The Blog and Conclusion

For the sake of thoroughness, I want to cover some basics about the blog that have already been discussed in previous posts.  The Starbucks blog looks exactly like a standard BlogSpot blog would look like: the posts are on the left side of the page, with social media sharing links on the upper right side of the page, and with Categories and the Archive directly below the links.  The background in white, with heading text the color of Starbucks green, and posts bodies’ text are black.  The aesthetics of the blog look exactly like the rest of the website and ultimately like a Starbucks paper coffee cup.  The aesthetic theme is very unifying.  Yet, the blog page diverges from traditional blog design when looking at the header and footer.  The blog has the exact same header with the nav bar and the exact same footer as the rest of the website.  The consequences of this design choice is that the blog immediately looks and feels like the blog belongs to the Starbucks website and does not belong to itself.  It is not a standalone complimentary entity.  This is exactly the case, and I think a very deliberate choice on Starbucks’ part.

Now, a each major section of the Starbucks website, except for Card and Shop, the blog is featured with relevant posts pertaining to the content of the section currently being read.  Featuring the blog helps give the reader a sense of personal insight into certain aspects of Starbucks.  For instance, it is beneficial to read a blog post about ethical sourcing of coffee beans authored by an employee in that field of work while on the ethical sourcing webpage.  It adds credibility to what is being said on the webpage, but also shows that individuals within the company care and are working on this issue.  It makes the content personal because the post/s are written from a personal perspective.  It is also a PR move.  It carefully says ‘Look at us, look at how much we care. We care because you care, and you keep our business going, so we must care!’  Looking at the blog just as a PR stunt diminishes any sincerity that comes across in the blog because the reader may feel that his interests and feelings are being catered to in order to ensure good business growth.

I believe this is the main reason why the blog is not featured in the Card and Shop sections.  The insincerity would be overwhelming.  Readers would probably not appreciate a blog post highlighting the need to purchase a Verismo System while on the Shop webpage.  Yet, by not featuring the blog on these two sections of the website, the creators, writers, and designers bring to the forefront the fact that a purposeful decision has been made to not include blog posts about shopping on pages that focus a lot of attention on purchasing.  The expression “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” comes to mind at this point.  It appears that Starbucks has chosen the lesser of the ‘damns.’  The consequence of this choice is that the blog, as seen in my previous posts, is very informational from a personal perspective.  Even though there is not a purpose statement on the blog, I conclude that the blog’s purpose is to supply supporting evidence and information from a personal perspective about a host of various topics that are within the interests of the Starbucks Corporation.

With such a function, it is still odd that the blog function does not apply to the Shop and Card sections of the site.  It creates a unique tension, especially considering that a reader of the blog is able to clearly see the Shop and Card links in the nav bar at the top of the blog.  The company is not hiding the consumerism and purchasing possibilities of the website from the reader, but they are hiding these things from the blog.

I believe this tension could be avoided by allowing the Starbucks blog to be its own entity, to be a standalone blog (like this very blog) that is linked to the official website.  The posts would not need to change, nor would featuring posts on different pages of the website need to change.  Simply, the blog should not be hosted and accessed exclusively through the website.  This would help the blog also not feel like sticky notes all over the website, and the blog would have an opportunity to have a larger digital presence because it would not be subjugated by the website.  It could easily balance having its own identity with accurately and only representing Starbucks’ interests, values, and concerns.