Have you ever done something naughty and yet, without being provoked, you feel obliged to defend this act to others? I have and this happened yesterday. I went to a Starbucks cafe in Guildford with two of my colleagues. I ordered a grande-size hazelnut hot chocolate. When I received the grande-size mug, I suddenly realised that Starbucks is disposing their current coffee mugs due to an undergoing re-branding exercise. In this exercise, Starbucks is revamping its existing, ubiquitous logo and, consequently, it is replacing everything that is embellished with the existing logo. The re-branding exercise involves making the Starbucks siren (the face of the woman appearing in the existing logo) larger and dispense with the white-on-green lettering that surrounds her. Moreover, the black-and-white colours decorating the siren will also be updated to green-and-white. Because of this re-branding exercise, it has triggered a frenzy in people to collect Starbucks objects that are decorated with the existing logo, and one of these people includes me. Therefore, after consuming my grande-size hot chocolate, I decided to keep the mug as a memorabilia. As I did not wish to pay for the mug, I quietly 'took' the mug with me when I left the cafe. As a branding enthusiast, I strongly feel that I need to have ownership of a Starbucks object with the current logo before it becomes extinct.
When I was taking my new mug to the staff common room for a wash, I met a group of administration staff and, strangely and naturally, I felt the need to explain to them what I had just done. I did not know why I felt compelled to defend or publicise my 'naughty' act to them despite that I was not provoked or interrogated. I could have kept my mouth shut and not said anything to them and they would not have a clue. I doubted they would ask anything about the mug. One of the administration staff, indeed, said: "If you had not told us, I thought you bought the mud." Why? I ask myself this question after chatting to the administration staff. Why did I feel the urge to convey my act to them? Is it because I felt guilty of my act and consequently the need to seek approval and understanding from them? Or, is it because I was thrilled with my act and thus the desire to promote my excitement to other people? In other word, was I showing off? Or, is it a combination of both? What do you think?
More information about Starbucks rebranding is reported in '
Starbucks gets a new face – and drops the mugs' by Zoe Wood.
