Missing the Mark - the "New" Starbucks Logo

I've been thinking about the new Starbucks brown logo "campaign." While many people have arguing about whether or not the brown logo is as good as the traditional green and black logo, I'm starting to think that most people have missed the mark about this.


I think you need to remember that the campaign is temporary and at its heart, it's really a brand exercise. Things to note:

- it's not about liking the new logo,
- it's not about the new roast,
- it's not about the return of the former CEO.

It's about reconnecting with customers, demonstrating a renewed focus on the coffee experience that brought them to Starbucks in the first place. Millions of column inches have been written about what Starbucks has done in the last couple of weeks but it seems that most of the branding blogs really missed one of the key pieces of the brand puzzle. That piece is that a brand is not dictated by the organization, rather it is by everyone else who uses and talks about the product.

It's about the customers not the company.

While I am a dyed-in-the-wool Illy Coffee consumer, I'm impressed by the thoughtfulness and implementation of this "back-to-basics" campaign.