Unknown Speaker  0:00  
because they weren't literally changing the symbol, if you will, like, the siren was still gonna be there and the word Starbucks was still gonna be there. And we weren't redesigning new typography. We weren't really redesigning the symbol, we were just pulling it apart. They wanted to signal enough change, right? Like they wanted people to know that they were changing and that they were evolving and that they were moving someplace. And that system worked hardest to get them there. I mean, that is just really interesting. In general, with brands when you're trying to signal that something's different about you. The change has to be great enough that people can actually experience it to see it.

Blake Howard  0:50  
Everybody, welcome to a change of brand, a show featuring behind the scenes stories of rebrand glory, drama, or disaster. I'm your host, Blake Howard. And I don't know about you, but I am an avid coffee drinker. It's one of my favorite things in the entire world, sitting outside in the morning, enjoying the quiet and sipping some really good coffee, black coffee, by the way, no cream, no sugar, the real stuff. But you know, I haven't always been a coffee drinker. In fact, all through college, I resisted the urge. And I had some roommates that dabbled here or there, but I was able to withstand the alluring call. And honestly, back then, Seinfeld was the closest thing I knew about a coffee shop and Folgers was really the only option or brand around at that time, even a Keurig would have been a miraculous quality improvement to my uninitiated, taste buds. And all that changed in 2003. It was a cool, crisp morning and I was walking on lucky Street in downtown Atlanta. On my way to meet one of my first ever clients at a Starbucks. We walked up to the counter, I politely declined to order anything because you know, wasn't a coffee drinker, saying thanks and that I was fine. But my soon to be client was a little persistent and insisted that I try a little thing called a white mocha. For those of you that don't know, the white mocha is kind of the gateway drug into the coffee world. The next thing I knew I was walking to that same Starbucks morning after morning dropping $4 on that glorious frothy little cup of sugar, milk and coffee. And ever since then I've basically become a coffee addict. And today, I'm not really a huge fan of Starbucks coffee. I'm more of a third wave kind of guy. Like many people, I owe that caffeinated call, however, back to the bucks. Today, we get to discuss a Starbucks classic brand change story, one that will likely be taught in design school and marketing classes for decades to come. I have referenced it many times through the years with my own clients as a shining light example for what brandmark symbols could be. For example, when clients want a very literal representation of their product or service in their logo. I reference Starbucks, what does the mermaid have to do with coffee? Nothing. Which kind of sounds like a Seinfeld joke? What's the deal with this mermaid? Okay, I'm sorry. That was a terrible impression. Okay, I got sidetracked one tool I often also use, as I learned from a mentor of mine is called the sequence of cognition. And it's the idea that humans visually process information in a particular sequence or order, in a millisecond, we prioritize certain stimuli over others. And the example that I use is the Starbucks logo. So I want you to picture at the Starbucks logo in your mind right now, what do you see, I want you to hold that thought. And here's the example of how I use it in the sequence of cognition. Let's say you're catching an early flight, and you desperately need some coffee. Once you've made it past security at the airport, you look up and down the terminal halls for a green circle. Eventually, your eye spots that shape in that color before anything else, and you head in that direction. And that's what the sequence of cognition is all about. It says that we spot shape first, then color Venn content. So what did you see first, in your mind, when I asked you to think about the Starbucks logo? I'm guessing a green circle. And as that galvanizes in your mind, you might then start to think of the siren, the little double tailed mermaid. Starbucks has been a standout case study for business and brand identity for decades, but in 2011, much like their coffee, they showed the world how strong their brand reach He was for more context and history on Starbucks and what led up to their change of brand. Let's go to brand strategist Tracy Clark for our briefing.

