Coffee plays a significant role in our society today, being the most consumed beverage in the United States, it is cherished by various groups of individuals. Whether it be the working class, students, or a group of friends who would like to catch up with each other, coffee is the perfect remedy to start a busy day or to enjoy a meaningful conversation over. The coffee industry is experiencing constant growth, where consumers spent nearly $110 billion on coffee in 2022. The coffee industry alone is responsible for 2.2 million jobs in the Unites States (National Coffee Association USA, 2016). A revolutionary brand of coffee with a strong international presence and is associated with serving coffee at the convenience of their consumers would be the infamous Starbucks Coffee. Starbucks is a testament to how a brand redefined coffee as a culture and became a standard in our society today.  

I had never noticed how impactful Starbucks was until I worked at a specialty coffee shop over the summer. I was particularly fascinated to learn more about the brand, due to encounters I had with customers while I was working as a barista. A few scenarios that I remember vividly was when customers would ask for a “grande” latte. I found myself repeatedly explaining that the term “grande” is exclusive to Starbucks. I was surprised by how many conversations I had with customers who used Starbucks terminology and was surprised to see how much Starbucks has influenced common coffee knowledge. During training, I was specifically told to inform our customers that if they order a macchiato (an espresso-based drink topped with a small amount of steamed milk) the macchiato will be traditional 3oz sized and will not be the same as Starbucks. I found it remarkably interesting that local coffee stores must explain or even defend themselves, by explaining that they are following the traditional ways of serving coffee. It was also funny to see some customers in denial that Starbucks is using the “correct” way of serving coffee. This intrigued me to understand the underlying reasons for customer’s loyalty to Starbucks, despite deviations from conventional or “correct” coffee practices. I wanted to answer the question: “How did Starbucks become so successful until had “brainwashed” consumers into embracing a different coffee culture?” Thus, my paper analyzes how global coffee chains like Starbucks became a standard in the eyes of modern-day consumers and assesses the long-term sustainability of Starbucks’ cultural impact. 

Before understanding how Starbucks influenced our society today, it is important to understand how it started. Starbucks was established in 1971, along the cobblestone streets of Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. With the initial idea of selling coffee based on convenience, Starbucks became the grab-and-go place for coffee lovers. Over the years, they remodeled to cater more to the working population, providing an environment that welcomes those who would need to work or have a place to chat, that later became the “camping culture” in coffee shops (Gastelum, 2022). Starbucks was in the coffee game long before other brands, giving them an upper hand in dominating our community today. In 2022, there were 35,711 Starbucks stores worldwide, while Starbucks’ revenue across the United States exceeded Mcdonald’s by approximately 10 billion dollars (Industry Snapshot – Starbucks Key Industry Players, n.d.). 

It is undeniable that Starbucks has become a social standard in our community today. According to Kunst (2023), restaurant chain consumers were given a survey where they were presented a brand’s logo and name to be identified, and Starbucks emerged as the highest brand recognition in the study. A main reason Starbucks was so successful in becoming a standard is due to their delivery of exceptional customer experience. Customer experience has become a main factor that consumers consider when choosing a brand. Liraz Margalit, a customer and user behavior specialist explained that Starbucks redefined how we drink coffee, she stated “Customer experience has become more important than the product itself and companies that will ignore that, will find themselves out of the game” (Margalit, 2020). Starbucks presents itself as a company that exists “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (The Secret to Starbucks’ Brand Success, 2021). Starbucks uses multiple strategies to differentiate itself from other coffee shops, such as providing the option for consumers to customize their drink, creating secret menus of handcrafted beverages, and adding a personalized touch to a drink by writing the customer’s name on the cup, which is a distinctive characteristic that distinguishes itself from competitors. 

In addition, Starbucks became a favorable brand amongst consumers because it fosters a sense of belonging in customers who purchase their product. We would often see customers, especially the teenage generation, holding a Starbucks cup in their hand while walking on the streets, or taking pictures and posting it on social media immediately after buying a beverage. Consumers do not realize they are addicted to the “sense of belonging” to a culture when they get coffee at Starbucks. It could also be defined as the “fear of missing out”. In today’s digital age, social media strongly influences our purchasing choices. With Starbuck’s strong online presence, along with their vast user-generated content (UGC), consumers become unconsciously loyal to the brand, feeling the need to connect with the community (Visser, 2022).  

