You just arrived to class and your first period lesson looks like a public school-themed pop up café. Starbucks’ Strawberry Açaí Refreshers are lined up by the dozen across your peers’ desk, and it seems everywhere you look, that smiling green mermaid is staring right back at you. As your teacher talks over the sound of ice rattling, you can’t help but wonder, what makes these drinks so special?
Lemonade, coffee and other common beverages are popular throughout the world, but can be made at home or purchased in larger quantities at the supermarket, begging the question, what’s so special about Starbucks? Is the taste alone good enough to have students spending more than $1,000 a year, or are there some external factors that might play into the draw of these drinks? This question can be answered through an examination of the Starbucks marketing strategy, aspects of basic human nature and the rise of social media.
Throughout multiple decades, Starbucks has garnered popularity across the world, crowning itself at the head of the coffee industry. The global coffee chain is experiencing a steady year-over-year increase, generating about 20 times the national profit as its closest competitor, Dunkin’ Donuts.
The now prospering brand wasn’t always the cafe powerhouse it is today — its popularity needed to brew. Starbucks grew from humble beginnings, founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker, whose love for coffee and the academia aesthetic inspired them to open a small coffee shop in Pike Place Market in Seattle.
The coffee chain didn’t experience much advancement until about a decade later, when American businessman and author Howard Schultz joined the Starbucks bandwagon.
Schultz’s marketing strategy in the coming decades would set Starbucks up to become a globally recognized coffee empire, with an influence stretching across oceans.
The rise of Starbucks intertwines with the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Youtube, a trend that’s far from coincidental. Both social media platforms and Starbucks experienced rapid growth in the last 18 years that didn’t have strong correlation to the average increase of gross domestic product, supporting a connection between the rise of social media and Starbucks.
Social media is a catalyst for influence, putting more pressure on viewers to pour their time and money into trends. One of Starbucks’ key marketing strategies is social media. This has allowed the company to promote and grow its products in a strategically efficient way.
“It gets their message out quicker, and it’s able to scale it quicker because it just travels faster,” WHS business teacher Frederik Lehmann said. “This all accelerates the pace at which a business can grow.”
Social media has significantly accelerated the spread of trends, with influencers and brands promoting thousands of products daily. Starbucks in particular has partnered with prominent online influencers such as Rosanna Pansino and iJustine since the 2010s, as well as pop personalities like the K-Pop group BLACKPINK. By getting products into the hands of celebrities, Starbucks utilizes the influential power of social media to support the company and the appeal of its products.
On top of influencers and their online support, a sense of “fear of missing out” (FOMO) can also contribute to consumers’ desire. When it comes to WHS, there’s a chance that when the majority of a student’s classmates and friends walk into school holding Starbucks, there might be a stronger inclination for them to order, regardless of how much they personally like the product.
“Anytime a student walks into a class with a Starbucks cup, they have, perhaps unwittingly, offered free advertising to Starbucks,” History Department Head David Schmirer, who teaches psychology classes at WHS, said. “In effect, they send out an army of teenagers to then basically further advertise for Starbucks by carrying the cups.”
This advertising can contribute to a phenomenon called the “bandwagon effect,” which stems from the survival instinct to blend in, otherwise known as herd mentality. This can be seen through students’ reflections on whether or not they’d buy it if there wasn’t a reputation around it.
“I wouldn’t buy from them if it wasn’t popular because it’s too expensive and I don’t love the drinks there,” sophomore Devin Tandon said. “I like carrying it around.”
These concepts reflect the influence conformity has on consumerism, showcasing what role trends play in the attractiveness of products.
“In psychology, we talk about the concept of conformity meaning very often, you’re going to change or adapt your behavior in order to fit it when it comes to things that are popular,” Schmirer said. “I think conformity will give a significant explanation as to why Starbucks has the popularity that it does.”
By using social media to transform their products into trends, Starbucks sets their line up for a chain reaction of sociological responses that generate popularity, thus profit, on their own.
That being said, trend culture doesn’t come without its drawbacks for businesses. While social media has proven to be a breeding ground for trends like this, it can also be a battle ground. Social media has trained viewers to consume content faster, and trends are not an exception to this. With new fads and microtrends dying in a blink of an eye, the growth of some industries can lead to the end of others.
In a generation with a constantly increasing inflow and outflow of short lived trends, Starbucks has managed to remain planted in its trendy status. This is thanks to a strategic branding model paired with a deep understanding of their customer demographics.
