Starbucks

How does someone sell their products? How do their products “speak to us” in a way that will persuade us to buy their products? Starbucks, for example, can come off as overpriced and overdone. However, everyday thousands of people flock to this coffee house to buy their famous beverages. Why, especially as broke college students, is this the case?

First off, the atmosphere itself creates the allusion that we are in a completely different environment from the outside world. Starbucks has discovered the importance of location. Upon entering their doors, a cozy feeling is portrayed through warm colors, cheerful signs and a place to sit back and relax in almost every corner. Many escape to this place as a sanctuary; a place to study, socialize, or just grab a coffee and some quiet time.

But what makes so many choose this coffee house over their competing counterpart Dunkin? Many fast food places create a rigid environment to promote the flow of customers in and out of their stores. McDonalds’ interior design is made up of bright colors, plastic chairs and desks, and white walls that do not exactly invite consumers to stay around longer than their meal. Starbucks, on the other hand, created soft features all around, avoiding sharp corners or hard surfaces, to relax the customers. It promotes the feeling of a “second home” where one may sip on a latte for hours while working on their laptops. Starbucks senior vice president has compared Starbucks to that of a modern bookstore setting, this promoting long-term relationships with the people.

Basically, Starbucks could pass for a bookstore-just without so many books. They sell an array of decorations, mugs, how-to books, CD’s, and much more. It is easy to get absorbed in the mixture of all these items while mulling over what beverage to order. The beverages might raise some flags as to how pricey they are, but who can resist the European and exotic names dedicated to these beverages? I know for a fact many people order a grande caramel macchoiato or any other foreign termed coffe without actually knowing what it is. Why? To try something different. I think in the comfort of its setting people feel like they can take risks by trying new things. With all of these medians working together, Starbucks has created its own culture that is rapidly spreading to all over the word, thanks to its genius use of rhetoric in its presentation.