The BIG Kahuna

You can do all kinds of great stuff with WordPress. You don’t have to stick to standard templates.

Check out our latest project for the Parrot Club, a Gaming Entertainment Center in St. John US Virgin Islands.

We also tied their Facebook and twitter accounts to their blog for automatic updates as well as using NetworkedBlogs.

So you’re Seattle’s Best and Starbuck’s wants you to re-brand. Why re-brand? Well because being everything to everyone is much better than targeting a market and differentiating…right?

Now that Seattle’s Best is expanding into Subway’s and Burger King’s it’s time to change a good brand to accommodate all those lower end types that visit those restaurants…that’s the thinking right?

Check out the email I got from Mandi Armond at Cohn & Wolfe, a subsidary of  WPP:

Hi Scott ,

Seattle’s Best Coffee, sub-brand of Starbucks, announced recently a new logo, as part of an overall effort to repurpose the brand. Recent expansions by Seattle’s Best into partnerships with brands such as Subway and Burger King, show that parent company is eager to use Seattle’s image as a more affordable coffee to their advantage during the recession.

I would like to offer an executive from Landor Associates, one of the world’s leading branding and design consultancies for expert commentary on the Starbucks/Seattle’s Best brand, as well as the new logo and marketing efforts. The firm’s executive staff is highly knowledgeable about Starbucks’ brand strength and has previously commented for other outlets, as well as on their own corporate blog, about the introduction of VIA, the controversy over the legality of carrying a gun in the stores, and most recently Starbucks tea sales to China.  

Please find below my signature, a sample of some of their previous commentary and Landor corporate blogs on the topic.

If you were planning any stories about Seattle’s Best, Starbucks, or the new logo, please let me know and I can organize an interview for you with one of the Landor executives.

Cheers,

Mandi Armond for Landor Associates

415-365-8553

cohn&wolfe

mandi armond | cohn&wolfe | assistant account executive | 415.365.8553 | mandi.armond@cohnwolfe.com

Here are my thoughts, you may not like them:

“The parent company is eager to use Seattle’s image as a more affordable coffee to their advantage during the recession.”

Brilliant, I change my identity all the time in a recession. When things are slow I lower my prices and work for clients that I ordinarily wouldn’t work with. Hell I HAVE to keep the money coming in. When the recessions over I’ll just change it back. Presto.

So what’s the new logo look like? Keep in mind the new target audience is much wider now and they are more “affordable”:

Wow, what a change. Honestly it’s worse than clip-art. It does say “cheap” though, I must admit.

Apparently this new identity was developed by “Creature Agency”.

Isn’t there a point where you have to say, wait a minute here! You want to do what? They have completely bastardized Seattle’s Best Brand to a commodity?

I guess if you follow the rule for recessions you can’t blame Creature Agency for taking the project, after all the money flow needs to happen. But I can tell you one firm who wouldn’t have….mine.

What say you kahunas? Agree or disagree?