Best Buy hopes new logo changes your mind

In col­lege, being cheap is cool. Every­one eats Taco Bell and drinks the Beast. They brag about clothes for 4 bucks at the vin­tage store.  People pitch in to con­tribute to the com­mu­nity and every­one gets by on the absolute least amount possible.

After grad­u­a­tion, you start to upgrade. The wardrobe is first because you have a shiny new job and can no longer where the “Ride the Lightening” tour shirt every day. The car is next so you can get to work reli­ably. Then comes the apart­ment, tv, more clothes, etc. Slowly you replace older stuff with newer, nicer things and people start to see an upgraded ver­sion of you. One that smells nicer, looks a little more put together and less like you are get­ting by on 17 dol­lars a week.

Best Buy has grad­u­ated from col­lege, is upgrad­ing its lifestyle, and wants you to see the new image.

Best Buy started in 1966 as a music store called Sound of Music (how orig­i­nal! The movie came out in 1965). In 1983 they started sell­ing dis­counted brand-​name items and changed the name to Best Buy. In 1989 they adopted the now familiar giant yellow tag. Bush Sr., Clin­ton, and Y2k all hap­pened while they became the Wal-​Mart of electronics.

In 2000, Best Buy changed strat­egy. Instead of the cheap elec­tron­ics store, they wanted to become the upscale elec­tron­ics store. They pur­chased Mag­no­lia Hi-​Fi, a high-​end home the­ater com­pany. They con­verted sec­tions of the store into sim­u­lated living rooms with couches, plants, and $10,000 the­ater sys­tems. They upgraded the store with carpet, new dis­plays, and khakis and blue polo uni­forms for sales people. They elim­i­nated sales com­mis­sions and became ser­vice focused. In 2003 they intro­duced Reward Zone loy­alty pro­gram and pur­chased Geek Squad. No longer where they simply the cheap­est buy, they were the best buy.

All that was left was an image over­all. The near 20 year old logo needed to reflect their new strat­egy and upgraded expe­ri­ence. A bright yellow price tag sig­ni­fied the place to iden­tify their cheap prices. Except, that no longer reflected it’s brand. I think the new logo achieves its goal with­out losing the familiar Best Buy mark. Their goal with the new logo is to change your mind from Best Buy as the cheap­est to Best Buy as the best cus­tomer experience.

The com­pany began in St. Paul, Min­neapo­lis, so the first store to have the new logo is in the Mall of Amer­ica.

Do you think they achieved their goal?

Thanks to Brand New and Tryp­notic for the info.