Unknown Speaker  5:18  
After a particularly bad cup of espresso, Jerry Baldwin Gordon Bowker and Jeff Segal, three alumni of the University of San Francisco had a simple desire to bring fresh roasted coffee to Seattle acting as a mentor of sorts. Alfred Peet of San Francisco based Pete's coffee and tea allowed the trio to share his suppliers and even mimic his store layout for their future cafes. As for the name itself, the guys were sitting around dreaming up options when Terry Heckler and advertising business associate a Bokor suggested that names beginning with S T sounded powerful, they noodled and brainstormed and eventually landed on Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville's classic whaling tale Moby Dick, though copies connection to the sea was a bit of a stretch Starbucks stuck, and as they say, the rest is history. In March 1971, Starbucks coffee and tea opened for business in Seattle, it's almost hard to believe now but in its early days, Starbucks cafes didn't sell a single cup of coffee, only coffee beans purchase from Pete's as well as spices and tea. To come up with an undeniably iconic logo, Terry heckler pored over old books. Looking for illustrations of sprites, mermaids, and other Mythological Creatures of the high seas. he happened upon the siren, a bare chested twin tailed being with a cascade of hair. Renowned for lowering sailors to their doom with their beautiful voice. The team reasoned that the siren could be a metaphorical stand in for caffeine and ran with it. In 1984. Starbucks original owners purchased Pete's coffee, and within just a few years, the company operated six stores in Seattle in 1982. A few years before that Pete's coffee purchase, Howard Schultz joined the company as director of retail operations. During a prophetic business trip to Milan, Schultz saw the popularity of coffee houses and espresso bars, and he had a hunch that coffee houses serving as community centers would easily translate to Seattle, Howard convinced the Starbucks founders to test the coffee house concept which turned out to be a success. And he went on to establish Il Giornale, a coffee shop that you Starbucks beans, it turns out, Schultz was onto something in 1987 Il Giornale acquired Starbucks and it was off to the races under Schultz Starbucks had 46 locations across the country by 1989. Schultz made a bet that Starbucks could become what sociologist Ray Oldenburg dubbed the third place these spaces, coffee houses, bars, parks in the like, serve as vital institutions for a healthy society. They're where people can go to socialize, gather, maybe get some work done, but more importantly feel like a home away from home. Starbucks so believes in this third space concept that it's baked into the company's retail and operation strategy. Over the decades Starbucks would grow and grow, reaching over 3500 stores by the year 2000. When Schultz stepped down as CEO, that's about the time Starbucks hit a rough patch. With consumers feeling the brand had become too formulaic, and the coffee too stale. When he returned in 2008. Schultz went to work on improvements by closing 900 underperforming stores, retraining employees, calling the food menu and bringing back that third space vibe. Schultz would stay at the helm until 2017 When he stepped down for a second time and transferred leadership to his hand picked successor Kevin Johnson. Today Starbucks boasts over 32,000 stores in 83 markets and serves up more than 30 blends of premium coffees, blended beverages, teas and fresh foods outside of its signature brand. The Starbucks portfolio includes Teavana evolution fresh Seattle's Best Coffee and Ethos water not too bad for a little coffee shop from Seattle. No matter how big Starbucks has become. One thing has stayed pretty much the same from the beginning. It's smiling siren. That is until 2011 when Starbucks had one very memorable change a brand

Blake Howard  9:10  
there's many remarkable aspects to the Starbucks brand identity for me to stand out. The name is one it's completely unrelated to coffee and incredibly unique in their space. And the second would be the siren logo. And those are two major building blocks for any brand. Before the 2011 rebrand they had a long stint with the siren character from 1971 to 1987. You could see the entire sea creature kind of as a Norse woodcut illustration with two tails hovering in a brown circle bearing it all. In 1987 the company introduced a green ring with Starbucks around a black circle with the siren now a bit more modest and her wavy hair intentionally covering her chest in 1992. They introduced a slightly evolved logo, with the sirens scale increasing a bit and framed more like a portrait and not like a floating full body. Which leads us up to 2011. The big story here is the move to drop the Starbucks name from the primary logo. By D branding the mark they were able to set up a move into the upper echelon of the brand elite, rubbing elbows with the likes of Nike target Apple, Coca Cola, and MasterCard like we have previously discussed this season. Connie Birdsall senior partner and global creative director lead the work for Lippincott we heard a little bit about Lippincott when Rodney Abbott walked us through the Southwest rebrand Connie's team slightly redrew the siren and freed her from her encircling banner. They made her the star of the show and introduced a set of design principles to guide the brand in all of its many environments across the globe. Ultimately, they left a clean, modern and consistent Starbucks brand identity, the one we think of today, be sure to see the change of brand for yourself at a change of brand calm, just click on this episode and scroll down to see the breakdown. I had the chance to talk with Connie a few weeks ago to dig in deeper to this work and their creative process. Growing up, she originally wanted to be a ballet dancer, which led to an interest in set design, which then led to graphic design. And eventually she found herself in New York working for a top branding agency. And after about five years, she wasn't quite satisfied.

