By Philip Zies

Remember when Prince, the Twin City tunester who partied like it was 1999, changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol?  Well fast forward to 2011, and move over to the home of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam, and I think you will agree with me that Starbucks, the maker of Starbucks Coffee, may have spent a little too much time laughing in the Purple Rain.  

It is being reported that Starbucks Coffee Company, who since 1971 has been selling coffee, has decided to remove its name, “Starbucks”, and its primary product, “Coffee”, from its new logo it plans to begin using in March, leaving only an image of a mythical Siren to operate as the logo for the Seattle-based company.  While this isn’t the first time Starbucks has changed its logo (it’s actually the fourth logo for Starbucks) it is the first time that Starbucks has removed its name from the logo. 

Until the most recent logo change, there were three constant components in Starbuck’s logos:  the name “Starbucks”; an identification of the primary product “Coffee”; and the image of the Siren, or at least parts of the image.  With each successive logo, Starbucks has magnified, and modified, the image of the Siren; perhaps to de-emphasize certain anatomical aspects of the young lady/fish. 

Why would Starbucks remove its name from its logo?  Is it unhappy with its record label?  Will it, like the Gap, give in to consumer protest and revive its more familiar, and more descriptive, logo?  Why would it throw away 19 years of customer recognition for a mark that identifies the source of Starbucks’ goods and services?  Go ask Alice.