Starbucks recently unveiled a new, revamped logo that is stirring some heated debate and has some of its loyal customers frothing at the mouth based on some of the comments on the company's Facebook wall.
While some like the new logo others seems to absolutely hate it and say they want the old logo put back on the cups. Starbucks has dropped both the name and the word "coffee" from the new logo. Evidently being seen with the Starbucks cup is as important--if not more important--than what's actually in the cup to some.
This brings to mind a passage from Theodore Levitt in Marketing Imagination when he talks about the importance of packaging and how it is sometimes more important than the product itself. The image projected and the feelings you have about a product can sometimes be more important than the benefit you derive from the functional product attributes themselves.
And so it is in the modern era of branding.
Marketers know within hours what people think of any change in their brands' packaging and identity elements because people express themselves openly, freely and almost instantaneously on social media. People passionate about a brand will sound off about it and make their voices heard. Remember that your brand never, ever meant anything other than what the market thought about it anyway. You don't get to define what your brand means, they do.
It does make me wonder, though. Do we buy the coffee because we think it is superior and that we are paying a fair price or do we buy the cup with the logo on it so others will see us with it and the content is inconsequential?
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