Article Review

Submitted by

Jefry V Joseph

FM-1941

MBA 18
 Case Study Summary

The case is about Starbucks as they are planning to change the logo of the
company. Sometimes this change in logo can create a backlash among the
consumers who conceives them poorly. They were planning to remove the
words “Starbucks” and “coffee” from their logo. David Reibesten says that
retaining the green colour of the logo is important as it’s a critical factor
because people will recognize it as Starbucks. Considering the example of
Apple, their earphones are white and anyone using this is considered as cool.

Starbucks is planning to diversify and that is the reason for the removal of the
words Starbucks Coffee from their logo. They will get the freedom and
flexibility to explore innovations. By removing the words the company avoids
complications for translating to other languages.

Some of the companies have changed their name from Kentucky fried chicken
to KFC and Dunkin Donuts to only Dunkin for removing their direct link to
chicken and breakfast snacks. Some people say that removing the name is a big
mistake as there are places where people don’t know the brand Starbucks.

Another example is of a brewing company who changed their tagline from

Banquet beer to Orginal draft and the customers started complaining regarding
the taste difference but actually the beer was not changed. A brand logo
determines the users experiences. Vikas Mittal states that the customers who are
mostly attracted to the brand react negatively to the change in logo and less
loyal customers react positively to the redesign of logo. There was a negative
impact for Tropicano for changing their logo so they went back to the old logo
itself.

Sometimes the change in logo is a success for example considering the brand
Apple they changed their logo from multicoloured to silver and Wallmart which
was earlier written in full capital letter is now changed to only first letter capital.
The researchers have found that more circular logos are preferred by collectivist
cultures and angular logos were preferred by individualistic cultures. The
explosion of social media help communicate quickly about the change in logo.
The customers must be included in redesign of the logos. They should be shown
the proposed logos and asked to comment on them.

Wharton says that the change in Starbucks logo is not a home run but it’s not a
disaster either.