Unknown Speaker  11:36  
I was really looking for more opportunity to grow in a company and Lippincott at the time was pretty small. We were about 30 people in New York City, and there weren't like layers of you know, creative directors that were going to be above me. And so when I got the opportunity to interview there, and then was offered the job I took it on, I have literally been there ever since which is gonna sound crazy to so many people. But I've been there for 33 years now,

Blake Howard  12:09  
being a New Yorker, she was well aware of Starbucks in the 2000s. And while she admired the brand, she wasn't too fond of the coffee.

Unknown Speaker  12:17  
Yeah, I mean, in New York, by the time we got the call from Starbucks, there was a Starbucks almost on every corner. And so I have to say, I wasn't a Starbucks coffee drinker. And so I felt a little like, kind of oddly guilty, and sort of not very knowledgeable about the brand when they reached out. I mean, not that I hadn't tried it. But if, you know, it was pretty strong coffee, if you recall, in comparison to you know, most of the time. And there's a reason for that, which I learned about later, they they sort of double, I'm gonna use the wrong language, but sort of roast their beans. And that double roasting quality is what gives it that kind of very rich, kind of aromatic but slightly, sometimes bitter taste to the coffee. So I knew of it but wasn't, you know, really a frequent user. Let's, let's describe it that way. So yeah, I have to admit, now, I became addicted to coffee addiction, which, you know, if you work with anybody at Starbucks, they drink coffee for every meeting. And they actually do those little beautiful presses, french presses for all their meetings. And so by the time you're out of there, at the end of the day, you're like, I bet it was quite.

Blake Howard  13:48  
At about this time, the Starbucks VP of creative Steve Barrett had been going through an internal brand refresh in preparation for their 40th anniversary. But he and the team were feeling a bit stuck and was interested in having some outside counsel. They invited Lippincott to come and share their work and discuss how they could help. So they arranged for meeting to have Connie present to the group of senior creatives at Starbucks. And an unlikely case study helped her win the work.

Unknown Speaker  14:17  
We shared a lot of the work that we had done with Walmart because Walmart was a brand that was just a massive transformation project that Lippincott had led, really for about seven years prior to this call we got from Starbucks and and that was a really interesting story for them. And I think was the story that convinced them that we were the right people to work with. We were excited and also a little nervous about, you know, the fact that we had won this because again, this, you know, just sort of incredible creative team. I think they had over 200 people, you know, as part of their creative departments across all the different areas that they work in, was a little new You know, kind of overwhelming. And we at Lippincott were at, frankly, we have like 45 people on our design team. And so we're very small in comparison, and I was like, I was anxious, I was anxious.

Blake Howard  15:15  
In addition to refreshing to celebrate their 40th anniversary, they were also expanding beyond coffee. Isn't that funny to think about? Remember when they only had lattes, frappuccinos and fruit cups, maybe, perhaps even a kind bar if you were lucky. But over the last 40 years, they've really grown their offering to include oatmeal, almond croissants, a spinach, feta, and egg white wrap, which is a lovely 290 calories, but they were still trying to figure out the fringes of how much they could expand their offering.

