This month, Brian Niccol was announced as Starbucks’ new CEO. The 50-year-old businessman has high hopes for the global coffee chain, demanding critical changes to its operations and promising a major overhaul of its crumbling brand image.
Niccol hopes to steer Starbucks back on track, as the company has struggled in recent years to regain its dominance on the street corner. In the early 2000s, Starbucks flourished in a golden era of high sales, global expansion to Asia and an honest trademark that brought communities together. Starbucks understood something crucial early in its development—prioritizing the best coffee shop experience above anything else.
The strategy behind alleviating consumer guilt in a new age of consumerism
In 2012, social critic and philosopher Slavoj Žižek argued that the Starbucks experience in the early 2000s mastered a crucial marketing strategy: alleviating consumer guilt.
“When we buy a cappuccino from Starbucks, we also buy quite a lot of ideology,” Žižek explained in his documentary film The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology.
Žižek observed that Starbucks used in-store marketing to showcase local farming initiatives and the empowerment of coffee-producing communities in developing countries, effectively reducing the guilt associated with purchasing premium-priced coffee. “I admire the ingeniosity of this solution. In the old days of pure, simple consumerism, you bought a product and then you felt bad,” the critic said.
Žižek also noted, “What Starbucks enables you is to be a consumerist without any bad conscience because the price for the countermeasure, for fighting consumerism, is already included in the price of a commodity.”
Indeed, Starbucks had tapped into something rather extraordinary that its consistent and visible brand message could, in effect, leverage far more than first imagined—an awakening that couldn’t have come at a better time as drink prices soared globally during the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2024, the landscape is very different for Starbucks, and the coffee chain has failed to possess that same dexterity in reaching consumers for a whole host of reasons. In the modern day, Starbucks has to compete with the popularity of artisanal coffee shops and the ever-present efficiency of making any coffee you want from the comfort of your own home—notably at a far cheaper cost.
Navigating political and cultural messaging: When to exercise caution
Starbucks further complicated its situation in recent years by trying to assert a cultural and political voice in the market, a matter new CEO Brian Niccol has blamed as an obvious leading factor in the coffee chain’s setbacks.
The problem for Starbucks is that large proportions of the consumer market now deem them a quasi-political organization that sells coffee on the side. Much of this turbulence was created out of very little. Starbucks’ efforts to foster an inclusive workplace by implementing racial bias training and allowing employees to wear activist messaging was viewed by some as a desperate attempt to rebrand for a progressive era, with critics questioning the sincerity of these moves.
Starbucks itself was forced to respond to these assumptions, posting a blog to its website, assuring its customers that they are not a political organization and have “never contributed to any government or military operation in any way.”
Even if Starbucks can shake off those accusations of political ambition, its ongoing issues with worker rights and unions clash with a previously promoted image of a modern workplace that prioritizes employee concerns on par with consumer needs.
Brian Niccol’s proven approach
Starbucks now desperately needs to adapt and reconsider its method of wooing consumers with its picture-perfect cultural messages. New CEO Niccol has backed this approach and has hailed a new era for Starbucks that focuses less on messaging and more on coffee.
In a press release published on September 10, Niccol told customers: “We’re refocusing on what has always set Starbucks apart—a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather, and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas. This is our enduring identity. We will innovate from here.”
The takeaway from Niccol’s comments is clear: The CEO is determined to have Starbucks tell its own story.
Under Niccol’s past leadership, Chipotle prioritized brand transparency by accentuating its use of fresh ingredients and ensuring that the food preparation process was open and clear to consumers. Niccol is regarded as an expert in premiumization and strong brand equity. Chipotle’s “For Real” campaign highlighted the power of reshaping consumer perceptions to justify premium pricing. By openly showcasing their dedication to fresh, high-quality ingredients and a dining experience comparable to a sit-down restaurant, Chipotle transformed the value of their offering beyond a price tag. Previously, the chain had opted for a more standardized approach under the likes of Steve Ells, who reluctantly responded to consumer concerns over cost with specific value-based offerings. It didn’t work.
As Žižek so potently pointed out back in 2012, consumer purchases are full of ideology, and the most important message is that consumers buy your product free of guilt. Whether it’s backing community projects or choosing non-GMO, health-conscious foods, consumers dislike making purchases out of sheer necessity alone. They want to feel involved in a meaningful, ongoing effort that resonates with their personal or communal values.
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