The great risks are always accompanied by great opportunities. From the current point of view, Starbucks seems to have the most confidence to take this risk, to win this opportunity - even if the word "TARBUCKSCOFFEE" is removed, it is still confident that consumers can recognize the famous Starbucks coffee.

"A medium cup of caramel Macchiato Zhang Yifan puts her notebook in front of the counter. This is the third time she has come to Starbucks this week. As usual, she is prepared to "consume" this afternoon.

"Forhere Grande Caramel Macchiato!" Soon, the staff in the store fluently ordered her in English.

She usually likes coffee and loves Starbucks. She opened the computer, and a big Starbucks logo was printed next to the floor glass window. She did not know that soon, the familiar logo would have changed.

When Starbucks is no longer coffee In fact, as early as January 5, Howard Schultz, Chairman, President and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, released Starbucks's latest brand logo to its Starbucks partner. The new logo will remove the original logo from the outer ring of the mermaid STARBUCK SCOFFEE. The original mermaid pattern will be enlarged and become the only identification symbol, but the background will change from black to green. This is the third time in Starbucks' history that the company has changed its mark since it was listed in 1992. It is also another major move after Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks three years later.

“Or the previous logo looks good.” Zhang Yifan found a brand new image on the Starbucks official website. For this loyal fan who has been spending at Starbucks since 2003, the new logo is a bit too monotonous.

This is already a relatively fair assessment. On Starbucks website and Facebook, a consumer named MimiKatz even started to yell at this rebranding behavior: “It is your stupid idea in the marketing department to use the word “Starbucks Coffee”, the world-famous brand, to rebrand. Take it?"

However, some people also expressed support for the new trademark. “I used to think that the pattern was too messy. I can't see what's inside. I can only tell that this is Starbucks through the word 'Starbucks Coffee'. The new pattern is bright and obvious,” said Zhang Yifan’s friend Zhao Lei.

Although consumers have different attitudes toward the changed trademarks, they all share the same doubts: Why did Starbucks change LOGO?

“The mermaids in the old mark are surrounded by circles, and the new mark removes the outer circle, which means that we hope to bring more freedom and flexibility to Starbucks, and to jump out of coffee and explore more diversified businesses.” Shure Said.

Referring to the replacement of trademarks, Starbucks Greater China Public Relations Manager Li Jing said that the new LOGO embodies Starbucks' business development and that coffee is still the core product, but Starbucks products will not only stop at coffee in the future. There is no doubt that the 40th anniversary of Starbucks has reached a critical transition period. Its iconic mermaid pattern “emphasizes the tradition of Starbucks and also supports future development”.

The words "future development" leave people with infinite imagination. The replacement of the logo implies that Starbucks will transform from a professional company that specializes in selling coffee in its stores to a multi-platform, multi-channel global company.

The ambition behind the bid change

“The aim of removing the text part and fetching the figure alone is to remove the limitation of the text and gain more freedom.” said Dong Yulin, director of the expert committee of the China Trademark Association.

In fact, in the past one or two years, the expansion of the Starbucks product line has been subject to outside attention. Before Starbucks declared "diversity", Starbucks' stores were already not just limited to selling coffee, but also more products. Such as sandwiches, cheese cakes, fruit cups, bread, moon cakes and other foods, as well as Chinese tea, exotic tea, soy milk, Frappuccino and other beverages and all kinds of cups, plush toys and other peripheral products.

Replacing a trademark has become a fashion. At the beginning of the new year, Samsung and Motorola also announced the new logo that was almost simultaneously released with Starbucks.

On January 1, 2011, Samsung Mobile began to use Samsung Electronics' global brand identity "SAMSUNG" in the Chinese market, bid farewell to "Anycall" - this is only a mobile phone product logo set in Greater China, and stated that this is Samsung's mobile phone worldwide The integration of brand development. Behind the unification of brand identity is Samsung's "ambition" to further expand the influence of the mobile phone business during the decline of the mobile phone business. According to sources from the South Korean side, apart from the global unity of the brand, Samsung is more conscious of further increasing its efforts in the mobile phone business, and is expected to surpass Nokia in 3 years to top the global mobile phone market share.

Motorola, which is also facing a downturn in its mobile phone business, chose a different way of marking change than Samsung's: it splits in two. On January 4, 2011, after two years of preparation, Motorola was officially split into two listed companies: Motorola Mobile, which manufactures mobile phones and mobile Internet devices, and Motorola, which manufactures professional equipment and manufactures mobile phones. solution.

The new Motorola also has a brand new logo. Although the LOGO shape did not change, Motorola's mobile was replaced by a bright red “M”, which was distinguished from the Motorola solution using the original blue LOGO. Motorola not only hopes to use new business to make up for losses, but also hopes to make the company smaller and more flexible, making related decisions more efficient and faster.

In fact, this global fashion change has long formed a domestic wave. More and more companies wishing to further expand their international markets have begun to choose to replace their new logos. Rebranding has never been easier than just changing a trademark.

“Trademarks are a face of a business. If you look at the colors, you can see the development of the company.” Dong Yulin said. “Replacement of new logos is an effective way to convey the company’s new brand strategy.” In Dong’s opinion, manufacturers who value corporate image will be more concise and easy to remember for their trademarks, and they will be closer to the evolving society. Gradual improvements.

