What happens when you order the same coffee at Starbucks, but in two different continents?
Our teams in Bratislava Slovakia and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ordered the same coffee. The rules are simple: We would go to Starbucks in a specific day and order the same beverage.
“So, how’s the coffee?” I asked. The team in Milwaukee reported: “You know, when we entered the coffee shop, the lady who took the order and knows us said: Oh, so you don’t like the usual coffee we make for you each time?” Our experience in Bratislava was different. We stood behind a group of young Slovak high school students. A young guy ordered a coffee by effortlessly stating all the ingredients he wanted, fast and with a knowledgeable opinion. The girl behind him asked for a specific drink the composition of which she learned about from YouTube channel dedicated to Starbucks in Slovakia. The other schoolmates used funny pronunciation ordering their drinks yet using the correct well-learned vocabulary. They seemed to be enjoying the process of ordering quite a lot.
To fully understand the meaning of what we experienced in Starbucks let us look at two interesting pieces of literatures on the topic of coffee, ethnographic consumption research, and meaning.
For Sam Ladner finding meaning through field observation, is an innovative method for collecting data. While traditional market researchers rely on focus groups, statistics analysis, and random participants. Ethnographic research emphasis on Emic view (the client’s point of view first), field research and individual users carefully selected. When conducting consumer research in two Canadian Starbucks. The common approach, according to Lander, might start by counting how many people go to each Starbucks, how many specific drinks are sold, and how much money is earned per day. However, to fully understand what each store means to the customers. The standpoint here is to concentrate on the customers’ perspective. A simple observation when the researcher is visiting those places, reveals that the costumers vising the first Starbucks are a part of a Harley Davidson group frequently coming there. Observing the other store, the researcher finds out there are many people with suitcases. Questioning them would reveal they just passing by. The researcher might conclude that the first store is a “community” for frequent costumers. The other Starbucks might be a go in go out passing-by place or a “volume” place. Finally, the researcher goes back to the company, studies what is important for the firm and how to align these interests.
The second study was conducted by Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny as a part of training for a workshop on ethnographic cultural analysis at the Whirlpool Corporation. As part of the training for the staff, they ask the question what coffee means to consumers in Benton Harbor and Bangkok. The team traveled to Bangkok and found out what coffee meant to that culture. One exercise was to document places where coffee was bought and then write down the functionality the drink had in that place. How it was consumed and how it was served. The team concluded that for the locals, coffee was a refreshment and symbolized “large cultural discourses and flows between East and West, tradition, and modernity”. One remarkably interesting finding was that for the locals, coffee was only an ingredient. A part of other ingredients combined into a refreshing drink.
For my team in Wisconsin, coffee was part of her daily routine in a familiar place. A kind of “club” where everyone knows you and your taste. For the team in Bratislava the research showed that in that Starbucks the value of the ordering system was more important than the coffee itself. Ordering coffee was a way to position those specific young consumers as part of online “insider group “. Showing off that they know how to order a coffee there.
Material:
Sam Lander. “Practical Ethnography – A guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector”.
Patricia Sunderland and Rita Denny. “Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research”.
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