Unknown Speaker  15:49  
They were starting to do ice cream at the time, and they were doing in different parts of the world. I remember the story that they were, you know, in China, they were opening Starbucks, and they were selling, you know, Starbucks coffee tea, which was very confusing, you know, like, they were using the full name of the brand Starbucks coffee, and then they were adding tea. And then it was like, okay, that doesn't make any sense. Right? So and they were putting, you know, violators on the ice cream, no coffee in this ice cream, right. So things like that were starting to happen. You know, if you think about the corporate brand of Starbucks, it also is not only just Starbucks, there are there's a house of brands that sit underneath the the parent company, so they were moving beyond coffee. And they were also rethinking their strategy for how they were going to go forward with the retail design, they were constantly looking at new formats and things like that. So that was one part of it, like, you know, would we sell wine? Would we, you know, have just different experiences, would we sell a different kind of food, you know, other than just kind of the things that you might typically, you know, have for breakfast, or you know, sort of the lunch servings would we have a higher end pastry offering, for instance, back in the time, so. So there was a lot going on with sort of how they were thinking about the evolution of the business, they also were thinking about how to create a kid parts for Starbucks, that would work globally, where it was sort of the 8020 rule, if you will, like 80% is a kit of parts. And 20% is something that you would have the much more of a local flavor. And I think if you remember, when I was talking about it, the experience that you had with Starbucks early on was that these stores were like exact copies of each other, no matter where they were built, no matter what part of the world. And so there was, you know, it was a package, and it was all the same. And I think the goal for this was to, to be more local, and global at the same time. And so that was going to require a different approach to how they were thinking about the interior design packages, there would be less of the kind of consistent wallpapering, if you will, the less kind of illustration, some of the things that we were all very familiar with the really early variations of the the siren, I don't know if you can even remember those, but they were, you know, metal cutouts of, you know, kind of her body that were used in different ways to represent different things. So, so they were just at an inflection point, you know, like I said, Stan Lee, and others, you know, they manage that brand, centrally, with one creative director, which, which is the same approach, like a million years ago with IBM and Paul Rand, right. Like, there was one creative director, that creative director approved everything globally. Paul Rand approved, every designer, he hired every designer, like he has control, that central control, you know, which is so awesome, if you can do it was something that they were, you know, really needing to rethink with 30,000. I think at the time retail facilities globally, they just couldn't manage the brand anymore, through, you know, funneling through one person. And so they were looking for the first time ever to create a system and guidelines that could be used, you know, globally. So those were the two that was really the remit, right, like, we want to refresh the brand. We want to have, you know, a way to manage it that, you know, is not sort of so centralized, we're becoming more decentralized. We've got more people operating in different places, and we really do need to be more sensitive to local markets, you know, when we think about the overall experience in store design, so those were really kind of the core things. They had started looking at the actual design of the siren and they took us into a room That was literally wallpapered 360 with various things that they had done. But they, they were like, we're at this point, but we just, we don't know how to move forward from here. We don't know, why would we do this? Or why would we do that? And so we were like, okay, you know, they're incredible designers. But at the end of the day, they're not brand designers and they're not system designers. And I think at Lippincott, we were incredible system designers, we think about what the toolkit of elements needs to be for your brand. And then, you know, we weren't going to be the people designing the packaging, or designing the retail experience or designing any of it, frankly, but what we were trying to do was help them come up with the right kit of parts, to allow them the flexibility to be able to design across a range of, you know, touch points. So the way we set the project up at the time was to think about, how could we get them out of the just looking at the logo, if you will, how could we help them step back and think about what the potential might be for how to evolve the brands. So we described it as creating like these future worlds. And we broke our team out Lippincott into three very separate groups we had done, we spent a day, actually probably two days out in Seattle with all of the various departments within their organizations of all the different creative teams, the people who do the merchandising, the people that do the packaging, the people that did you know, the retail design, you know, just getting, like their perspective and their download about like, what's working, what's not working, which was a really helpful discovery process for us to think about, okay, if we're trying to move this brand to a new place, and given all of the things that we know about what the future is going to be like for them, you know, what are the things that we need to assess? So by breaking into three separate teams, and kind of coming up with some really high level themes for how we might think about the design, that was kind of how we approached it, and then instead of designing, it wasn't about the siren at all. I mean, even at the beginning of the day, whether we were gonna just redesign her or not redesign her was it wasn't the mandate, the mandate was, how do we get to a place to solve all of these kind of real, you know, business challenges that we've got?

Blake Howard  22:36  
Okay, when we come back from the break, we learn about the three options that the Lippincott team pitches and if they were too strong, too weak, or just right, all that more after the break. Hey, everyone, I hope you are enjoying the show. If you're really loving it, be sure to follow us on Instagram to see more before and afters or history of the brands we discuss. We do some fun giveaways every so often, so be sure to check it out. Just add a change of brand. It's also an easy way to tell a friend about the show. Just DM one of your favorite episode post right on over to that fellow brand nerd of yours and tell them to check it out. You know leaving a review on Apple podcast is also super cool and helps us out a ton because more people find the show we all know we listen to shows that have a ton of reviews, it means you are legit, so help us be legit. Last but not least, thank you to matchstick is where I work, and our producing partner for this show. We specialize in helping growing brands take their identity to the next level. So if you need help clarifying your message or standing out in the market, be sure to visit us at matchstick calm. Okay, back to the show. When we left off Connie and the Lippincott team were hard at work reimagining the Starbucks brand soup to nuts or latte to beans, maybe they had divided their forces into three working groups, each with a direction of their own to pursue and develop. Here's Connie again.

