Baskin-Robbins is a
global chain of ice cream parlors founded by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins
in 1953, from the merging of their respective ice cream parlors, in
Glendale, California. It claims to be the world's largest ice cream
franchise, with more than 5,800 locations, 2,800 of which are located in
the United States. The Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlors started as
separate ventures from Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins, owning Burt's Ice
Cream Shop and Snowbird Ice Cream respectively. Snowbird Ice Cream
featured 21
flavors, a novel concept for the time. When the separate
companies merged in 1953, this concept grew to 31 flavors.
Baskin-Robbins is known for its "31 flavors" slogan.
Starting
2006, the company went through a campaign to change its brand including
redesign of its stores, its website and even its logo. The current logo
is clever in that it incorporates the 31 (in pink) that represents the 31 flavors, cleverly embedding it in the B R
of the logo. The font was also changed from the a regular straight font
to a more zig-zag font. The pink represents the pink spoon which is
given when customers ask for samples (see below for more history)
The idea for having 31 flavors came from the Carson-Roberts advertising
agency (which later became Ogilvy & Mather) in 1953, along with the
slogan "Count the Flavors. Where flavor counts." 31 was also more than
the 28 flavors then famously offered at Howard Johnson's restaurants.
Burt and Irv also believed that people should be able to sample flavors
until they found one they wanted to buy - hence the iconic small pink
spoon. During a now famous promotion, Amy Boggioni led a group of three
who finished 31 scoops of all 31 flavors in under 31 minutes.
Baskin-Robbins
sells ice cream in over 30 countries, including Canada, Japan, Mexico,
Bahrain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Panama and Taiwan.
The two logos prior to the one unveiled in 2007 are show below.
Details of when theh logos changed are not known to me. In the prior
logos as well, one can see the emphasis on 31 and the color pink. There
are only 24 dots (not 31) in the first logo, in case you were planning
to count.