Logo change - what a mistake

I drank Seattle's Best when there was a shop at the end of the street I worked on. I liked the coffee and I like the appeal of the first cup. It looks like they cared about their product. I don't like that minimalist cup design at all. I wonder if they bothered with focus groups, considering 68% of some group said they didn't like it.

I agree about it looking cheap and questionable. I like to think I'm getting a quality item for my money. The only thing I buy in cheap packaging is paper products, like napkins, etc.

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ok ok ok

I'd like to ask a question here of everyone. There have been opinions given re liking the new design, or not.

However, here's the million dollar question...

Based on this new logo design, would be:

a) more likely to buy a cup of Seattle's Best?
b) less likely to buy a cup of Seattle's Best?
c) neither more or less likely to buy a cup of Seattle's Best?

From a business perspective, only choice a) will make SBC more money
If the answer is c) they wasted money making all these changes, losing money
If the answer is b) they lose money

Why don't we have a polling function on this site yet?

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

I seriously think this new logo can eventually find its way into the design section of the Museum of Modern Art. It's that sleek.

Ok.
Close your ears tsar.. because this isnt directed at you even though I quoted you Smile

This is pretty much what I thought when I first saw it-
It is a desgin that would cater to the sort of mindless common crowd. The crowd who will look at a straight line on a canvas, oooooo and aaahhh about it being so deep and meaningful, throw down a few thousand dollars on it and take it home.

The crowd that uses all of the boring, almost office space cliche terms in their own life.

Yes, the constant dieter crowd. The ones that wont eat something because it has a face, or came from some corner of the world where butterflies are endangered, wont drink such and such because it could have been touched by an empoverished child..etc...etc..

Smart car drivers.

The basically "yuppy" to a certain extent ... crowd that is favoring the mindless design of things.

Dont hear me say I hate it , but it DOES look like a cheap gas station cup and not something I would want to drink. I half expect to see some fake eco friendly catch phrase written across the bottom of the cup next to " caution. Coffee is hot"

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Made me think of the Edmonton Oilers

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@chai2,

It looks like Target.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

jespah wrote:

I wonder if they think they're appealing to the dieting crowd. Big hint: at least this dieting gal doesn't want things that look diet. I want them to look big, rich and flavorful, to give that kind of a look and feel when the taste and mouth appeal can't.

You think this cup makes it look big, rich and flavorful?

How so?

In a way I can see what you mean, but what my conception of rich and flavorful must be different.
For instance, when I'm looking in the soup or frozen aisle, those green cans and green boxes for um, Healthy Choice(?) and the like are a big turn off to me. They just "look" like they would be bland tasting, again, too generic.
Hey! I always buy Progresso soups, broth, bread crumbs, and Barilla pasta.
Blue!

tsar, knowing your proclivity toward Hagen Daz, how do you feel about their packaging?

Would you have been as likely to start buying it if it was in a container like this? Without the words artifically flavored of course....

I don't want my food to look generic and streamlined. Since I can't readily see the food in the packaging, I'd like the package to reflect how UNgeneric and UNstreamlined my experience with it will be.

Like, "Wow, that food tasted really generic. I suppose that's all right though. Its streamlined quality made it go down so much more quickly, I didn't even notice how unspecial and unsatisfying it was."

Oh, BTW, 68% of the people polled said they didn't like SBC's new logo.

Hmm maybe I was unclear. I meant that the older design looks richer. Darker colors to me spell darker, bolder coffee.

I don't even buy coffee shop coffee but what I want is (perhaps I'm not expressing myself well; it wouldn't be the first time), I'm going to have to drink this black because I'm watching calories. So I want it to taste like something. Not generic, not bland. It's got to have some sort of a built-in kick because I won't be adding anything other than some sweetener and maybe some cinnamon -- no sugar, no foam, no milk, no cream, no half and half.

I can understand the impulse to modernize as there's a certain point where an ad campaign becomes dated. But I'm not so sure this one has.

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I agree it is a mininalist look - but do you want your food to be generic? Paper products besides toliet paper - ok I can do the generic.

Coffee - no - it should be of better quality.

Funny that this cup looks like Target to me - as the Targets I know all sell Starbucks.

I'd buy toys, household products and other stuff from Target, but damn if I'm gonna buy my coffee or food from their food station - yeah that hot dog rolling around all day looks damn good!

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

When I realized I was runny out

That's what you get for using those public restrooms.

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

Well I don't really like either of 'em so there.

I'm with you.

The new one looks like a toilet bowl to me. It also looks like they're trying to get something that will look good as a computer icon.

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jes....on no, it was me that misunderstood.
so, you think the older version looks richer.

shewolf....again, not targeted at tsar at all (tsar, there's something about you I can't get enough of), but yeah, that whole "oh look, a straight line, the artist meant something."

Honestly? If you had given me a PowerPoint and 30 minutes, I could have come up with about 4 or 5 versions of that new logo to present to the higher powers.

