Logo Change Equal Brand Change

Does changing your logo equal change to the brand? Is your brand strong enough to that a change to the logo creates more opportunities? Let’s wrestle with that for a second…

The unveiling of a new logo has its good sides and its bad sides, just go ask GAP.

In one hand you have an existing great brand, and in the other, you have old and tired of that same brand image. What can be done to rejuvenate your customer base to begin to purchase more product/services from your company? Is a logo change enough? Can an outward appearance increase sales? The answer to that question is an astonishing YES.

Starbucks recently changed their logo. Why?

To be rolled out in the spring — Starbucks’ anniversary is in March — the new logo also aims to represent the 16,858-unit coffeehouse chain’s “next chapter,” which it said would include innovation and new distribution channels.

Howard Schultz goes on to say…

…that the new logo allowed the siren to “come out of the circle in a way that I think gives us the freedom and flexibility to think beyond coffee.”
“But,” he added, “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.”

So this is the tell-tale sign of where the brand is going… “beyond coffee”. So what is next for Starbucks, is it food, or music, or something completely out of the realm that we will not know until it hits us….my thoughts are the later. We are all going to be smacked in the face by some new, hip, trendy product from Starbucks and never have seen it coming. That is just my opinion, and i have been known to be wrong a time or two (wink).

Therefore, does it makes sense to go through a logo change and ultimately change your brand? Well, according to companies like Starbucks, it very well may be.