A colleague shared this interesting article with me about Starbucks. Having acquired Seattle’s Best, Starbucks seems to be repositioning the brand as a product for cost sensitive joe drinkers. Part of the marketing strategy being a logo redesign. My thoughts… why mess with a good thing? Why diminish the brand equity and run the risk of putting off an already established customer base? Perhaps an evolution of the logo would suffice, thereby keeping many of the distinct characteristics of the established logo, but applying a more modern facelift. But not a complete departure from the familiar.

Citing Pepsi’s very costly debacle with the redesign of the Tropicana logo and packaging, as well as, Gatorade’s profit drop after the adoption of “G”, the author, Jeff Reeves, makes a great point. Albeit preaching to the choir here, he concludes that design has a direct effect on brand loyalty, but more importantly, the bottom line.

Check it out here: Unpopular Seattle’s Best Logo Could Hurt SBUX