Starbucks Evolves Logo Into Lovemark

The world's largest coffee company, and one of its most beloved brands, just stirred up a bold new roast of its identity.  Starbucks unveiled an updated version of its iconic logo, which had remained unchanged since 1992. The simplified logo focuses on its mermaid symbol, and removes the company name from around the border of the "Siren." That's right, Starbucks no longer feels the need to reinforce its name.

The new wordless logo features nothing more than its real star, the Siren, transcending the emblem from logo to ‘Lovemark.’ A term coined by Kevin Roberts, brand genius and CEO of advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, who writes, “Lovemarks transcend brands, they deliver beyond your expectations of great performance, and they inspire 'Loyalty Beyond Reason’.” Transcending the Starbucks brand seems to be the new focus for Chief Executive Officer, Howard Schultz, who plans to evolve Starbucks into the future to ‘think beyond coffee.’ The world is changing, and Starbucks is changing along with it.  It is not changing the ‘essence of the experience,' but rather, enhancing the connection with its customers.  

Overall, the visual simplicity makes a meaningful impact, and the new focus on brand extension makes perfect sense. Those of you who think dropping the name wasn't such a good idea might fancy a read of “Starbucks’ Serves Up a Very Dumb Idea.” What remains uncontested is that Starbucks believes its best days are ahead of them, and it's going to be exciting to see how the new identity system evolves into Starbucks’ future plans.

Take a peak into the ‘Future of Starbucks’ or learn more about the power of lovemarks.