The Future of Starbucks is Bright (Literally)

Last weekend, I visited the future of Starbucks. 

It’s not the dark cozy lounge we’ve all grown to expect— it’s bright, it’s colorful, and it’s oh so Instragrammable. Welcome to Mints & Honey, a third wave coffeeshop offering waffles and toast in addition to their beverages.

We all know visual appeal is important in food, but this has typically only been considered on the upper end of dining experiences. Why? Because, logic says, food that is art takes more time (and therefore more money) to create. However, with the incredible selection of fresh ingredients available, some foods are naturally beautiful. One of my favorite trends that exemplifies this is the poke bowl: it’s faster to make than sushi, and with all the separate, colorful ingredients, it’s gorgeous. So what does this have to do with Starbucks? 

For a brand so loved by the Instagram demographic, Starbucks remains remarkably un-Instagrammable. While the dark cozy stores are perfect for working on a laptop, this lighting makes it much more difficult to take beautiful pictures (in fact, most of the high quality pictures that tag Starbucks on Instagram are taken outside of the stores). Although the Starbucks cup is iconic, its food items get short-shifted and served in relatively nondescript paper bags, and while the flavors remain on trend, the presentation of the food fails to live up to a more visual generation’s expectations. This is all the more important with the coming of age of Generation Z. If you look at social media usage, Generation Z prefers more visual platforms. In 2015, a Pew study on the subject showed the top 3 platforms teens of the time used were Facebook (71%), Instagram (52%), and Snapchat (41%). Teens in 2018, according to Pew Research Center’s more recent study, are significantly more active on Instagram (72%) and Snapchat (69%) with decreasing numbers on Facebook (51%). These visual teens are Starbucks’ next generation of customers.

Starbucks generally has two different types of customers: treat-seekers and habit-havers. Treat-seekers are looking for beverage-based fulfillment; they tend to come in later in the day or on weekends, and they only do so occasionally. Habit-havers incorporate Starbucks into their daily routine. These two archetypes have different needs, and both are important to the Starbucks ecosystem (especially as treat-seekers are prime candidates for conversion into habit-havers, but that’s a topic for another time). Increasing photogenics is an initiative aimed primarily at treat-seekers, as they’re more likely to want to document their experience. Let’s take a look at how coffeeshop-chic compares to Starbucks-styled.

Tables:

Food presentation:

Beverages:

I’m not proposing Starbucks completely revamp their stores— I love that for the price of a coffee, you can rent a workspace for an afternoon— just that they consider the increasing importance of visual appeal. Separate food offerings for the morning versus afternoon crowd. The bag is fine for someone in a hurry, but when things are less busy in the afternoon, consider better presentation of food. For outside tables or tables near windows where lighting is already better, add some unique touches to allow customers to turn their coffee experience into a veritable photo booth (these could even be unique to each store and reflect their surrounding neighborhood). 

Starbucks is poised for the future. In a time where companies make the news for exploiting their workforce, Starbucks has a different narrative, adding additional benefits and working towards sustainability. We all love a good story, but it’s time they let us do the illustrations.