Starbucks has introduced two new iPhone applications, one of which will allow customers to order and pay for their coffee right from their phone.

Over the past year we’ve noticed experimentation in Starbucks’ marketing, a reflection of an identity crisis in the industry as “mass-market powerhouses” McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts use the recession to rise from below. On the opposite front gourmet coffee startups are beginning to present the premium quality Starbucks once used as its primary selling point.

Dropping a total of $2.2 million dollars, South Korea’s Hyundai Card has bought out all media space in the newly opened subway station just outside their building.

This is an extract from the draft John Grant’s new book Co-opportunity, contracted for publication with John Wiley & Sons Limited, January 2010. This extract section 3 of the book – Information and Ethical Consumerism.

As part of a series of sophisticated concept shops in Japan, the Kamakura Starbucks is designed to resemble a wooden Japanese-style home.

PSFK got in touch with Liz Muller who is Director of Global Concept Design and interviewed her on the phone about the 15th Avenue E concept store they had rolled out in Seattle, the reasons behind it and the company’s plans for the future.

Last Friday, the Seattle based corporation opened their first ’stealth store’ called 15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea – a cafe “inspired by Starbucks”. Our PSFK spy got herself down to the store opening and snapped some of these photos.

Starbucks’ new advertising campaign is perhaps not particularly noteworthy to many of us, given that there are tens of brands that try to use social media to prop their brand up everyday – they are putting up posters in six major US cities and challenging users to be the first to find and post pictures on Twitter. What is interesting however, is the motivation behind the campaign, as explained by Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks’ Vice President of brand, content and online. From the New York Times:

Each year, people race to post the first photos of Starbucks shops decorated in red for [...]

Last Wednesday was National Beverage Day, a little-known holiday that inspired us to examine the new McCafé coffee line, from McDonalds.
Perhaps an unlikely chain vying for a piece of the caffeinated pie, but with this week’s launch, McDonald’s introduced an expanded McCafé coffee line, featuring cappuccinos, mochas and lattes. The specialty offerings are available at 11,000 locations (out of 14,000) nationwide. And taking a page from the coffeehouse playbook, McDonald’s customers can customize any drink with flavored syrups, steamed milk or whipped cream.
While Starbucks battles the stigma of the recession-unfriendly “4 dollar coffee,” a coffee run at McDonald’s will set [...]

Hey – it’s not all doom and gloom. Especially if you’re a brand trying to do good: the Financial Times report that retail sales of Fairtrade products, led by bananas and coffee, have risen to a record high of £700m up 47 per cent in 2008 on a year earlier. Apparently, much of this has been driven by larger brands like Starbucks and J Sainsbury who have “boosted” their commitment to Fairtrade products and ethical trading.
Financial Times

In reaction an previous piece in the Financial Times about the decline of Starbucks Thurston says that we should remember that Starbucks created a market for high quality coffee retail (to compete against perceived average quality of the Seattle brand’s beverages). He also points out that the tastebud awakening that Starbucks encouraged also drove the popularity of home brewing…

After hundreds of comments on My Starbucks Idea calling for recycling and improved social responsibility, Starbucks is upping their environmental efforts through a new program called “Shared Planet.” This commitment to doing business responsibly entails several “aspirational goals” to keep the company in the green.
According to a recent blog post by senior vice president Michelle Gass, they plan to meet the following goals by 2015:

Environmental stewardship: 100% of our cups will be reusable or recyclable, and we will significantly reduce our environmental footprint through recycling, energy and water conservation and green construction.
Ethical sourcing: buy and serve 100% responsibly [...]

As Fourbucks closes 19% of its stores, Michigan-based Biggby Coffee, formerly known as Beaner’s (yes Beaner’s) is celebrating the opening of their 100th store – a 30% increase since January 31st, 2008.
Back in January Biggby received a bit of press because of their name change. Some criticized them for caving into pressure from the “politically correct” crowd. I said it was a smart move. As the Detroit Free Press reported:
Juan Tornoe, an Austin, Texas-based Hispanic marketing consultant, said it’s clear to him and should be to anyone that Beaner’s name is about coffee, not contempt.
But the name change could be [...]

With the news reported by Business Week (June 20 05) that Starbucks venture into music has been poorly received we decided to republish a previous review of the Santa Monica Hear Music store from PSFK.