Starbucks makes better content than coffee
It’s easy to insulate ourselves within the bubble of Melbourne’s esteemed cafe culture and look down on the most ubiquitous coffee chain in the world, but with $19 billion dollars in annual revenue, Starbucks is clearly doing something right.
Its position in the world market isn’t achieved without taking on significant risks. Most recently, they’ve expanded their range to include more breakfast sandwiches and bistro boxes, while updating their tech solution to include options for mobile ordering and payments. In fact just last year, 20% of all money paid to Starbucks in the U.S came in through its mobile app. That’s incredible. But for all their product and process innovations, their decision to morph into a media company is their biggest leap of faith yet.
Turned off by the tenor of the current election cycle, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz vowed to highlight these stories across his company’s website, app, social pages and in-store digital network.
“We’re living in a time in America, especially given the political season in which there has been such vitriol and division and, unfortunately, hatred. As a result of that, the media and many other people have painted a picture of America being the place where so many acts of selfless kindness and innovative solutions have not been accomplished. We said let’s go out and find ordinary people doing extraordinary things and let’s bring these stories to life.”
Championing this project alongside Schultz is Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the former senior correspondent and associate editor of the Washington Post. The investment in legitimate, talented journalists is a strong signal of intent but also calls into question the cost of the entire exercise. Reportedly coming in at 'several millions of dollars', shouldn’t Schultz and Starbucks focus on lowering the price of their coffees instead? Training up staff? Redesigning store layouts so customers don’t feel as if they’re sitting in an outdated airport lounge?
Given the company reported a $630 million profit in 2015, directing 0.4% of these funds towards an ambitious customer engagement plan is entirely worthwhile for one simple reason:
Enough people know about Starbucks but not enough know why Starbucks.
This contention is simply explained by that diagram you remember seeing in Advertising 101 but swiftly drew over with squiggles, stars and that ubiquitous ‘S’ logo that no one could really explain.
In the U.S., Starbucks’ brand awareness tops out at 95%, while it reaches 90% in the U.K. I would confidently wager that the figure in Australia would be similarly high. Knowing that awareness isn’t their key business problem, we’re presented with the challenge of improving consideration?—?getting people who usually wouldn’t think about Starbucks to think again. And if anything, Upstanders does get people thinking.
As goods and services become more accessible, and technology increases convenience, consumer expectations shift. This occurs within companies (Uber, Netflix and Deliveroo) and is then transposed onto other categories.
We expect more from brands and we expect that more to be better than what we had before.
Upstanders is a slick, engaging production. Flicking through the stories, which include a former inmate’s quest to keep ex-convicts from returning to prison and a recovering drug addict’s mission to rebuild family homes, it becomes clear the stories are genuine, and genuinely moving at that.
“This is not through the lens of trying to sell more coffee. This is about the human spirit and what we think is so important to the country.”
Even so, this quote from Schultz is a lie. Well, the first bit least. Ultimately, everything will come down to selling more coffee. But for a brand that has high awareness and low trust, Starbucks has to first get their foot in the door with marketing strategies that add meaningful value to the brand. They need to give people a reason to pause when they walk past another Green Mermaid (because everyone knows there’s enough of them around). If the podcasts, articles and videos of these inspiring Americans are compelling enough to shift perception and increase consideration, Starbucks can consider the exercise a success. If anything, you have to give them credit for upstanding, valuable content amidst the rising tide of consumer expectation.