Some research suggests that brand loyalty to brands like Starbucks is a privileged act that requires a combination of confidence, skills, and financial resources to engage with the cultural form. Research was conducted by Sonia Bookman, where she analyzed the framework of how ‘global’ coffee brands like Starbucks shape the culture of ‘cosmopolitan cool’ today. With the theme of the relationship between cosmopolitanism, consumer choices, and brand experience in mind, the author collected primary data by conducting participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and visual analysis over three years in Toronto, Canada. Posters and flyers were handed out to recruit interviewees for the research. She discovered how Starbucks subconsciously allows customers to adopt a mindset of cultural awareness. She realized that brand aesthetics, including details like packaging and ambiance, contributes to consumers’ aesthetic appreciation, allowing them to be more inclined towards the culture and feel more sophisticated when purchasing the products (Bookman, 2012). 

However, I strongly believe this type of culture is not sustainable at all. The primary reasons for choosing Starbucks are all due to the brand experience and aesthetic, and not because of the quality or taste of the coffee. The survey conducted by Alexander Kunst justifies that idea and provides a clearer indication that consumers may not see the brand as a company to purchase good coffee. Even though Starbucks brand awareness percentage was at 92% as compared to other companies, however; the data showed that only 41% of people like the brand (Kunst, 2023). This brings up some crucial factors for the company to consider moving forward. Will the trend of Starbucks eventually diminish, losing its spark over time? Will consumers eventually realize that they are purchasing coffee based on peer pressure and culture, rather than for the quality of the brand? 

As mentioned before, I used to work at a coffee shop over the summer. The coffee shop I worked at was called Boxwood Coffee Roasters and was categorized as specialty coffee. My manager, Faith Whitfield, was a coffee enthusiast, and she taught me most of the coffee knowledge I know today. Specialty coffee is a very dynamic process, from the selection of coffee beans and farms, to roasting, and serving, every step is carefully monitored to ensure consistency and quality in every cup of coffee. I asked Faith for her views on Starbucks, and she said: “I don’t understand why they call themselves specialty coffee, they obviously do not care about the quality of their coffee by always over roasting their beans. However, that does not matter because they encourage customers to use syrups, no one will ever notice the burnt coffee taste anyway.” A main takeaway from working at a local coffee shop was the lack of recognition coffee shops get due to the overshadowing of big coffee giants. I was able to see firsthand the blood, sweat and tears that was put into running a coffee shop, yet I found it disappointing to see customers’ support being directed to large corporations that do not put in effort to ensure the quality of every single cup of coffee.  

It is important to note that cultures change over time, in fact, Starbucks should be threatened by changes in the coffee industry and consumer preferences. The long-term sustainability of Starbucks is compromised by the rising conflicts and demands from consumers. The authors Bryson and Atwal examined the consequences of extreme negative effects on Starbucks in France. The authors categorized the respondents in terms of their severity of brand hate, describing each category with soft and hard brand hate. Soft brand hate included individuals that overall avoided the brand Starbucks, due to loss of cultural identity in France, its strong presence is impacting the local economy negatively by overshadowing independent cafes. There were also negative stereotypes upon consumers who drink Starbucks, they were labeled as materialistic individuals who are trying to act cool. The word, bobos (slang for bohemian bourgeoise) was used to describe those who drink Starbucks. The second category was hard brand hate, where respondents showed an intensely negative reaction towards the brand or also could be described as “brand divorce”. Respondents in this category expressed dissatisfaction towards Starbucks due to irresponsible corporate behavior such as failure to adhere to tax compliance. Individuals in this category were labeled as ideologically incompatible, who have previously carried out extreme actions such as signing petitions to boycott Starbucks (Douglas & Glyn, 2018). 

In addition to exploring the persistence or potential vulnerability of the Starbucks culture, I further analyzed the factors that influence consumer coffee purchasing choices and factors that affect consumers to choose a coffee shop. I conducted an online survey that consisted of 11 questions, averaging two minutes to complete. There was a total of 53 participants, aged between 17 to 38. This survey was conducted through postings on social media, specifically Instagram where participants’ participation was voluntary. They submitted their responses through Google Forms, data was then exported as a spreadsheet to be further analyzed. All identities were kept anonymous, and confidentiality of data was communicated to participants. I applied quantitative and qualitative survey methodologies, examples of quantitative questions were related to demographics, frequency of purchase of coffee, scale of knowledge on coffee and reasons for purchasing coffee; whereas qualitative examples include the usual order when at a coffee shop, and views on Starbucks. To analyze the data, Python and Pandas were applied to the dataset, correlation tests and graphs were generated to gain a better insight of the data. Some data was analyzed directly through Google Form responses, to see basic statistics and patterns.  

Respondents were required to choose whether they prefer Starbucks, Specialty Coffee Shops, or like to make their coffee at home, and the breakdown of participants that chose their preferred store was 29%, 49%, and 22% respectively. The top 5 factors influencing purchasing decisions of consumers who chose Starbucks are the quality of drinks, price, convenience, rewards program, and social experience. On the other hand, participants who chose Specialty Coffee shops emphasize the quality and taste of coffee followed by price, ambiance, and convenience. 

