1. Background Research-- I read a couple of scholarly articles about Starbucks and an article about branding. These gave me some background about the company in general as well as how people have used brands to push agendas before (see citation for
Logo Logic).
I also read through the
timeline/history that Starbucks has up on their site, and helped compile a list of
key people.
2. Data Collection-- I mainly focused on three areas/projects for data collection:
a. I took pictures of storefronts (both close-up and from across the street) of Starbucks locations in Seattle. I took pictures mainly in the University District and downtown, although I also took some in Wedgewood and Fremont. Unfortunately, the majority of the pictures were lost due to a major technical problem. However, some things that I noticed while taking the pictures are follows:
-Starbucks isn't too picky about their location--they mostly purchase space that has already been created.
-Most of these shops have a minimalist, modern look with clean lines and lots of black.
-Usually they have lots of windows as well--many times an entire wall will be 75% glass.
-For the drive-through locations, and some larger or corner locations more cream and white colors are used and there is a more "post-modern" look, with decorations in the architecture.
b. I created a google map of Starbucks in Seattle. This can be found in the links section in the right-hand toolbar of this blog. I named each location by neighborhood (as closely as I could). I did not map any Starbucks out of Seattle city limits. Observations I had were:
-There's
at least three times as many Starbucks in downtown than there are in any other neighborhood of the city.
-There are more Starbucks in the North part of Seattle than there are in the South end (maybe due to socio-economics of the areas???).
-The farther away from downtown, the less Starbucks' there are.
c. I constructed and distributed a survey about the Starbucks logo. Questions covered recalling the Starbucks logo from memory, describing it with the aid of a picture of the logo, general feelings about the logo, certain preferences having to do with the logo, as well as where the person was located in the city and where they were from. I have yet to organize and code responses for the survey, so I don't have too many solid observations at the moment. The survey was available to anyone who had an account with the UW.
