hail-of-jeers/ content/uploads/2010/05/Big-Red-Fridge.jpg