With thousands of Starbucks locations across the world, the café has become an everyday stop for many people. The Denver Post released an article posing the question concerning the validity of Starbucks as a successful business as it has now acquired the title of “basic.” Is it played out, as if it is a song on the radio? The Post compares Starbucks to brands such as Michael Kors or Ugg Australia, which many people describe to be basic now as well.
People nowadays want to be trendsetters rather than trend-followers because they do not want to be deemed basic. Just as a girl shopping around for a new purse may head over to a boutique (rather than a Bloomingdales) to avoid getting the same one as someone in town, someone looking to grab coffee with a friend may head over to a local café instead of a franchise like Starbucks, for a more intimate, rather than mainstream, experience. But, how do we distinguish what is basic from what is not? Once you move on to a new coffee brand, people will follow the trend of where to get the best cup of coffee, and the cycle will continue yet again.
What Starbucks needs to do is advance their business to keep up to the luxurious standards that they have set for themselves. Milton Pedraza, chief executive of a New York-based market research firm called the Luxury Institute, says, “It’s much harder to go up-market than it is to do the opposite.” When such a brand starts at the top, it is hard to keep the customers engaged in the business because it has already become the new norm. The business world today is so fast-paced that everyone tries to grow from the beginning and then has nothing left or novel to offer once it hits the status of a mainstream brand. The Denver Post explains how Starbucks is in the works of opening Roastery & Tasting rooms like the one in Seattle where $10 cold brews are the norm to remind people of the luxurious status of their company has obtained compared to Dunkin Donuts and other competitors.
Starbucks puts forth many incentives to keep their customers lured in including ‘Gold Card Status,’ seasonal drinks, free guest Wi-Fi, and Spotify playlists containing music that plays in their franchise locations. Starbucks definitely does a good job regarding customers’ engagement to the brand, and I think that with a little push and some further differentiation Starbucks will easily be able to “restore its luster” as a high-end brand.
I am a Starbucks gold card member. I like coffee-free things because I personally don’t like the taste of coffee, although I wish I did. I usually get my caffeine from green tea. My favorite drinks are the Double Chocolatey Chip Frap when its hot and the hot chocolate when its cold.
I am not offended by being called basic by this article because I understand where it comes from and that term comes up in society so much today. If we were talking about clothes or something individual to my style, I would be offended, but everyone loves Starbucks, so it makes sense in a way to call it basic without that bad connotation.
I haven’t been to any of those places, but I probably would prefer one of the little cafes over Starbucks when wanting to chat with friends or hang out just because it sounds more cozy and local rather than the bustling Starbucks with people in a rush to get to work. If I wanted something quick and didn’t mind about enjoying a different atmosphere, then I would choose Starbucks.
I think that it is still worth paying the price for Starbucks because that is how it has always been. If customers were willing to pay it once, I don’t see why they wouldn’t anymore. If they like the quality of Dunkin Donuts better, they can go there for cheaper, but I still believe that Starbucks is better. Even though coffee is not really my taste, I do say that I’ve liked it better the times that I tried it at Starbucks. I personally see the luxurious stance that Starbucks lives up to- I don’t think that it becoming more mainstream over time should de-value the worth of their amazing products and service.