With nearly 30,000 stores in 78 countries, Starbucks is one of the fastest-growing companies in the US, and one of the most popular coffee shops in the world. The company skyrocketed from 46 stores in 1989 to 29,865 by 2018. And there’s no reason to believe it has any plans of slowing down.
So how exactly did the brand spur such phenomenal growth? And more importantly, what can we learn from it?
Now, we all know it would simply be impossible to match Starbucks’ budget, which makes replicating Starbucks’ tactics at the same level nearly impossible. However, there are still some core principles behind the Starbucks marketing strategy that nearly any brand can ‘borrow’ and implement.
1. It’s Not Starbucks Coffee You Are Getting — It’s the Starbucks Experience.
Starbucks is the clear market leader in the coffeehouse industry. But why? Is Starbucks coffee really that amazing? Maybe to some. However, there’s something else at play, something very social: the meticulously cultivated Starbucks consumer experience.
After Howard Schultz bought the company from its founding members in 1987, he focused on making Starbucks the “Third Place”. The idea of the third place is one that exists between work and home. It’s a space where people want to hang out and relax.
There’s just something comforting about ordering a nice cup of coffee and being encouraged to sit in the shop with your laptop and work. On top of that, Starbucks also serves as an oasis for meeting up with friends, having a snack, and relaxing in a comfy chair while listening to the latest Indie playlists.
That’s the type of cultivated experience Starbucks provides: it’s cool, clean, and atmospheric, the baristas are friendly, and the coffees have nice names.
In short, consumers buy experiences — not products. Businesses like Starbucks understand this important principle. By using experiences to frame ‘traditional’ products, you can make your product endlessly more valuable. If you’re not competing on experience, you are essentially in a race to the bottom.
2. Unbeatable Brand Consistency of Starbucks.
As McDonald’s first demonstrated, product consistency may trump quality and creativity for keeping customers coming back. McDonald’s has franchises all around the world and yet wherever you go, you know you’re in a McDonald’s, and every aspect of that experience will be consistent.
Starbucks is essentially the same story. They serve millions of cups of coffee (and sugary ice cream shakes) each day. Yet, we can walk into my local Starbucks and another one an hour away and have the same experience. We all know that their sizing will still be referred to in the same Italian name sizes (Tall, Grande, Venti, etc.), and the coffee we order in one store will taste exactly the same as in the other.
From the atmosphere in their stores to their digital content, to their advertising, everything looks, sounds, and feels like Starbucks. The end result? The experience you have with Starbucks always feels consistent, whether you’re reading a social post, waiting in line, watching a TV ad, or interacting with their brand in any way, anywhere.
For Starbucks Cafés, even though the store owners have a certain freedom to run the facility, they have to ensure to deliver the core Starbucks qualities. These include:
- Indie music
- Comfortable (community) tables for remote work
- Reliable, quick wireless internet connection
- Charging outlets
In many ways, Starbucks’ social media strategy is an extension of its stores’ famous calm, inviting, and warm ambiance. The general tone of Starbucks’ social media presence has been personable, sleek, interactive, and non-intrusive.
In short, keeping a consistent brand experience for your customers is key to bringing them back to your company and creating brand advocates out of your customers.
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3. Curated music
In 2016, Starbucks partnered with Spotify for the music it now pipes through its stores. It’s also integrating the streaming music service into its mobile app, letting customers see what’s playing and save it for later.
The Spotify playlists are carefully curated to help create the ambiance of a local coffee shop. Holly Hinton and David Legry, the in-house music curators, are responsible for what gets played. Their sole work is searching for the right tracks and artists that they can see are fit to be played in the coffee shop.
In an interview with Fast Company, Holy Hinton said: “We want our customers to walk in and have a ‘What’s that song?’ moment. We want them to hear interesting, cool music that they might not hear when they turn the radio on. It’s the music that we’d want to hear on Sunday morning when we’re reading the paper and drinking coffee. It’s a friend-to-friend personal.”
4. Embrace Data
Not only does Starbucks go through mounds of coffee beans to satiate its raving fans, but they also have mounds of data that they leverage in many ways to improve the customer experience and its business. With 90 million transactions a week in 25,000+ stores worldwide, the coffee giant is in many ways on the cutting edge of using big data and artificial intelligence to help marketing, sales, and business decisions.
At Sagara Technology, our team are experts at developing your brand from even its simplest foundation like the color palette and even web design. Our creative services will ensure your company is like no other!