The Value Of A Brand Logo

I am addicted to Coke.

Coke ZERO to be specific. I consume about six cans a day.

I applaud Coke for getting Coke ZERO distribution in fast food restaurants and C-store fountainheads.

Coke ZERO is great because it is slightly less carbonated than Diet Coke, which means I can chug it down quicker.

Today the 2010 soft-drink sales gains hit the news nets and newspapers.

Diet Coke just surpassed Pepsi for the #2 spot in the US…Coke already owns the #1 slot.

PEPSI fell 4.8 percent.

4.8 percent is a BIG drop.

The article in the AJC goes on to say… “one analyst fears morale implications for PepsiCo.”

Now I am not a financial analyst, but I do listen to people talk about all sorts of things across the US, online and in the blog-louge world and there’s been a lot of commentary about the Pepsi logo change.

Here’s the commentary from a 10/20/2008 blog post on BRAND NEW about the new Pepsi logo rollout…

“YUK. These logos make me want to cry.”

“It’s not subtle, it’s silly and stupid”

“Boring and pointless”

“Oh damn. I really hate the new Pepsi brand”

“Someone F up BIG time.”

Okay. Wonder if any of the folks at PepsiCo were listening?

Someone told me a few weeks ago that it is all about the Millennials and GenXers taking over as the new corporate CMOs and Brand VPs.

Changing brand identities and logos seems to be the new marketing buzz.

Last week, Starbucks premiered their new logo where they took the girl out of the ring and dropped the Starbucks Coffee Company copy text.

Maybe its because I am a Boomer, but I don’t like it.

The Starbucks CMO says it is designed to broaden their brand as it expands into other product lines.

Okay. But whatever happened to the core brand platform of the “Third Place?”

(Maybe that is before the MBAs took over and taught the folks at Starbucks all about the USP and Benefit Statement)

GAP tried out a new logo that their new CMO insisted was very needed to bring the brand into the more current times.

About three months after the announcement, GAP got smart and re-launched the classic brand that got GAP where GAP is at today.

Wal-Mart changed their logo to get more competitive with target and in that case, it seems to have helped.

The jury is still out about the Holiday Inn logo change.

I am sitting here scripting this on a MacBook Pro and the Apple logo on the other side hasn’t changed. Apple’s apple has been around for a while.

Some analysts say that NIKE’s corporate value is about 80% linked to the value of the swish…and that hasn’t changed since it was launched.

Okay…back to the Coke story and the challenge that Pepsi is loosing right now…

While I love my Coke ZERO, I would put $50 on the Vegas tables that a large reason why Pepsi sales are on the decline is about an identity change that was just plain stupid.

Sure Coke has changed their brand logos, but the changes have been minor updates.

I remember as a kid growing up that my mom hardly ever gave me any critical commentary about what I put on to wear to school… and while my dad was rather tolerant, he would sometimes advise me to go back to my room and pick out an outfit that was much more aligned with the event I was heading out to attend.

I would put another $50 on the Vegas tables that the CMO from Pepsi and the CMO from Starbucks were classic ADHD and their fathers seldom voiced any concern about what they wore heading out of the house.

Maybe if they want to keep their jobs, they will turn more of a listening ear to their bottomlines and Wall Street.

Okay. Hand me another Coke ZERO!