Unknown Speaker  24:18  
So we came up with these three themes. One theme was very much focused on, you know, kind of an evolution of where they were. And if you think about what was so great back in the day, or one of the things I really enjoyed is they got coffee from all these very kind of unique, different places from around the world. And they were you know very much working with those local farmers and telling those stories. And if you remember used to get the coffee packages with all these beautiful stories about where this coffee came from and why it was unique and why it was different. I think a little bit of that has become more complex in the world that we live in today and you Just sort of being able to, you know, actually get enough coffee beans, frankly. But, you know, back then there was that sorry. So one of the systems was very much about more of a collage type, you know, storytelling system. And it was really kind of just moving the needle, just a teeny bit from where they were, one of the directions was really thinking about the siren, and sort of what her role would be in sort of curating all of the different things that are in Starbucks today. So if you think about her, right, she's this creature of the See, she's mobile, she's kind of the representation and the embodiment of all of the different things that she is bringing together for you. And so that was like a direction that was more about sort of using her as a central curator, it felt a little bit more social and a little bit more digital, in retrospect, I think it could have been also a really lovely approach for them. And then, so the third direction was a complete, like, like very modern, very different take on what the brand could be going forward. So we stripped out a lot of the kind of fuzziness around the brand, we, you know, decided to look at, you know, using black and white typography and using a sans serif typeface and, you know, really thinking about bringing the siren out as kind of her own element and letting her actually stand for the company and make the word Starbucks actually quite small in relationship, we felt she was very ownable and very differentiating, and, you know, kind of like Nike and, and a few others, one of the few brands in the whole world that might be able to just hold its own using the symbol. And so that system was super clean, one of the things we wanted to do, and one of the things that we kind of learned as we were going along in the process is while they have the name, Starbucks, and they have the Syrah, and they didn't have a ton of other kind of really ownable design assets. So they've been using a lot of like I said, you know, tons of different illustrators work, and they had used a lot of what I would call kind of really beautiful wallpaper designs that, you know, come out of old fashioned wallpaper books, where, you know, they would take those things, and they would use them in packaging, and do all kinds of beautiful things with them. But they weren't. They weren't ownable by Starbucks, so anybody could use that stuff. And we thought, could we do something based on her on the siren herself, could we pull patterns out of her and create a system of very ownable design elements. And so in that third system, that's what we did, we also added a super bright green to the palette to kind of complement that really dark kind of evergreen color, which was the original green of the program. And so just those three colors, essentially, there was a secondary color palette that was primarily used and developed for, you know, packaging, sort of secondary moments, but just really focusing hard on those three things and the symbol, and those patterns. And so that was the third system. And we and we kind of created these maps that had kind of the journey that you would have with the brand. So we had, you know, kind of what a package might look like, what an advertisement life would look like, what a website might look like, what your app might look like, what the building might look like, what, you know, we actually even started to think about, like, is there a form language that can also be owned to so beyond just the graphics, the kind of tactile things that we could own in creating this brand palette. And so for each of those directions, we developed out these big, you know, kind of barrels, which back in the day, when we were working on Zoom, we printed and then put up in a big conference room, and then their whole team came to New York, and we spent an entire day together just kind of, you know, dissecting the different designs and talking about what's working, what's not working. And, you know, what do we like, what do we not like?

Blake Howard  29:28  
Connie has three directions for the Starbucks team, which feels pretty risky considering the limited interaction since the kickoff just a few months before. They're in a big conference room, print outs littering the table, exhibit boards standing tall, exuding the call of what could be and I imagine just a hint of Pikes place roast lingering in the air. Doesn't it sound magical? Don't you just love this business? This is the moment creative directors live for.

Unknown Speaker  29:58  
In the end. They really really really likes this very kind of simple, direct direction, which was the third direction. And they felt, because they weren't literally changing the symbol, if you will, like, the siren was still gonna be there, and the word Starbucks was still gonna be there. And we weren't redesigning new typography, we weren't really redesigning the symbol, we were just pulling it apart, they wanted to signal enough change, right? Like they wanted people to know that they were changing, and that they were evolving and that they were moving someplace. And that system worked hardest to get them there. I mean, that is just really interesting. In general, with brands, when you're trying to signal that something's different about you, the change has to be great enough that people can actually experience it and see it. So that was cool. And I think one of the things we were working with work that was done by SBI partners like to give them credit for this, because it was quite strong, was very strong work around their brand strategy. And the whole idea of these moments of connection, were incredibly important, you know, that sort of, and so that, that real simplification, and knowing that we weren't going to have, we're going to have the same kind of interior design that we had in the past, we needed to create, like, really ownable moments, and within that space, and so that third system gave us like much stronger brand cues to work with, frankly. And so I think that was another, you know, real sort of powerful part of it. But within that brand strategy that SI Partners who worked on they had, you know, they had sort of their little manifesto, and then they had brand characteristics that were really, you know, also really important that, you know, we designed to this idea of being genuine, thoughtful, and expressive and optimistic, engaging, I think those were the five things that we were working with. And then they also had come up with, it was a really cool kind of way that they depicted it, they in the center was this idea of moments of connection, which was important to everything that they were doing. But they also have these brand differentiators around coffee, passion, thoughtful food, engaging partners, the idea of personalization, shared planet values, and this idea of connecting humanity. And so they use those as filters, like, everything that they were designing and everything that they were doing, they were using, you know, have we demonstrated something around coffee, passion, you know, have we done something to help engage partners? Are we doing something around shared plan of value so, so we would look or personalization, like, we would look around that wheel. And we would think about how to use this, you know, set of tools that we were creating to help them do all of these things. And, you know, I think they still use them. We recently had a partner join us at Lippincott, who worked at Starbucks, and he shared with me that you know, everything that they did had to meet at least three of those brand differentiators,