The most obvious example is Li Ning who replaced the new logo on June 30 last year. He will use the 20-year-old L-brand logo to upgrade to the new logo of “Li Ning Intersection Action” and use the “people” shape to interpret the new logo. Sports values, and upgrade "anything is possible" slogan to "MakeTheChange".

Zhang Zhiyong, CEO of Li Ning Company, once said that the new logo design idea is to adapt to the young consumer groups, especially the "post-90s" psychology. He also said that in the future, Li Ning will become the world's top five sports brand companies, when the international market share will account for more than 20% of the overall.

And this determination to compete with the giants of international sports brands on the same stage has also penetrated into the retail prices behind them. According to statistics, the average retail price of shoes and apparel of the Li Ning brand rose by 7.8% and 17.9%, respectively, during the product ordering meeting in the first quarter. However, the remodeling behavior did not gain a lot of glory. It was announced at the recent 2011 sales meeting that according to the calculation of wholesale shipments, the amount of orders for Li Ning's products in the second quarter of 2011 was about 6% lower than the same period in 2010.

Also in the high-profile announcement last year, the rebranding of the dairy brand Yili, the new logo adds sunshine and harmony arc of heaven and earth, seems to convey the confidence of Yili to lead the Chinese dairy industry out of the trough. At the same time as changing the logo, Yili brought about a big change in the entire brand - the update of the system, the change in brand positioning, and even the improvement of the internal management level of Yili Group. As Pan Gang, chairman of Yili Group, said, the replacement of the logo is just the “tip of the iceberg.” Creating a world-class health food group is the long-term vision of Yili.

In addition, dictionary software Jinshan PowerWord also officially announced five new icon options on Feb. 17 to join this mighty “rebranding campaign.” This also indicates that, with Jia Lin, who previously served as an executive at Tencent, the business of Kingsoft PowerWord is now being explored from the purely translation software to the Internet.

New LOGO: Risk and Opportunity Coexist "A trademark has been used for a period of time. According to a consumer's psychology, it is very good to make some changes according to the current fashion of the product." Dong Xiaolin concluded that the significance of changing the standard is to convey more advanced and more Meet the trend, more in line with the company's future development of the brand concept.

Undoubtedly, if the bid changes are successful, the new logo will stimulate the market share of the brand in the short term.

“The gradual and stable change of Coca-Cola is taken as an example. It is a change in the market and society that is pursuing fashion.” Dong Yulin said that Coca-Cola’s trademark has changed many times, but it has never given up its market. Business objectives.

As early as February 2003, Coca-Cola changed its new Chinese logo that has not changed in 23 years. It has hired Hong Kong famous advertising designer Chen Youjian to design a new streamlined Chinese font that is more in tune with the overall style of English fonts and logos. Coca Cola has been using Chinese fonts since it returned to the Chinese market in 1979. At the same time, the white English trademark written in Spencer's font is covered with a silver frame, and the original single white “wavy ribbon” also evolved into a multi-level, multi-colored streamer composed of red, white, and silver.

"We change not only the sign, but also a new way of communicating with consumers." For the launch of the new logo, Coca-Cola China President Bao Yiqiu said. In fact, Coca-Cola will make some changes and updates to the trademark almost every ten years to adapt to changing market tastes. The rebranding in China in 2003 was also part of the marketing plan for the global exchange of trademarks that it pioneered in the United States.

The effect of this kind of good "communication" is obvious. Coca-Cola not only caters to the changing aesthetic tastes of consumers, but more importantly, it uses mark-changing as a marketing selling point to activate the market. In that year, the share of Coca-Cola after the bid change in the Chinese market increased by nearly 3 percentage points. The changes in the Guangzhou market were particularly typical. After the new packaging was launched, Coca-Cola's sales in Guangzhou increased by 28% year-on-year.

The great risks are always accompanied by great opportunities. From the current point of view, Starbucks seems to have the most confidence to take this risk, to win this opportunity - even if the word "StarbucksCoffee" was removed, it is also confident that consumers can recognize the famous Starbucks coffee.

"I don't think many people will never go to Starbucks again because they don't like its LOGO." Zhang Yifan said, she wouldn't give up because Starbucks doesn't just make coffee. In fact, as early as two years ago, she began to consume other Starbucks products, such as tea, cakes, and plush toys.

Of course, Starbucks' ambitions are not limited to this. The world coffee giant has high hopes for the Chinese market and believes it can succeed in China. In December 2010, Starbucks announced in high profile that it will open 1,500 stores in China by 2015 and hopes that China can become the second largest market except North America.

As of now, the total number of Starbucks stores in China, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, is nearly 800. The number of mainland China has exceeded 400. In January 2011, with the arrival of Starbucks in Xiamen, Starbucks has covered 33 cities in mainland China.

After drinking the coffee, Zhang Yifan bought two newly-selected cherry blossom cups, one for herself and the other for her friend Zhao Lei who was working in a third-tier city.

"She, like me, is Starbucks' loyalty," said Zhang Yifan.