The colour brown, in its different shades, positively communicates coffee. Starbucks new offering, Pike Place Coffee, sports a new logo somewhat different from the current green twin-tailed mermaid, but still true to the brand’s heritage. But everyone knows that the Starbucks logo is green, so why would Starbucks change its well-known and successful corporate symbol?

A full marketing mix comes into play; it all begins from Starbucks new coffee offering, Pike Place Coffee. This new range was spawned from criticisms on Starbucks’ Coffee and Consumer Reports which referred to the coffee a tasting “burned”. Hence the newly formulated mix which is smoother and has a cleaner finish compared to Starbuck’s other rotating blends. The logo is planned to be put on all the Starbucks cups for about eight weeks and will remain on the Pikes Place coffee bags as well as in advertising.

The aim of this new initiative, from a consumer perception point of view, is to instil goodwill about the brand and warm, fuzzy feelings which have fallen away due to bad press and increasing coffee prices. Nostalgia seems to be the key emotion Starbucks would like to evoke in its consumers, re-creating an emotional bond their consumers have with the coffee.

“Now that Howard Schultz is back at the helm, this is definitely a nostalgia effort and a strong push to get back to the core values of the company,” says Rob Giampietro of New York design firm Giampietro + Smith, referring to the reintroduction of an old icon. The tagline below the cup’s sleeve reads: “Roasting coffee since 1971.” Starbucks spokesperson Bridget Baker says, “It’s a good time to celebrate our heritage.”

As for swapping the original green colour with the brown, I personally don’t think that would be a good idea, especially for long-term change on the Master brand. It could be that the green logo of Starbucks is far too ingrained in modern culture for us to perceive or accept it as being anything else, let alone a different colour. For the line extension though, Pike Place Coffee, it does make sense to differentiate the new range and still add in that nostalgic effort to meld in cohesion with the Starbucks Masterbrand. It’s a case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. Unmistakably Starbucks, but different.

Is there a danger that, by rolling out the old logo once again, Starbucks might overplay the authenticity card? “There is never a danger in reminding your employees or your customers of your authenticity as long as you also keep moving forward in new, surprising ways that are relevant to people,” says Brian Collins, principal of the New York-based strategic branding firm Collins:. “When it’s done right—and consistently—it can be the smartest way to market an established brand.”

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