Blake Howard  33:16  
I want to jump back to the day that you had with the team and you presented the three directions. And they were drawn towards that third direction that was very minimal, very clean and straightforward and sort of dropped that outer ring with Starbucks and decoupled the Starbucks name with the siren were their concerns about that. Because you know, that was a pretty bold move to move towards this iconic status like a Nike swoosh. Were there some in the room that were like, Are you sure? Are we really there? Or was everyone just in agreement and felt like that was the right direction?

Unknown Speaker  33:49  
I think there was nervousness for sure about like, Wow, do you really think we could do that? You know, we talked about it a lot that day. And, you know, we were like apps. And you know, sometimes you're just really, like, there's just something inside you that you're just super confident, at least in my, my experience with the brands that I've worked on. You know, I was like, No, this is the right thing to do. Like, if your thing is really generic. It's tough, right? Like it's hard. You know, if your target and your name is target, that's one thing. But if your name is Starbucks and you have this other symbol representing you, it's a little bit different. And it's a little harder for people to get there. But she was so unique. The challenge, frankly for them is that they had never really used her right like she was always sort of this secondary element inside that big green circle that said Starbucks coffee. She was a little black woodcut. She's a nurse would cut you know with the double tailed siren and she wasn't particularly articulated like she was just this quick cut out of a book, right? So that's one of the worries they were like, but do people really know her? Like, we know her, right? Like we all talked about her. But does the world know her. And it's so fascinating. I just like our team was just like absolute, this is doable. She's so unique. She's so vulnerable. And frankly, by taking her out of that bring that had Starbucks and coffee, she became way more protectable. Like, up to that point. You could put anything inside a green ring and call it you know, stars in box or whatever, which there were 1000s of imitators, especially, you know, in some of the foreign markets, the fake Starbucks brands were, you know, once she was out, she was you could trademark her and you could register and she was ownable. And you could protect her in a way that you couldn't when she was buried inside the circle. So that was a lot of the conversation, they were very concerned about how to get Howard over the line on that. And as we continue to develop the program, and as we fine tuned it and refined it, it became clear, obviously that we were going to have to redraw her. And that was a fantastic exercise that if people have seen it, there's a little video, it's probably still up on the Lippincott site that shows like The 700 variations of this siren that were developed everything from making her completely perfect, perfect smile, perfect everything, which felt very fake, and not very alluring. And it just she just sort of lost all of that mystical quality, all the way to kind of understanding like how much imperfection how much change, you know, it was just a fun exercise that we did to get to the right version of her.

Blake Howard  37:02  
So they're moving forward with a modern direction and the belief that the logo is ready to break up with the name a conscious uncoupling if you will, or a conscious uncoupling. No. Okay. But they still had one hurdle. Howard Schultz. So the Starbucks team took it to the head honcho.

Unknown Speaker  37:26  
He wasn't sure, I think he wasn't sure either. And so we went back and there was a lot of back and forth on it, we finally ended up spending a night writing an email for them with all of our rationale, which they then shared, and we never actually met with him in person, I would have loved to have done that. But they did it. They owned it. And they made the decision. And they've never looked back. And it was the right decision. I mean, it you know, I think today when I'm going down the freeway, and I see like the big, you know, siren on the signs, I'm like, see, then I need the word Starbucks. So, yeah.

