Starbucks

On Tuesday, March 8, Starbucks marks its 40th year – and as part of the celebration, we’ll start rolling out the new logo we announced a few months back.

The first place you’ll probably see the new logo is on the cup of your favorite beverage. It could be a while before the signage in your neighborhood store is changed – it takes a while to update 16,500 stores!   

For communication professionals and design nerds like me, this is an exciting time. Watching the reaction to any new logo is fascinating, because people can hold such passionate attachments to these marks. The comments on our Facebook page and blog posts were decidedly mixed – some of you don’t like the new look at all, some of you think you’ll love it once you get used to it. (Honestly, that was pretty much the reaction we were expecting.)  The verdict from the design community has generally been more positive, and even the voice behind the hilarious (but fake) Gap Logo Twitter account lent support. 

For those of you who aren’t sold on the new mark, all I ask is this: give it time. As you start to see it out in the world, I hope you’ll start to appreciate the simplicity and elegance of the new design. I like the new mark because I feel that we’ve unleashed the Siren, a mythological figure who represents the romance and creativity that inspired the founders of Starbucks 40 years ago. I hope that unleashing that energy – that mojo – will keep us (and you) inspired for the next 40 years.

Courtesy: Starbucks official website

T24 Mobile

T24 is a mobile service launched by Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) & Future Group. There are many aspects to this partnership and offering.

Firstly, seeing the growth of mobile penetration, traditionally retail companies like Future group has entered into this space. The Indian industry already has more than 15 mobile operators and share more than 600 million subscribers among themselves. The need of hour is to improve service and connectivity but instead there are new brands which are getting launched. Though T24 aspires to capture 10 million subscribers in the period of 3 years, which is very less as compared to its target audience. Future group has various retail formats in all parts of the country and having launched in 18 circles, it could get more subscribers, if they offer better service.

Secondly, the positioning which T24 has taken is on price. UNPAID, is the key word which company is promoting as customers get free talk time when ever they shop in future group. Future group has more than 1000 stores in 120 different locations and they touch base with more than 200 million customers in a year, which makes Future group the largest retailer in India. The market which is already very price sensitive, and players like Videocon offering call rates at 0/paise has opened new fronts for companies to fight. No doubt this is very innovative idea where retail company has ventured into this space and Future group with Big Bazaar its flagship chain portrays itself as a retail outlet of common man. But the challenge of TTSL & Future group would be to ensure the service and hence they will be able to retain the customer.

Thirdly, the marketing and promotion which T24 is doing is aggressive. They have taken big hoardings in mumbai, pune, hyderabad, chennai and other big cities. Once you walk down the streets of Mumbai, you will find almost every second bus shelter painted with "UNPAID" message. That's an irony, the cities which already have tasted the service of big players like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance etc. will take some time to try this new service. Though free connections in the retail stores will get them to sell their connections but success of T24 depends on recharging.