As of a couple of weeks ago, Starbucks changed their logo. The company removed the writing from around the image of the mermaid. To me, this seemed like an odd change for a company to make. It seemed quite insignificant, so I decided to do a little research. I came across an article by Elizabeth Fuller with some information on the switch.
Fuller wrote; "'Is it a strong enough icon?' asks Laura Oswald, director of Marketing Semiotics, a marketing research company in Chicago. 'Would you identify that mermaid as absolutely Starbucks the way you identify the golden arches as absolutely McDonald's?'"
This reminded me exactly of what we discussed about TV Tokenism. We discussed how many TV shows will bring in a character of a different race, as a main role, once the show gets off its feet and is well-recieved. Once the show has a solid fan base, it can afford to take risks. Starbucks has done nearly the exact same thing.
Starbucks has been around since 1971, and since then, has made a name for themselves. They are known worldwide. Now that they have built an empire, they can afford to take a risk, like changing their logo.
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Dani-
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good connection. Me and my dad were actually talking about this the other day at Starbucks. My dad argued that Starbucks isn't strong enough to take it's name off the logo, and I argued that it is, but it is possible that I just see so many Starbucks cups around the North Shore that it seems more popular.But,either way, I liked the old Starbucks logo better. Great post!
I agree that the old Starbucks logo was better, and that the change should not have been made. But I disagree with why. I personally think that Starbucks is just as strong as, if not stronger, than McDonald's, due to the fact that it has no competition like Burger King. But when the typical American hears "golden arches" the first thing that they associate it with is McDonald's. But I asked the other three people at my table in the library what they thought of when they heard "mermaid". All four of us, even though teenage boys, said that the first thing we thought of was "The Little Mermaid". I don't think that the problem with the logo change lies in the power of Starbucks, but rather with what is associated with the mermaid.
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