Baskin-Robbins' new website, apparently in support of its new logo, begs the question that any company selling something dependent on senses other than sight and sound must confront:
What's the point?
Odor, taste, and touch just don't easily translate into the media of web pages and mobile phone screens. Animation, cute typography, and any other artistic contrivance can't make up for the absence of triggers for the more tangible senses.
Baskin-Robbins wishes otherwise. Its new website is chocked-full of cartoonish fonts and retro-awkward graphics. The new logo was clearly intended to capture the name and "31 flavors" references, while trashing any visual recognition in lieu of a more "fun" look and feel. In fact, it turns out that BR now offers over 1,000 flavors, and it seems that every permutation is included in its site.
I just don't get it. The company cut its calories on offering a bite-sized indulgence to a generation within referential earshot of the privations of war (or, before that, even worse). The chain was built in the days when cigarettes didn't cause cancer, and dairy products soothed chest pains. Fashion models weren't yet pencil-thin. Probably most of Baskin-Robbins' marketing was promotional, and intended to drive people to its stores.
None of this history, or focus on selling stuff, is apparent in its new branding or website.
Instead of affirming a happier, retro past, the company has opted for a generically comic logo with no connection to, well, anything, whether past, present, or future. The website throws gallons of information at a user, with no organizing principle or guide. No call to action. No relevance.
Baskin-Robbins sells lots of ice cream products. This part, I get. But I just don't care, since there are lots of other ways to get lots of other ice cream products. And if consumers today are going to websites more often than they visit actual retail stores, what could the company do about it?
Well, probably first and foremost, figure out ways to get them off their duffs and into retail stores. Is there a Baskin-Robbins experience? Heritage? What could consumers get at stores, other than the chance to stand in line, get ignored by surly employees, or any other threat of today’s retail nightmare? Providing this motivation should be the primary and very aggressive purpose of the site, in my humble opinion.
With that said, a secondary thing Baskin-Robbins could consider would be to use the web to address and promote the things consumers want to know . The main real estate on the home page promotes various desserts concocted with brand-name candy bars. I wonder if curiosity about flavors drives any visits to the site? My guess would be a search for a credible, get-out-of-diet-free-card excuse for patronizing the establishment would be a nice starter guess.
Third, I'd chuck the new logo and go back to an older one. The present tense of this business is grounded in the past. Throwing that lineage away cuts the business adrift from any purpose, let alone relevance to consumers.
Pictures of ice cream are tasteless (pun intended), and the new logo tells me far less than the old one did. Well, it all tells me one thing:
There's no such thing as virtual ice cream.
