More Data Types

Here are some links to articles that I found about the Starbucks' logo and the study of logos and the affects on the consumer. They were really easy to find and I think they will be helpful in referencing and getting ideas from, while moving forward with the research.

1. Defining the Mermaid: Letter to Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks Coffee Company (http://www.nyu.edu/cas/ewp/barrentinedefining03.pdf)
2. Color Principles of Design (http://swc2.hccs.cc.tx.us/tan/2004StudentWorks/2d/kylie/kylieColor.pdf)
3. CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF REBRANDING: THE CASE OF LOGO CHANGES (http://dspace.uta.edu/bitstream/10106/572/1/umi-uta-1769.pdf)
4. Starbucks Wars (http://japundit.com/archives/2006/02/23/2025/)

Useful Data Types

I believe that we should include articles about the Starbucks logo as a useful data type in our research. For example, the following article was found on Lexis Nexis and has some helpful information towards our research, "When it comes to branding, Starbucks' cup runneth over" PR Week (US) March 26, 2007.
In addition collecting artifacts with the starbucks' logo on it will be beneficial to our research to display the various ways it is depicted in society. These artifacts can be anything from an empty coffee cup, to a stir stick, to a mug with the logo. By having real evidence of the image, we can observe it closer and consider where it came from, what its purpose is, and how it affects our study.

Data types

1. Pictures of the Starbucks logo not located in or on Starbucks stores. Appearance of the logo around the city, whether it be advertisement or garbage. Record of the number found.

2. Note what Starbucks merchandise the logo is on. Merchandise including their in store supplies like cups, napkins, bags, etc. Tally a percentage.

3. Images of the parodies of the Starbucks logo notating their popularity. One example is cartoonist Kieron Dwyer. Compare the semiotic elements of the real logo and the copy and see what is most included in the copy images.

4. Survey Starbucks consumers, non-Starbucks consumers, and even Starbucks baristas about the logo. Questions may include asking them to describe the logo off the top of their head. Their overall feeling toward the logo, "Is it visually appealing?", "What stands out first?" "what do you think about the new promotional logos?" etc. Ask if they are originally from Seattle. If not, ask if they noticed the presence of Starbucks more here than where they are from. It would interesting to note the responses from native seattlites and non natives and see if there are differences in perception and overall feeling toward Starbucks and its logo.

Types of Data

1. Graphic timeline of the evolution of the Starbucks logo

2. Pictures of storefronts, noting where logo (and which) logo is used

3. Map of all Starbucks in Seattle (and possibly other cities)

4. Survey: Ask people to describe the Starbucks logo both from memory and while looking at it.

Research Questions

What are the basic semiotic resources used in the past and present logos?

In what semiotic ways has the Starbucks logo changed from the original to current design?

How has meaning changed as the Starbucks logo changed graphically?

How is gender dealt with in the past and pressent logos--how do they differ?

How has Starbucks's logo changes affected their revenues?

How does the Starbucks logo represent Starbucks products as luxury/gourmet items?

How does the Starbucks logo aid in making Starbucks a 'lifestyle' brand?

How does the Starbucks logo aid in Starbucks' ability to be local and global (glocal)?

List of Key People

Michael Parent: A student of marketing management and a graphic designer who conducted a study in which he found that the then current Starbucks logo made people uncomfortable (the one with full twin tails). After which he designed his own modified logo and sent it to Howard Schultz along with his study findings causing Starbucks to change thier logo to the current logo we have now. (Kristy)

David Milne: named director of international store design for Starbucks Corp. (Seattle). Milne, formerly director of design and construction for Limited Brands Inc. (Columbus, Ohio), joined Starbucks in 2007 to lead the company’s licensed store planning team. (Anna)

Terry Heckler: He owns his own graphic design and advertising agency, Heckler & Associates, in Seattle. Starbucks was one of his earliest clients, acquired in 1971 just two years after Heckler started his business. He created the original name, logo, and marketing materials and worked with the company until 1988. (Brad)

Myra Gose: Director of Creative Services. She helped Starbucks Coffee Co. celebrate its 25th anniversary and was the self-described "keeper of the look" (Karin)

Brooke McCurdy: Starbucks' design development team director. (Karin)

Stanley Hainsworth: Stanley Hainsworth is Vice-President global creative for Starbucks Coffee Company, which, in addition to selling coffee, markets music, books and movies in Starbucks shops, on its web site, and in partnership with iTUNES and XM radio. The company also hosts Starbucks Salons, “ nomadic interactive coffeehouses” which feature gallery and performance spaces—the first opened in Park City, Utah, in conjunction with the Sundance Film Festival—that travel from city to city across the United States. (Andre)

"Think Seattle, Act Globally" by Lyons

Lyons, J., (2005). Think Seattle, act globally. Cultural Studies, 19(1), 14-34.