C'mon, all it is is 3 circles (1 cropped in half) 2 colors, light gray and red, and a water drop

This reminds me of the Augusten Borroughs book "Dry" This was his tale of when he worked on Madison Ave.
During this time, he was drinking heavily, came in late, left early took long lunches. Although his co-workers did work somewhat harder, it was not by much. He talked about how they would basically fool around all day, day after day, while they had a big project. When given a project they would say they need 2 months to work on it. Then, they would actually start working on it on Wednesday, when it was due on Friday.
They would reach into their "box of standard ideas" and pull 2 or 3 out and slap it together.
Then, they would go to meet with the client, arriving looking all rushed and anxious to please, and like they had worked themselves into exhaustion.

The high end client would gush about how innovative, streamlined, fabulous it all was, and take the marketing team out to an expensive retaurant for lunch.

I knew it! I just knew it!!!

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

...Funny that this cup looks like Target to me - as the Targets I know all sell Starbucks....

Seattle's Best is a subsidiary of Starbucks. It's their lower-priced brand.

And yes, the new logo design definitely misses the mark. But at least they're getting a lot of free publicity from the unpopular design:
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2010/05/21/seattles-best-logo-hurt-starbucks-sbux/

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@Eva,

If it is supposed to be Seattle's Best and both are from Seattle - how come it is the lower priced? Should be Seattle's not so best then.

So I guess this will then sell in the "cafe" area of target with the wilted hot dogs and the Starbucks area of the store then can live side by side.

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I figure they tested the new design with the market that they want, which is young, and it did well.

I think were they went wrong is that they made the design look European, and that is going to offend a significant part of the coffee buying public. Mrs proud to be an American often wants her American products to look American.

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@hawkeye10,

if 68% of the people are saying they don't like the loga AFTER it was put out, I don't think the pre-testing could be that different.

Even if the dislikers in pre testing droped by 10%, that still me 58% of people didn't like it.
It says in the linked article above that Tropicana's sales dropped 20% in the 2 months after they first introduced their new logo. They have gone back to the old one.

It also mentions in the article the desire to go after cost conscious, value conscious crowds.

Well, I might be cost conscious, but I don't want to LOOK cheap.

People know what a cup of coffee costs. They can see if SBC is a little less than Starbucks, and choose that.
If a person saves 50 cents, but has an artistic, pleasant looking container, no one will looks twice. One might even say, "hey, come to think of it, a cup of joe sounds good right about now."
If I saw the same person walking through a parking lot with that new cup, it would quickly flitter in my mind "that looks like cheap crap"

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They changed the logo to a tiny blue & white question mark?

Hmmm... maybe it looked too much like an apple with a byte missing.

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@chai2,

Quote:

if 68% of the people are saying they don't like the loga AFTER it was put out, I don't think the pre-testing could be that different.

Sorry, there is no way I could believe that Starbucks management is that stupid without proof. Normally they do pretty well. They must have done some research that indicated that this appealed to who they wanted it to, and did not offend most of the rest enough that it would change the purchase decision. Starbucks does not care if you dont like it so long as it does not keep you from buying, or unless they are thinking that they will replace you with two or three customers of a different demographic.

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@hawkeye10,

Do you believe Tropicana was stupid enough to change their design, causing a 20% drop in sales in 2 months?

They were.

I'm not going to do your googling for you, you can look that up yourself.

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@chai2,

In an interview with Brandweek, Gass and Robson Grieve, president of Creature, the agency that worked on the rebranding, discussed the thinking behind the new Seattle’s Best image and the challenges the brand faces

Quote:

What’s your goal with the new rebranding and logo effort?
MG: We are looking to create a global identity and this is not just a domestic play. We need a brand that reflects our values, and the ones I’m speaking about are fun, optimism, simplicity and mobility and also showing that with great design. When you see Seattle’s Best Coffee and all of our marketing, you’ll get a very clear picture of what we stand for.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/strategy/e3iec86729e87e7d194aa9af6a2e1cbbc44?pn=1

SO I was right about making this a European style logo...Starbucks maybe does not care if Americans like it, they are moving overseas big time.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

No matter the ultimate motivation, Starbucks has thrown another salvo in what has been one of the more heated business competitions in the country: the fight for share in the $13.7 billion specialty-coffee category. Analysts are applauding Starbucks' move. "Seattle's Best offers Starbucks enormous growth potential," says John Glass, who covers restaurants for Morgan Stanley. "And it makes sense to partner with Burger King and Subway against a common enemy: McDonald's." With Starbucks seemingly saturated on every street corner across the country, the company needs to deliver its blend to other channels in order to expand. The Seattle's Best brand will sell for lower prices at fast-food joints than what Starbucks sells in its own stores.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1990813,00.html#ixzz0p0stQVYu

looking cheap is good, both chains are actively looking for the penny pinching customer. A rumour going around the web is that Starbucks is also going to sell this stuff in vending machines...

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@chai2,

I see I misrepresented myself. I like the first cups in the thread post.
Thwaps self upside the head.

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Logo change - what a mistake

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