Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Starbucks Coffee....or just a mermaid

So I have just come upon news that Starbucks has made the "strategic decision" to drop the "Starbucks Coffee" from it's logo and just go with the green and white contrasted mermaid/greek siren logo for it's signs, cups, and all form of branding. I for one, as a Gold Card member and frequent customer of our local fill up spots, am not in favor of the changes.
When I say the company name "Starbucks" what is the first word that generally comes to mind? Coffee..right? And if I am selling breakfast sandwiches or donuts or muffins with the coffee drink, would I rather be known for the sandwiches, which McDonald's, QT, and BK all have variations of, or the point of differentiation which is the Starbucks coffee experience. I am currently beginning my last semester in my MBA program and am in the class Graduate Strategic Management. One of our discussion points in the first few classes has centered around alignment of resources with the needs, wants, demands of the customers to form the core competencies. Starbucks seems to have a core competency as being the coffee company of choice. And the CEO Mr Shultz states that in his video, but actions do speak louder than words. McDonald's in recent years has brought the McCafe in to compete in direct competition to Starbucks and I wonder if Starbucks realizes that by taking away the Coffee from it's branding it in some ways is taking the focus off of the very thing that created them to be who they are today.
I AM interested to learn more about what drove the company to this decision and how they think that this will be a point of strategic growth for them. Here is the link to the full story on a Forbes.com blog: http://bit.ly/dXtgGv and the new logo:
Also here is the link to the post by the CEO about the change.
Happy Coffee drinking-