The Starbucks Message

Starbucks is the biggest and most famous coffee shop in the U.S.A. I went to the Starbucks located in the Student Center, at the University of Kentucky, and I entered an atmosphere that is unique to such a store. I have been to Starbucks not only in the U.S but also in Brazil and in each store there are standard visual aspects to create a comfortable, familiar environment. The process of getting a coffee is like a factory or machine, following a carefully planed line and using specific techniques to get what I want. They have their own language to name their products which I must adopt to order mine. Also the place is designed in a really unique way, with the same materials in each store, lights and the music played. So even though I feel welcomed by the familiarity I am still controlled by the system that the Starbucks could be considered.

Mathieu describes this conflict between the familiar atmosphere and the control of costumers in his text. She writes about the uniforms of the baristas, the common materials used in decor and the menu system and how they persuade the consumer by creating a whole universe about coffee in which the costumer feels that they belong in this environment.

However, the way Mathieu describes the specific language for Starbucks and  the treatment provided by the baristas have been different in my experiences at this specific Starbucks located in the Student Center. Unlike the factory or machine way to work, the baristas actually talk to me not only about orders, one of them just talked to me about the music that was playing. The way the baristas ask for the costumer’s name is meant to be another trick to make the costumer feel welcome. For me though, it always leads to a conversation about how my name is spelled. Even if I spell it, they never get it right.

The thing that makes this Starbucks different could be the fact that it is on a college campus serving a specific type of costumer. Also, I am not a typical American costumer. The messages the costumers are supposed to receive from the store are carefully planned by the franchise. The success of the business really depends on the messages being delivered and received correctly to encourage maximum loyalty and business from the costumers. Even though the Starbucks creates this whole system and atmosphere in their stores in order to get the loyalty and costumers, it can’t be denied that the service is still one of the best.

The Apple Retail Store Experience I

Brands catch their costumers in many different ways. Some of them just go with the flow, while others are innovative. Apple is one of the most innovative companies nowadays, they have concepts in their business that concern the experience of the costumer, and they apply those concepts not only to products, but to the retail stores too.
           The Apple Store is one of the most famous stores in the world, and it has a lot of features that make it a special and a good place for buying. While shopping at Apple Retail Stores, the consumers experience the same level of quality on design and comfort as that applied by Apple to their products. The retail is designed in the same colors and lights to make you feel the same experience.  As you enter in the store there are many large tables with the products that they sell, and you are free to use them as you want. I’ve already seen people uploading pictures from their flash drives and other devices to the Apple products just to test it in the store.

The arrangement of the tables with the devices on them gives you a feeling of freedom and makes the physical space bigger. Furthermore, the services offered by the greeter that comes to talk to you as you enter in the store is one of the best in the market. They act with kindness and cordiality to help the client; you can see by the way they act that they were trained for that. They always try to make the client feel special.

The Apple Store doesn’t sell the cheapest products.  Rather, they sell quality products and always try to get the costumer's loyalty. That’s why they invest a lot in the customer experience – to make worth the money – and it is working.