The Controversial Rebrand Of Seattle’s Best Coffee
As marketers, we know how crucial a brand’s reputation is, as well as what its consumers and potential consumers say about it. Many companies, including some of our own clients like Seaport Village, Beauty Encounter and Sushi, have gone through a rebrand to help reinvent the brand and/or reconnect with their target market(s).
When relaunching a brand, you can’t just announce it to the world. You need to get out there and show people the new you; show them why you are better than ever. A lot of companies are doing this by pulling stunts or through street teams.
Seattle’s Best Coffee is one of the newest companies to rebrand. They started with simplifying their logo, dramatically. Already, in just a week, this 
change has stirred 
up heated opinions. People have classified this new logo as looking like a bowl of cereal filled with tears or even worse, a blood donation center. It’s crazy to see that after only one week, 68% of over 2,000 respondents said Seattle’s Best should try again and produce a new logo. Wow! Let’s hope this isn’t as big of a disaster as it was when Tropicana rebranded a few years back. They had to ditch the new look and revert back to the original design. People need to learn that simplifying a logo isn’t always the best way to go.
While the logo has been less well received, the way in which the company is getting the news out has proven quite popular. On May 12, brand relaunch day, the Seattle’s Best “red-capped invaders” took over headquarters of Starbucks by replacing the signage at the very top of the clock tower with their new logo. As awesome as this is, it is likely that Starbucks gave them permission to do this since Seattle’s Best was acquired by them in 2003. Still though, it’s an awesome idea.
To relaunch the Seattle’s Best Coffee brand in some of their biggest markets, Seattle and Portland, they placed big red refrigerators throughout the cities filled with ice-cold lattes and mochas. Genius! This simple idea has caused a buzz both online and off. It also shows the public that just because your look has changed, your great taste and price hasn’t changed. I know I would be quite intrigued by seeing a giant red fridge in the middle of the street — nothing written on the outside explaining what it is, and to open it up and find free coffee in it, especially from Seattle’s Best. I would be ecstatic.
These are just a few ways that they have launched the new Seattle’s Best brand out into the world. I’m curious to see the kind of response both the new logo and stunts get both from current consumers and potential consumers.
For me, if I am already a consumer of a particular brand, a rebrand probably won’t stop me from continuing to purchase that item. The only thing that would make me swap would be if the price increased. Yet, if I wasn’t already a consumer and a company rebranded with a new logo paired with these types of stunts, it would most definitely catch my eye. I would be willing to try the product, as long as the price was equal, or less, than what I was already paying.
How would you react to a change in the look of a product you’ve been buying for years? Would you all of a sudden steer clear of it and cause a backlash like people did with Tropicana, or would you embrace it and continue to purchase it? What about if this was a product you’ve never tried but heard of? Would you be enticed to try it?
I love that they committed to announcing the rebrand in such fun way. I do think big consumer-type brands need to consider their loyal/existing customers when considering change. Those that are putting up a stink about the new logo will get over it because it won’t affect their routine of going to the same Seattle’s Best coffee shop they do every day. Now something like Tropicana, which is on the shelf in the grocery store next to other options? Honestly, I switched to another brand when they changed and have not gone back.
Great post!
The new logo doesn’t exactly strike me as ‘brimming with flavor,’ but hey, what do I know. When companies change logos, I generally figure they’ve gotten all the customers they can get using the old logo, and they’re trying to drum up new business. If the product and the price stay the same, the logo doesn’t make any difference to me. If the cup of coffee gets smaller and the cost goes up, well… that’s a different story!
Thanks for the info
Even though I am not a coffee drinker myself, I would definitely want to hunt down those red coolers if they were in my town! As for the logo, my opinion is that they settled for a major downgrade– it reminds me of a dunking booth button where you throw the ball, which I’m pretty sure not the reaction that they were going for…
Thanks for the interesting read though!
I think Pepsi should consider reverting back also.
Thanks Maria. I agree with you that this change in logo will not alter people’s daily routines. If they already walk into Seattle’s Best every morning, it’s not like they are going to walk a few more blocks to go somewhere else.
You make a good point about Tropicana. When something is on a shelf in a grocery store people know that look and go right for it when they are shopping. But if that look has changed, people will no longer recognize it and therefore grab something different.
Saya. I totally agree. I love the original Pepsi brand way over the new one.
The logo doesn’t look like it represents a food product. The. colors and font look very clinical, like a medicine. The ‘cereal bowl full of tears’ comment above is spot-on. I think it’s a bad move.
[...] about half a year now, Seattle’s Best has been using a fresh, albeit controversial new logo and look for their stores in the US. You’ve probably not seen it before because [...]
I don’t care what the label looks like! What I don’t like is that my favorite flavor I have been purchasing in the grocery stores has dissapeared and is replaced by this number system! Does my favorite coffee even exist anymore? And if it does, which number is it?
The new logo is generic. Brand recoggnition will be like starting over. The name it self is too generic. Most people will have to redescover. Its not that popular in Seattle.