Blake Howard  38:09  
For a moment there, it seemed like there was trouble brewing on the horizon. But the Starbucks brand team convinced Howard, this was the right call. And within three months from August, to the end of October, the Lippincott team has convinced Starbucks to drop its name from the logo and has had them sign off on the final direction. After that, they started on guidelines and defining more of the visual system, while the Starbucks team devised a rollout plan.

Unknown Speaker  38:41  
So their plan was to introduce it internally, in January, their actual anniversary, I believe, was early March. And they were going to, you know, have an external launch at that point. But they needed all of the internal people to have the guidelines and the assets and everything to work with in order to get to the March deadline. So the first thing they did, I mean, we finished the guidelines, and then we did some, you know, kind of training with their core team, then they actually took the program at that point. And there was a ton of work done to think about what's the right way to launch this thing and what they didn't want. And I think we make this recommendation to almost every company we work with. This is not about a new logo, right? If it's about a new logo, then we're missing something about why we are even doing this and if you recall back in those at that point, I believe GAAP had just had a hiccup up with kids. So gap had launched and then a hiccup and then had to kind of go swallow and and go back and we were good. We're not going to do that, right. So we were on a mission to create the right kind of change. So, so we was introduced in the context of, you know, this is an evolution, we are moving to, you know, evolve as a company, we're moving beyond coffee, we're, you know, becoming very global entity, we, you know, we have these types of ambitions. And so Howard actually, you know, introduced it to their internal team, and I think we were on, we were on at the time of WebEx kind of kind of call, we were all in the, around our computer in New York, they were having a big town hall, in their corporate offices in Seattle. And literally, they just brought everybody into the center of the building that they have there. And people kind of stood on all those staircases around, and they had some banners that kind of showed the history of the evolution of logo, and Howard just talked to them about, you know, why they were doing that, and what his you know, vision and goals were so. So it got launched internally first, and then it got launched externally, with the anniversary in March. So, at that point, it was still pretty early, I think they did a big change to their corporate sign, I think I have a photograph with Howard and like a whole bunch of people like as they're taking down the old sign, and they're putting up the new sign, which is kind of cool for the corporate headquarters. So that was one thing that happened. And then they in every Starbucks store, they had the 40th anniversary coffee package, and that had the new logo on it, which was cool. And then they also, I believe, had at least one person in every store got a new green apron with the new siren on the front of it. So that was, it was pretty minimal at some level launch. Another interesting thing about the program is that they do have a lot of retail facilities around the world, right, like 30,000, or something at the time, I don't even know what they have now. But it was in their estimation, going to take about 10 years to actually convert all of the signage to the you know, so they have that round sign that hangs in the window. And it was a super easy to just pop out the old logo and pop in the round new logo. So this was a design system that you know, was designed to live with the old work for, you know, some period of time.

Blake Howard  42:34  
Here's Howard the big time barista, introducing the new logo after it went public.

Unknown Speaker  42:43  
This new evolution of the logo does two things that are very important. It embraces and respects our heritage. And at the same time evolves us to a point where we feel it's more suitable for the future. So I think it's important perhaps to kind of go back in history in 1987, we dropped the brown, Starbucks became green, and we embrace the siren, it became Starbucks Coffee Company. So now here we are, in the world has changed and Starbucks has changed. The new interpretation of the logo, at its core, is the exact same essence of the Starbucks experience. And that is the love we have for our coffee, the relationship we have with our partners. And that connection we build with our customers, what I think we've done is we've allowed her to come out of the circle in a way that I think gives us the freedom and flexibility to think beyond coffee. But make no mistake, we have been, we will continue to be and we always will be the world's leading purveyor of the highest quality coffee.

Blake Howard  43:48  
I got the sense from Connie that she was really confident in this rebrand. And of course now in the work, and it's easy for us to look back and say, Yeah, that was the right direction. Of course, it's so obvious. But dropping the name from a symbol is kind of a big deal at this scale. And I was curious if they were ever nervous or concerned about any blowback,

