Change is hard.
Just ask the folks at Seattle’s Best Coffee.
The Starbucks subsidiary unveiled a new stripped-down logo yesterday, which coffee fans greeted with a collective “really?”
The new logo, which looks to me like a cereal bowl containing a giant tear drop, comes with a new slogan: “Great coffee everywhere.” The plan is to sell a basic version of Seattle’s Best in thousands of new locations, including Subway and Burger King.
There’s a little glitch. Not everyone likes the change. Customers and marketers alike are calling the new design uninspired. Some even think the logo appears to be advertising an oil-change service.
This kind of outrage about change seems to happen often in business, especially when people personally identify with an iconic brand. Every time Facebook changes its interface, the negative feedback flows like a river of fury.
We in the news business joke that a change to the comics page brings more reader outrage than our investigative endeavors.
So what do you do when a change is necessary? How do you keep customers and continue to build loyalty?
Know a small business we should write about? Contact Herald writer Amy Rolph at arolph@heraldnet.com.
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