Author James Lyons analyzes the rise and dominance of specialty coffee brands in the global context though their promoting of ‘commodity biographies’ as their main strategy of appeal to consumers. Using Starbucks as the main subject of his essay, Lyons emphasizes that the place-specific strategy employed by such companies is the key element to their success, distinguishing themselves from homogenized, mass-produced coffee products. The dominant advertising method of such companies established Seattle as the nation’s capital of ‘coffee-culture’, in turn, enhancing the success of Starbucks by selling the ‘Seattle-experience”. Lyon gives a brief but detailed history of world coffee consumption leading to the history of Starbucks itself to support his arguments, as well as to demonstrate the process of globalization. He then analyzes Starbucks’ use of product placement in movies to illustrate their strategic move to counter public criticism of their company. Lastly, Lyons brings in the 1999 WTO protests to point out the irony of globalization and the complexity between the local-global theme of such place-specific brands. Lyon’s essay is a good reference of the history and rise of Starbucks. His analysis of their marketing strategy seems well researched and accurate. By including the history of coffee and Starbucks, Lyons is able to give clarity on how Starbucks was able to rise to the top of the Coffee industry and how a global commodity, such as coffee, could ‘originate’ from Seattle.

Selling Seattle

Lyons, J. (2004). Selling Seattle: Representing Contemporary Urban America. Great Britain: Wallflower Press.

This book takes into account the persistent and deepening poverty of the 1980s and the nationwide economic recession of the 1990s. It addresses Seattle’s role in changing the urban centre, despite the negative economic and social restructuring occurring in other American cities. Gourmet coffee consumption during this era, introduces capitalism and globalism to an otherwise over looked city. It is through imagery and narrative, in which gourmet coffee makers such as Starbucks capitalize on local differentiation. Selling and branding consumption practices and place to attract customers. History suggests coffee is indefeasibly bound with the rise of capitalism. Coffee connects the poor underdeveloped countries to the south with the rich industrialized countries of the north. The first Starbucks opened in 1971, in Pike Place Market. Pike Place was an instance of the refashioning of urban space to the taste and aesthetics of the expanding class of white-collared workers in the financial and business services sectors. Pike Place represents both the resistance to and at the same time a product of global forces. From the start, Howard Scholtz announced his plan to, “Position Starbucks coffee as the first natural brand of specialty coffee.” Here in Seattle we believe in the coffee experience; rather than take our coffee home to be drunk, consumption was a display, in chic coffee bars, the perfect consumable commodity for the advanced service city, giving capitalism its caffeine boost, whilst at the same time helping to keep coffee’s stock buoyant on the world market. Starbucks has cultivated an image as a Pacific Northwest phenomenon by supporting particular renditions of the ‘Urban Lifestyle’.

The Starbucks Experience

Michelli, J.A. (2007). The starbucks experience. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

            This book examines the Starbucks Company and how it has taken the coffee business to new levels and transformed it into a business success. The book places great emphasis on the ‘experience’ while working at or visiting a Starbucks. Everyone has a different experience and Starbucks values it, working hard and strategically in making the experience enjoyable and customary. In correspondence with each chapter there are five key principles: Making It Your Own, Everything Matters, Surprise and Delight, Embrace Resistance, and Leave Your Mark. These principles are set out to, if applied on a consistent basis and with a passion, to enable people and companies to seize on the types of opportunities that led Starbucks to its international prominence. The principles are also offered with the goal that the reader will apply them to his or her own situation to develop their leadership role in business and beyond.  

Starbucks Brings Back Original Logo... for a quarter

Starbucks has decided to bring back their original logo--complete with breasts and a split fin resembling, ahm, other womanly parts--for the Spring 08 season as a promotional tactic.

Local Starbucks baristas say the logo is only temporary, ending with the summer shipment of cups and sleeves which will revert back to the green, geometric logo.

So why now? What is so special about Spring 08 that motivated Starbucks to go back to the brown, more natural looking logo and print it on billions of cups and sleeves that will filter through the hands of men, women, and children across the globe?

And why is this change only temporary? Could Starbucks secretly be giving the logo a test run with tentative plans to revert back to the original design if feedback is positive this quarter?

I'm very curious and will be interested to see how this will all play out.

**Original logo can be seen in the right-hand column of this blog.

Logo Logic: The Ups and Downs of Branded Political Communication

Bennett, W. Lance and Taso Lagos. "Logo Logic: The Ups and Downs of Branded Political Communication." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 611, no. 193 (2007): 193-206.

This article discusses the strategy of attaching a political message to a familiar corporate brand in attempt to hold some political leverage for change over the brand/company. The main examples the article calls on are Nike, referencing the sweatshop scandal, and Starbucks in connection with the push for fair trade coffee. Bennett and Lagos describe the benefits of this method, discussing the ability to attach political messages to a “lifestyle” brand and therefore lifestyles of customers as well, which has a double affect of causing a widespread awareness. The article also discusses some of the challenges of this method, mostly having to do with sustainability of the negative image until an actual change is made instead of just being acknowledged. They conclude by stating that while this method may be ideal for spreading a political message, it may not be the most effective way to obtain political or economic change in a company.

“The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers’ (Anticorporate) Experiences of Glocalization” by Anna Petrocco

Arsel, Zeynep, & Thompson, Craig J. (2004). The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers’ (Anticorporate) Experiences of Glocalization. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 631-642.

This article takes a look at how Starbucks’ dominance within the coffee industry has changed coffee culture today, and how this has been adapted both locally and globally. A study was conducted to interview 35 people over a two year period on their background and personal experiences with coffee shops both globally and locally. The term urban flaneur is introduced to describe the general populous of coffee consumers who simply choose to drink coffee at local coffee shops to enjoy the general contact with people, although this contact is typically passive. Overall, the articles findings conclude that the Starbucks brandscape adds to current brand meanings which generate consumer identities, social networks, and marketplace cultures, and also how these traits can be widely contested by consumers.