Participants were also given a question to rate their knowledge about coffee, a scale of 0 to 4 was given, where 0 meant no knowledge about coffee, and 4 is an expert in coffee. I was not surprised to see that individuals with a higher level of knowledge about coffee preferred to go to specialty coffee stores; however, it was interesting to see those individuals with level 4 of knowledge, mostly preferred to make their coffee at home. 

Moreover, it was found that only 1.9% of participants love everything about the Starbucks brand, while 32.1% of the participants love the ability to customize drinks at Starbucks. 23% of participants chose Starbucks because it is near, 28.3% said they had better coffee than Starbucks, while 11.3% did not like Starbucks at all. 

Next, although there was not a strong correlation between the age of participants and their likelihood of supporting local coffee shops, there is a higher tendency that someone older would be more likely to support or try local coffee shops. In addition, it was interesting to see that there is no significant association between choice of brand and tendency to support local coffee shops. In other words, there is no link between brands that they support and the likelihood of them supporting other coffee shops. 

Some limitations of this study are the relatively small sample size, only a total of 53 respondents participated in this survey, which was insignificant to conduct an effective correlation analysis, as it would diminish the reliability of results. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that 2 survey questions out of 11 were not utilized in this study as it did not align with the overall analysis. The potential area for improvement lies in reconsidering and modifying these two questions to gather more relevant and insightful data. 

After analyzing the survey data and analyzing past research on Starbucks, I believe that Starbucks has influenced a broader culture other than the coffee industry. In a broader context, Starbucks has redefined the coffee industry by influencing consumers to support their brand, through rewards systems, drink customization, attractive packaging, and joining in the trend of being the “cosmopolitan” cool. Simultaneously, Starbucks affects the broader culture of our society, through its domination upon independent cafes and specialty coffee shops, leading to a loss of appreciation for the original ways of preparing coffee.  

In conclusion, my data supports the idea that although a majority of participants chose Starbucks as their favorite coffee brand, there is a stronger support for specialty coffee stores. Participants also showed a high likelihood of supporting local stores in the future. In my opinion, Starbucks has a competitive advantage due to economies of scale. By having a vast number of stores around the globe, they provide convenience for customers that want to grab a quick cup of coffee. At the same time, Starbucks should be aware of rising trends of preferences for specialty coffee, as coffee enthusiasts steer away from coffee giants. The future outlook for specialty coffee shops and Starbucks appears to be shaped by evolving consumer preferences. Smaller coffee shops may find opportunities to thrive by offering a more personalized touch to their beverages as an alternative to the Starbucks model. However, the prevailing question still stands, and can be an ongoing debate for years to come. Is Starbucks culture sustainable in the long run? That would be up to the customers to decide. 

References 

Bookman, S. (2012). Branded Cosmopolitanisms: “Global” Coffee Brands and the Co-creation of “Cosmopolitan Cool.” Cultural Sociology, 7(1), 56–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975512453544 

Douglas, B., & Glyn, A. (2018, August 8). Brand hate: the case of Starbucks in France – ProQuest. Www.proquest.com. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2217230437/fulltextPDF/D3F0074AC91E44C5PQ/1?accountid=8500 

Gastelum, A. (2022, March 31). The Starbucks Story: Changing Coffee Culture. Marketing Society. https://www.mktsoc.club/post/the-starbucks-story-changing-coffee-culture#:~:text=After%20successfully%20running%20as%20a 

Industry Snapshot – Starbucks Key Industry Players. (n.d.). FactSet; FactSet. https://my.apps.factset.com/navigator/industry/snapshot/FI3435US. 

Kunst, A. (2023, May 25). Starbucks brand profile U.S. 2022. Statista. https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1335789/starbucks-restaurant-chains-brand-profile-in-the-united-states#:~:text=How%20popular%20is%20Starbucks%20in 

Margalit, L. (2020, May 5). Why Is Starbucks so Successful Despite Its Mediocre Coffee? CMSWire.com. https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/why-is-starbucks-so-successful-despite-its-mediocre-coffee/ 

National Coffee Association USA. (2016). The Economic Impact of the Coffee Industry. Www.ncausa.org. https://www.ncausa.org/Research-Trends/Economic-Impact 

The Secret to Starbucks’ Brand Success. (2021, February 9). Martin Roll. https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/strategy/secret-starbucks-brand-success/#:~:text=Since%20its%20founding%20days%20in 

Visser, B. (2022, July 27). Why is Starbucks so Addictive? Top 12 Reasons! Coffee Levels. https://coffeelevels.com/why-is-starbucks-so-addictive/ 

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