Starbuck’s Logo Goes Brown

How Starbucks is using a special brown logo to evoke the chain’s beginnings and restore some goodwill for the brand

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The new old logo: Starbucks is temporarily using a sanitized version of its original branding on new packaging.

Brown is certainly a color that communicates coffee. So, when you order a cup of the new Pike Place coffee at Starbucks this week, it doesn’t seem out of place to see a special brown logo on the cup and paper sleeve. Except that, as everyone knows, Starbucks’ iconic logo is green. So why change such a successful corporate symbol?

The image of the twin-tailed mermaid inside the brown medallion harkens back to the chain’s 1971 beginnings. The logo has evolved over the years, going from brown to green in 1987.

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This is the second time in three years Starbucks has trotted out the brown mermaid, inspired by a Norse woodcut. Back in 2006, she was resurrected to mark the chain’s 35th anniversary. This time, she is a messenger…Read the whole story on BusinessWeek.com

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