Unknown Speaker  44:08  
they had actually done some research on the logo change, you have to think about what is it we're trying to do for the business? And where are we trying to go? And because a consumer is not, you know, they're not a part of that conversation. They don't know what your ambitions are, they don't know where you're going. So they only have, you know, their current experience and any kind of change, especially with a brand like Starbucks, that's so loved, like people carve the logo, and you know, they get tattoos and you know, it's very much the people's brand in a way and we so we knew that there was going to be some challenges and I think we just said look, you know, we you know why you're doing this. It's the right thing to do. They were very careful about how to talk to the press, like, every single creative person, and all of their agencies were briefed in advance of the launch, we had talking points, we were supposed to send everybody back to Starbucks, we were not supposed to speak on their behalf, it was very well orchestrated. And, you know, I give them a ton of credit for the thinking around that. There were, you know, a few images that were available to people at the time for us, and, you know, I remember brand new and, and some of the other, you know, blogs around the world, they reached out to them, they, you know, tried to provide them with kind of the richer kind of story behind why this change was happening, especially for the design community to prepare them for, kind of, you know, why they were making this change. And I think that went very smoothly, they did get some, you know, incredible pushback from, you know, I'm never gonna go to Starbucks again, you've changed my logo, you know, and that lasts, typically about two weeks, and then everybody wants their Starbucks coffee again, right? So not to belittle it. But I have over the years, and especially, you know, since kind of those early days, I really tried to help my clients and our clients understand, you have to have a very thick skin, because this is going to go away. Like, you know, media is just going like that this days, right? Like, it's just one thing one day, and it's on to the next thing, the next and they might focus on it for two or three days, and then they'll just, it'll just pass and, you know, on to the next thing, so, which is exactly, you know, what happened there. And, you know, I've had clients who will do research right at the last minute, and they'll be like, literally, I've gotten calls our CEO has gotten calls it one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning. We don't know whether we should do this, you know, and it's like, you kind of have to talk them back from edge and you're like, No, no, it's gonna be okay, we promise you better. So

Blake Howard  47:03  
it is interesting. In hindsight, it's hard to argue that this wasn't the right change for Starbucks. The siren symbol is an amazing piece of artwork. Not only that, it adds incredible personality and distinction to the business that's really hard to compete with. But still, there were some haters. The Christian Science Monitor did a public opinion study, as expressed in comments on Facebook and starbucks.com. And it found more than a 10 to one ratio against the change, which is kind of hilarious that they used Facebook to gauge legitimacy of the work and the new logo. And I didn't know that the Christian Science Monitor really cared about logos. also stumbled upon a video on YouTube from just after the rebrand with sort of a person on the street interview style focus group, just walking up asking random people what they thought about the logo in comparison to the history of Starbucks logos. Here's a clip.

Unknown Speaker  48:01  
I'm Evan Martin. I'm a photography major, a freshman and it just kind of looks plain, like there's not enough stuff going on. Like the the 92 version. Yeah, I like this one the first week. I would probably go back with the original. What's your reasoning for liking that while I'm on like, a lighter tone color. So okay. Definitely not the new one.

Unknown Speaker  48:25  
My name is Kelsey kins. I'm an illustration major. I'm a freshman. And I think people would be really confused because it doesn't say Starbucks on it. Say little no word it what it is or

Blake Howard  48:36  
where to go. subjective opinions aside, this refresh was a catalyst for the business. Since 2011, Starbucks stock prices have gone up around 680%. Perhaps the business has even scaled too much. And with a Starbucks on every corner, it does start to feel like they're the McDonald's of coffee. Regardless, this will go down in the history pages of brand identity. As a student of this work, I was curious, from Connie's perspective, what was the secret sauce? What made it such a success?

Unknown Speaker  49:10  
It was a lovely partnership. They were a different client, because they were creative clients. So the dialogue that we had around getting to the creative solution was so much richer than we might have, if we were working with more of a CMO or somebody whose background isn't deeply design based. So being able to have real conversations with real designers about what we were trying to do was really, I think, an important part of of the how we got it to the place we got it. They were willing to take that risk. They also wanted to do something bold, and that was, I think, super, super exciting. And at the end of the day It's really beautiful, right? Like, bringing her out and making her the star and writing stories about her. And, you know, that was one of the things that, you know, was super special and it's just a very special brand

Blake Howard  50:13  
designers working with designers. I love that and that was the key. It's also worth noting in 2019, the Starbucks creative team launched an updated version to their visual identity system and continued to push the envelope with a really smart and flexible approach to their brand expression. The siren remains queen, however, sitting front and center calling to us all beckoning to come in just have one more white mocha. Thanks for listening and special thanks to the Lippincott team and Connie bird stalls for giving us a behind the scenes look. To see more visuals from today's episode, head on over to a change of brand.com and if you like today's show, share it with a friend or leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Today's episode was edited by Matt Owen fact checked by Jill Jefferies Co written by Pamela Hinman, and thanks a latte to Tracy Clark for our briefing in Rachel Jackson for today's episode artwork. I'm your host, Blake Howard, signing off

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