Tag: Starbucks

Does Starbucks Community = Actual Community?

starbucks hove

I’ve got a theory. Actually calling it a theory is over playing it. It’s more like a suspicion, or maybe an inkling. Whichever of the two fits best.

I’ve been into a few different branches of Starbucks recently and noticed that they’ve all got these ‘community’ boards. I suspect they’re a global thing. They’re basically free spaces for local people to stick up notices (the photo above is from the Hove branch).

I’m hypothesising that you can tell how active a local community is by the density of notices on the board. However, I’m basing this on a very limited sample of 5 Starbucks branches.

  • 3 in the City in London – very little community
  • 2 in Brighton and Hove – lots of community, typically based around Tai Chi and tofu-weaving ;-)

Anyone have any observations to support or destroy my suspicions?

Miami Nice

Sorry for lack of blogging. I’m in Miami.

I’m at the Clios Advertising Festival thingy. I’ll write some stuff about my impresions of what people have talked about and generally what’s going on when I’ve had a chance to digest and ponder. But in the meantime here’s some things that I’ve found interesting about Miami.

They have cool bikes, lots of big cruisers here:

Sometimes bikes have chickens on them:

There are R2D2 postboxes, which I’ve never seen before:

Starbucks really does sell music in the US now, bigtime:

And their touchscreen interface is pretty good:

You’re not allowed guns in the hotel.

It seems to be generally OK just to lie down wherever you like.

As I said I’ll post some real stuff again soon. But it is hard to sit down and think about doing a blog when the weather is nice. I’ve suddenly found a new respect for people who write blogs and come from places with nice weather…

Now That’s Segmentation…

Absolutely stunning.

This leaked segmentation doc (allegedly from Phones4U) is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while. Certainly the funniest marketing segmentation anyway. Includes such highlights as:

Flashing Blades: blokes between 15 and 24 who enjoys “going to the gym” as well as “taking risks, drugs and the odd street fight”. All good ways of staying fit.

iPod Babe: watches Hollyoaks, Footballers Wives and Big Brother, shops at Lush and Starbucks, and is into Fuck Buddy Sex.

And there’s plenty more. With promises of even more to come… Are you a Top Gear Tiger or an iPod Babe? | The Register