Since Starbucks arrived in the UK in 1998 they have helped to change the coffee landscape. A favourite beverage was given the American treatment and created a new consumer experience.

The US now has its sights set on the quintessential British drink, our beloved cup of tea.

Chicago based Argo Tea is trying to create a new trend in the US by introducing tea cafes to Chicagoans. The first café, offering an alternative to coffee, was opened in 2003. Since then they have expanded the number in Chicago to 14 (included Chicago’s O’Hare Airport) as well of out of Illinois to St Louis and New York.

The menu has both hot and cold drinks to cater for all tastes whilst educating customers on the benefits of drinking tea. They have been creative with the names of the drinks with the Mojitea (cool mint, lime juice and Armenian Mint tea over ice) perhaps being the most creative.

With an emphasis on health, wellbeing and sustainability Argo Tea also aims to help the community with the aptly named ChariTea® where they select a monthly charity to partner with and donate 10% of net proceeds from the drink to that non-profit partner.

Although international expansion has not happened as yet, if the tea trend continues to grow in the US then you would expect to see Argo Tea nestled between your local McDonald’s and Starbucks in the years to come.

Just in time to cure lingering New Year’s hang-overs, Starbucks announced a change to its logo:  no longer will “Starbucks” and “coffee” appear on its products. Just a tailed siren will stay put, coloured in white and green. Pundits, journalists and coffee lovers each have a view. While reaction has been mixed, on key criticism is being voiced: that the logo change may limit Starbucks’ capacity to deliver on its ‘core’ product; coffee.

Yet in my view, these concerns are misguided. The logo change reflects a broader business and brand strategy.

New joiners at The Value Engineers receive weekly training on all areas of branding in a course called ‘The University of Gav’ – named after one of our experienced Engineers. A core lesson of our Uni is that brands must deliver through its products. Richard Brandson, the serial entrepreneur, said as much: “The brand is only as good as your product”.

So, where does this fit into Starbucks? Three years ago, it was down in the dumps – Frappachinos did not taste as sweet in the context of the global recession. Its CEO battled back: closing stores, but also diversifying products: in addition to coffee, it expanded into icecream, music, and tasty in-store snacks. Since 2009, it has run a series of unbranded stores that serve as ‘laboratories’ for new in-stores concepts, such as ‘open mic’ nights – a favourite of poets everywhere.

Moreover, as international sales become more important to Starbucks, a broader sense of its brand becomes important. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Taiwan may already have local coffee favourites, but what they get with the new Starbucks logo is something bigger: a unique in-store experience that delivers beyond coffee.

In sum, it is not all about coffee anymore. To be successful as a business, Starbucks needed to be something bigger – and that’s what the logo represents. It is a source of entrainment: a brand that represents quality across its products and does so while being a responsible corporate citizen. The new logo isn’t just a visual gimmick – it represents Starbucks’ broadening ambition.

“In Seattle” said Jeff Bezos, “you haven’t had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it’s running”. Without a doubt, Bezos referred to the coffee culture in Seattle, Washington in America’s Northwest. From the humble beginnings of Pike’s Place Market, Starbucks has taken drip coffee, espresso, and teas international: today it is active in 50 countries, has 11,000 stores in the US, 700 in the UK, and 100s across Asia.

Over the past few years Starbucks has struggled in the coffee market. It closed down 325 stores globally between 2008-2009. Of concern to shareholders, the board, and coffee lovers, 84% of total net revenues from retail stores globally. The Great Recession threatened the viability of the Starbucks bread and butter: tired people getting their morning Java at their ‘local’.

Starbucks innovated around the retail decline. It expanded to offices, hotels, airlines and supermarkets. Over the holidays I noticed a new trend at a supermarket in London: a refrigerated Starbucks coffee, packaged like an in store product (below). This seems to be targeted at shoppers that want the handy Starbucks cup, with the convenience of the daily shop.

Yet Starbuck’s product innovation misses a key trend among coffee consumers: they have shifted to in home brewing. Consumers are cutting purchases of ground coffee as they shift to coffee ‘Pods’. In response, Starbucks launched Via – a sachet of coffee that does not need any brewing kit – but such speciality items were 19% of total net revenue for 2009.

