Another new logo announcement – this time Starbucks – and everyone is giving pronouncements on the effect it will have on the company. With the memory of the Gap’s faux pas still fresh, some people are concerned that the new logo, which drops the word “coffee”, is too vague. One blog notes that it’s not easy to draw from memory (wha?).
1. Too much crowdsourcing can result in an inability to lead. If you can’t take a step without fearing what will be on Twitter the next day, you’re not leading, you’re following. Everyone has an opinion about a logo. And people don’t like change, so chances are a new logo will be disliked at first. Urban planners face this all the time: no one wants their neighborhood to change (though people generally like the changes that happened before the moved in, and might even have moved in because of those changes).
2. Guys, it’s only a logo. Lighten up. Contrary to popular belief, the logo is not the brand. The brand is created by the experience, and it’s the experience that keeps people coming back, not the pretty picture on the cup. Starbucks didn’t get where it is today through its logos – it got there by leading the market.
