Responsibility

Starbucks has “always believed that businesses can - and should - have a positive impact on the communities they serve.”  No other words describe quite as well just exactly what the Responsibility subpage and subpages are concerned with.  This is a very broad area though, and Starbucks quickly narrows the field by indicating textually that they are interested in “Community, “Environment,” “Sourcing,” and “Wellness” responsibility.  The Responsibility subpage makes this known immediately through listing the four responsibilities they are dedicated to.  There is a sense of credibility here, because naturally, only the company can tell the reader what they care about.  Also, credibility is built as the reader explores each area and their respective subpages.  These subpages explain specific details that Starbucks cares about.  On the Environment subpage, the text lists “Recycling,” “Energy,” “Water,” “Green Building,” and “Climate Change.”  Each category has its own subpage informing the reader what Starbucks has done with or about that specific concern.  Also, credibility comes in the shape of the reliable blog on the bottom left of the page.  This time posts are concerned with topics such as climate change and recycling and authored by people within the company who work directly with these issues.  The blog continues to add credibility through listing posts about each of the four original Responsibility categories.

The big four responsibilities and their respective sub-responsibilities appeal to an audience that cares about corporate responsibility.  Starbucks is tapping into the social trend of concerned consumerism.  This text exploits that trend for the company’s benefit, while also legitimately providing the information readers value.  The text appeals to the reader through specific textual information and images showing exactly what Starbucks cares about and has done.  Furthermore, in a move to invite participation, Starbucks encourages readers to help out as well by purchasing a reusable and refillable tumbler to avoid unneeded waste.  And, as usual, readers have social media links allowing all this information to be easily shared.

Card

The Card section of the website is one of the most participatory sections overall.  This is the part of the website that invites readers to learn more about the Starbucks rewards program, sign up, create an account, and manage the account and corresponding gift card/s.  It starts out functioning very much like an encyclopedia, but always encourages the reader to follow through with the information by signing up for the program.  This encouragement is actually procedural because it leads the reader to complete very specific tasks of creating, logging in, and managing account information.  So, hand in hand are the participatory and procedural functions of the main Card page and subpages.

Now, the text, as said, already is very informative at first.  It aims to show readers that there are benefits to drinking and eating at Starbucks.  The appeal here lies heavily with the natural human response of liking discounts and free things, all of which the Starbucks program does provide after the participant qualifies at certain reward levels.  Humans like free and discounted goods.  The text makes it very clear to the reader that the reader is being rewarded by using this program.  It is hard to ignore this kind of appeal these days.  Chances are the reader is not ignoring this appeal because the reader values exactly what the text is pushing.

The main Card page also encourages readers to purchase gift Starbucks gift cards online.  The corresponding subpage appeals to reader through text that exhorts the awesomeness of a giving a Starbucks gift card to a friend or loved one.  The text also makes clear that it is very easy to do, and does not even require you to leave your computer.  It is so “convenient,” one can purchase the gift card right on the site!  Obviously, the text is playing on the modern values of convenience and wanting to gift a great gift.

Interestingly, this entire section of the website does not include any blog posts or hint of the blog in the least.  This leads me to think that Starbucks does not want such heavy purchasing messaging being connected to the blog.  Yet, to top off the page, are the social media links for sharing information.  This creates a unique tension between the blog and acceptable blog content and social media sharing that has not been seen quite yet.  I will explore this in more detail later.

Shop

The main Shop page is visually striking.  It uses the most images when compared to the rest of the site pages.  I think this is a smart move on the part of the text.  By showing so many images of the products that are available for online purchase, the site avoids creating a mundane and lengthy grocery list of items.  Instead, the images draw the reader’s eye because each image is different from the rest.  If it were just text, the eye would grow “bored” with too much consistency and the text would lose the attention of the reader.

The reader visiting this site values specific Starbucks products.  Either the reader is looking for more information about a specific item, or is visiting this text to make a purchase.  The text caters to these needs by providing information and the ability to purchase.  For instance, a reader may be interested in purchasing the new Verismo System, which would allow the reader to make the delicious beverages he enjoys at Starbucks at home.  However, the reader needs to do his homework first.  The Verismo System page and subpages include a plethora of information regarding what the system does, what one needs to operate and create drinks, purchasing ability of the system and needed supplies, first time users guide, tech support, FAQs, warranty information, and machine registration.  Each of these categories have their own pages with textual information and visual images as illustrations, except for some of the support pages.  All the Shop subpages are like this: a wealth of information, pricing, and purchasing availability.

The design on these pages is different from the rest of the website.  The main shopping subpages, Coffee, Tea, Equipment, and Drinkware, look like Etsy and Macy’s.  On the left side of the page are options for narrowing down the selection.  In the main body of the page is a grid of 4x4 blocks, with each block having the image of a purchasable item and the price.  The grid view is default, though the reader can choose to view the items in a list view instead.  The grid view is very spatially organized and simple.

The Starbucks shopping store takes the reader to a separate domain, therefore, the store is only linked the to the main Starbucks website.  With this in mind, the blog is non-existent on the Starbucks Store pages.  This again brings up the question about why Starbucks has chosen that purchasing messaging is out of bounds for blog content.

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.