Even before Schultz took hold of the Starbucks reigns, Starbucks had branded itself as an experience provider on top of a coffee franchise. The shop space was designed to be cool and trendy, inviting customers to stay beyond transactions, utilizing the space for work, chats and studying. This was even more impactful in an era where it was harder to have wifi in public places, strengthening the appeal of internet-accessible establishments.
“Starbucks tried to create a special social lounge for coffee drinkers outside of their home,” Lehmann said.
By implementing a deliberate aesthetic to go with the brand, the company increased its overall appeal while remaining conventional enough to attract a wide assortment of people.
While overall appeal is important, it isn’t unusual for companies, including Starbucks, to have a target demographic they can cultivate their branding around. In 2023, Starbucks spent more than $500 million on their advertising plan, a choice that Lehmann suggests was not made without a fair amount of thought.
“No company is going to spend that kind of money without understanding how it is that they’re trying to target the people who are who they want to buy their products,” Schmirer said.
A deep understanding of the customer demographic is a critical aspect to a business’s marketing model.
Psychographics are traits of customers that aren’t visible in a once-over glance, such as their values, lifestyle and income. An understanding of these variables makes the marketing strategy of brands more tailored and efficient to their typical customers.
“The most important thing for a business is to be very clear on who their target market is,” Lehmann said. “It allows them to get their message in front of the right people.”
By mastering the logistical characteristics of a target demographic, like age ranges and locations, as well as its psychographics, Starbucks has been able to tailor its advertisements and marketing in a more effective way.
Starbucks’ is most prominent in affluent, white areas, with a 2015 study from Eater showing that 83% of Starbucks are located in predominantly caucasian areas, typically in upper or middle class regions.
While there are exceptions, this data supports the idea that Starbucks is generally advertising towards a certain ethnic and lifestyle group, one that Wayland reflects. About 78% of the town identifies as white, and the median income is over three times the United States average, showcasing the similarities between the majority of Wayland residents and Starbucks’ target demographic.
This may not be the only role the affluent status of the town plays in the draw of these drinks. Part of the appeal of Starbucks could be rooted back to a magnified culture of status markers in wealthy areas.
Status markers are symbols designed to show an individual’s hierarchical position. They can be manifested in a variety of forms, like branded clothing items or illusive memberships, but in the end, they are all linked to a display of a difference in economic status.
Like the need to fit in, it is rooted in human nature to want to show off. Brands can play to this need by attaching a symbol or reputation to their products that discloses wealth, making said product more attractive.
Starbucks shoots well over the three dollar average national price of coffee, with a medium size drink averaging between $5 to $7. The price difference may only be a few dollars, but it’s enough to give the chain a reputation for being expensive, a distinction that is crucial for a product to become a status marker. The unique use of nomenclature of their drink sizes and minimalistic aesthetic also contributes to a more stereotypically high-brow environment.
“Starbucks is kind of infusing, a kind of higher class and more sophisticated language into their product,” Schmirer said. “The way that they’ve set themselves up structurally as well, creates this upper class environment.”
Wayland is a wealthy town in a wealthy area, which means that some community members fit the target demographic for many brands selling products that double as status markers. In other words, these brands are designed to reel in some Wayland-like residents, which could explain why Starbucks is so prominent in our town.
While not everyone feeds in to the pull of status markers, by intensifying the draw of a brand, the bandwagon effect is subsequently strengthened, which adds in yet another desirable factor of the drinks.
The co-dependency of these physiological processes plays a pivotal role in the prominence of this brand, but the glue that ties it all together is habitual tendencies.
It’s no shocker that habits are hard to break. When the brain attributes something to routine, whether this be through repetitive action or a scheduled plan, it enacts chemical processes that engrave the action into the psyche, making it exceedingly difficult to stray from. It’s an even more strenuous process when the habit is a rewarding one, because the brain is trained to want dopamine. The dopamine rush one gets from a Starbucks drink can ignite these responses when bought multiple times in a short span of time, increasing the likelihood of a habit formation.
These associations can lead to people ordering more frequently, increasing the chances of a positive association link. If one orders Starbucks a couple times in a week and gets that dopamine rush, they could connect the drink to a good day or moment, making the draw much stronger and ensuring a locked cycle of consumption that perpetually gets harder to break from.
“Starbucks wants to create an association that you will find positive, so that you become a return customer,” Schmirer said. “They’re gonna use that type of conditioning to make their product appealing.”
-Strawberry acai: 28 – by Fiona Peltonen