Design at Starbucks
From its beginnings as a single coffee shop in Seattle 35 years ago, Starbucks is now a global brand which uses design to aid the delivery of a distinctive service experience to its customers. The Starbucks Global Creative team manages regularly changing design themes while working within a global brand.
Overview
Starbucks uses design It has developed a strategy that allows it to balance regularly changing design themes with a consistent set of brand values, and uses design as a way of aiding the delivery of a consistent service experience to its customers. Key elements of that strategy include:
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The development of detailed guidance for internal …show more content…
Those elements include the design of posters, cups and cup sleeves, advertising, packaging and numerous other items large and small that together make up much of a customer’s experience in a Starbucks store, or when interacting with its products elsewhere. 'We are responsible for basically everything but the physical stores; everything that’s in the stores, everything outside of the stores, advertising and partnering with advertising agencies, collateral, packaging, products in grocery and communal stores, and the website,' says Hainsworth. Design process evolution The current design process adopted by the Global Creative team evolved in parallel with the group’s changing internal role. Originally, says Hainsworth, the department was more like a creative services function, creating design and print creative processes for the wider company. This approach led to inconsistency in output and the production of designs that didn’t always match Starbucks brand values.
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In response, Hainsworth took steps to allow the department to have much more control over designs. The basic mechanism introduced to do this was a five-word ‘filter,’ against which every prospective design is evaluated. The design process at Starbucks also covers the need to express the experience of Starbucks. Starbucks realises that coffee isn’t new in itself, and therefore