Where Starbucks went wrong

Posted Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 9:59 pm by Dave Moyer

Okay, the title may be a bit misleading. I’m not talking about the great history of the coffee giant and the flaws in their corporation. I’m talking about the miniscule things that matter to me, and very few other people I know. The logo. If you’re not a Starbucksian like me, I’ll clue you in: Starbucks recently released a new brew of coffee, called Pike Place Roast. Along with the release, they temporarily changed their logo on their cups and advertisements to a slightly modified version of their original brown logo.

Though I’m not a big fan of the new logo, that’s not really why I think it was a bad decision on their part. Think about it. The green and black logo is known worldwide as synonymous with “Starbucks”. If you notice a white and green cup across the street, even if you can’t identify the words or design, you assume it’s a Starbucks! Even from a distance, a green circle with some black squiggles in the middle is instantly recognized as the icon of Starbucks. They have an absolutely amazing brand identity, and self marketing that any other business owner in the world would die for! They lose all that every time they switch out the green with the brown.

What should they have done, if they really wanted to show their old identity was still there? Just put the new logo on the sample cups for Pike Place Roast. Put it on the bags of the new roast, or the advertisements touting the new variety. Don’t change everything and lose the incredible identity you have and the phenomenal advertising you get when people buy a cup of your coffee each and every day. Bad, decision, Starbucks. (But I love your green tea lemonade.)

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Top 50 Mahalo Pages

Posted Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 8:15 am by Dave Moyer

Jason Calacanis has released the list of the top 50 pages on Mahalo, and some of them may surprise you. (Mariah Carey lyrics are number 21? Seriously?) Here are the top 25 pages:

Click here for the full list>>

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What is WRONG with Sony?

Posted Friday, April 11th, 2008 6:57 am by Dave Moyer

Arstechnica reporting that SONY BMG of all people has been caught using pirated software.

The company was in (very) hot water a couple of years ago when it was discovered that they had placed a rootkit on many of their CDs to prevent piracy. This rootkit opened a “back door” on your computer, telling Sony just how you were using the music, and, incidentally, making you a giant rosebush for the honeybee that is spyware. (Aren’t I great with the analogies?)

Sony was called out when an employee called up tech support at PointDev, a French software company that makes Windows administration tools. This employee proceeded to give the representative a pirated license key for the product in need of support, Ideal Migration. According to the Ars story:

The subsequent raid revealed that software was illegally installed on four of Sony BMG’s servers. The Business Software Alliance, however, believes that up to 47 percent of the software installed on Sony BMG’s computers could be pirated.

One of the people I follow on Twitter, Joe (@dogboi), broke the story for me. He later posted a hilarous message:

Sony: “Don’t pirate our music!” - “Oh, but we can steal your software cause you’re only a small company, and you’re french.

It’s probably not even necessary to start spreading a conspiracy theory that Sony hates the French. I’m sure they’ll do a good job themselves. Keep up the good work, Sony.

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iPod Shuffle Price Drop

Posted Friday, February 22nd, 2008 12:16 pm by Dave Moyer

What was $79 just days ago has now become $49, and what used to not exist will soon be only $69. Yes, the iPod shuffle has seen changes just like the Nano and iPhone have in the past, and Apple seems to be flaunting this one a bit less than before.
Big News for something small. 1GB now $49. 2GB coming soon for $69.
I wonder if they’re making room for something new besides the 2 GB model coming soon… what would they have in mind? I hope there’s another Nano price drop (even though I just got a new 8 GB one a couple months ago). Let’s wait and see what’s on the way from Apple this time…

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Yahoocrosoft? Microhoo?

Posted Friday, February 1st, 2008 6:33 am by Dave Moyer

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What we had speculated for years could finally be coming to pass. Microsoft has made a formal offer to buy out Yahoo, possibly paying $44.6 billion. Steve Ballmer (developers, developers, developers, developers), CEO, said, “We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.”

The only question in my mind now: what will they call the company?

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