Moreover, Starbucks has limited options in the supermarket. Its exclusive distribution relationship with Kraft curtails options to find a new partner or a better deal in US grocery chains. On the home brewing front, Kraft’s Tassimo brewing machine has a 2.6% market share compared to Keurig’s 71%. The once fruitful relationship with Kraft seems to be losing steam due to changing preferences, an inflexible distribution agreement, and innovation.

Such trends suggest that consumers want to have a degree of creativity and flexibility in their coffee choices, rather than being vulnerable to untrained baristas. From burgers, electronics, and sportswear, it is clear that consumer choice in how one interacts with a product may determine success or failure. For the time being, it seems that Starbuck’s caffeine-fed sewing machine has slowed significantly.

Starbucks opened a new prototype store this week in its home town of Seattle, in a brave move beyond its heartland of coffee bars. The new concept store will serve regional wine, beer and locally made produce, and has a layout that’s closer to a traditional neighbourhood cafe than Starbucks as we know it. Its low-key decor, dimmed lighting and environmentally responsible design take it a large step away from the classic old-school library feel of its conventional stores.

Its 40th birthday rapidly approaching, Starbucks is keen to find new ways of connecting with its customers – not least because the days when its central proposition of a ‘third space’ between home and office distinguished it from the common mass are long gone. With competitors ranging from Costa Coffee and McDonald’s McCafés to neighbourhood entrepreneurs encroaching on its core offer of comfortable surroundings, consistent products and service wherever the location, and premium coffee, the 16,000-strong chain is clearly seeking a means of re-establishing itself as the home of global barrista culture.

Starbucks hopes that the new concept will bring in valuable evening trade – a welcome development for its shareholders – and encourage customers to see stores as a desirable local fixture rather than a corporate imposition. To my knowledge, it’s the first time that the chain has attempted to cash in on the growing trend of ‘glocalisation’; something that will come as a surprising development to those who’ve been all too happy to dismiss it as the epitome of obnoxious Americanisation.

Global development chief Arthur Rubinfeld hails the new concept as the “natural evolution of the brand”, stemming from learnings the company had obtained from its two ‘living labs’. It will be interesting to see whether critics – and customers – greet it as such. Certainly, some people will find it hard to equate the introduction of alcohol with the organisation’s somewhat ambitious mission “to inspire and nurture the human spirit”.

In a (first) world that’s increasingly pulling away from an internationalised, one-size-fits-all brand experience in favour of a return to more homespun values of empathy, local understanding and heritage, this new Starbucks could prove to be the solution that brings the brand back to its core of human connections.

Either way, as someone who’s never quite understood the fascination of hot beverages, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the UK rollout of the new offering…

We’ve been running a lot of interactive workshops recently for clients investigating the brand engagement, experience and communications opportunities presented by social media and smartphones, so maybe it was this that was on my mind when I made the digital world shaking discovery that one of my favourite brands does not (yet?) have an app…

I work in branding. I follow brands. I like to hear from Marmite about what’s going on in their world. I enjoy the daily eye candy offered by Australian underwear and swimwear brand AussieBum on Facebook. On Twitter I keep track of when the next Les Mills exercise classes will be released. I use the Amazon app to check prices and save my window shopping don’t-need-but-really-wants for later. I’ve welcomed these brands into my day-to-day life and love the content they provide… so imagine my horror when I found out that my favourite branded coffee shop, Caffe Nero, did not have an app that would help me find their nearest cafe. Why, marketing Gods, why?

Starbucks has a nice little app that uses your location to find the nearest store. You can customise the search to only see stores on the map if they have wireless or serve oven warmed food etc. This is simple, practical and intuitive. When driving to a far off meeting an app like this is almost life-saving to a caffeine addict.

For me, and for customers like me, apps are rapidly becoming part of our lives. I was initially delighted when I found the Starbucks app, but realise, now that the surprise has passed, that apps like this are now almost a hygiene feature in my brand experience. I’ve seen it from one brand, then I expect it from another and become peeved when it isn’t available. Makes me sound horribly spoiled… but I guess that’s the point about delighting factors becoming expectations.

Whilst it won’t stop me visiting and loving Nero, I do feel differently about them, as well as differently about Starbucks. Must remember to use myself as a case study in the next workshop…! Now, where’s my app dammit?!