Cultural Site Paper: Starbucks Essay

Starbucks began as a coffee importing and roasting teleph sensationr in 1971. Since 1987, the community has expanded at an astonishing rate. America was furbish up for the third inject provided by Starbucks. In 1987, Starbucks opened its first lineage outside of the State of Washington.Over the next eight years, the comp either paste throughout North America before opening its first foreign location in Japan. The company continues to open new stores at an weighty rate. 1,500 new stores have been planned for 2006. Starbucks has also grown through licensing relationships and by offering bottled drinks and bags of coffee for sale in grocery stores. (Corporate Website)It has zoomed up as one of the best companies glob all toldy. It shall also examine some of the visual representations of the place so that an overall impression is generated. It shall delve into the purpose of the kinds of representations it chooses to represent the radical and analyze how this culturally represen ts the community where it is situated.The WorkplaceVisual images atomic number 18 earthy means to enhance learning. Things be advance clear as vision plays a vital role in colloquy, since more than 60 percent of communication consists of nonverbal, visual cues. This paper will tackle Starbucks and look into the sites genius of place and the effect this ambience has on the people who predict the place.Starbucks purchases and roasts high- tonus whole bean coffees and sells them along with fresh, rich-brewed, Italian-style espresso beverages, a variety of pastries and confections, and coffee-related accessories and equipment, through its company operated retail stores. In addition to sales through its company-operated retail stores, it sells in the beginning whole bean coffees through a specialty sales group, a direct response disdain, supermarkets, and online at Starbucks.com.I. Visual materialsAt Starbucks, in that respect ar certain objects which act as symbols or represent ations that have come to be generally accepted as standing for or representing some amour more than what it is there for (Vander, Zanden 1993). Usually this is an idea or something abstract. In Starbucks case, it is the smell of coffee that fills the standard atmosphere with the coffee smell that stimulates people to buy more, relax and savor the classy atmosphere.The coffee beans, brochures and CD purchased from the store be also objects that represent the outcome to everyone. People can get coffee mug with their personalized pictures on it. The displayed objects are powerful code or shorthand for representing and dealing with aspects of the bodied world (Hewitt, 1994).The significance of symbols as mixerizing mechanisms lies in the attitudes they conjure up and the accompanying behavior they stimulate. The space of the outlet is comfortably arranged with some(prenominal) sofa and chairs arranged to accommodate groups of people coming in the place. there is a sense of harm ony in the layout and arrangement, which relaxes customers.According to anthropology professor Leslie flannel (1960), All culture (civilization) depends upon the symbol. Much as we would like to think so, energy, pride, truth and a passion for work are not created by an organizational structure, a leader, a product, or a work process. They are all created by people who work together every day in organizations. These members of the workforce have dreams, hopes, and expectations.II. Sites sense of placeStarbucks is one place where almost all the senses are stimulated. Foremost here is the sense of smell. All this smelling goes on at an almost subconscious level. cosmos are least attentive to the olfactory sense. Yet it is our most antediluvian sense and is most closely linked to our memory and emotions.The maintenance and developing of this quality experience requires a strong organizational commitment. The 1990s power saw Starbucks expand its talent pool on the most influential of age(p) levels, with key additions contributing greatly to the evolution of the companys business lines. Howard Schultz began assembling an experienced team of professionals to drive Starbucks growth.The pursuit of first-class quality drove Starbucks back up the coffee supply chain when it encountered virile competition. Coffee, though second only to petroleum in volume of orbicular trading, was highly fragment. It was estimated that a full one-third of the worlds coffee farms were three acres or less in size.This typically resulted in a consolidation process which handed off coffee from granger to collector, collector to miller, miller to exporter or broker, and finally to importer. In the past, the importer and brokers then interchange coffee to the astronomic mass-market coffee roasters and producers.III. Connection to cultural contextStarbucks defines their social responsibility as conducting our business in ways that produce social, environmental, and sparing benefit s to the communities in which we operate. In the end, it means being responsible to our stakeholders. (Corporate Social office Annual Report). There is growing recognition of the need for corporate accountability. Consumers are demanding more than product from their favorite brands.Employees are choosing to work for companies with strong values. Shareholders are more inclined to invest in businesses with outstanding corporate reputations. kind of simply, being socially responsible is not only the right thing to do, it can distinguish a company from its industry peers. (Corporate Social tariff Annual Report).Starbucks is the place where groups gather for the expression of their values and attitudes. This cultural site, therefore, serves as a meeting place for those who just want to express themselves and their individuality, without any disturbances. The chairs are arranged closed to each other but everyone is there to mind his own business.Usually Starbucks is built near a comme rcial message area but there are now outlets near scoopful villages and neighborhoods. In a big commercial area, relationships are more fragmented and it is unlikely that one would just by chance see a friend at a restaurant, simply because there are so many restaurants available to eat at in a large town. Thus, establishing a new one in the neighborhood encourages interaction with unalike types of groups.While employees clearly come first in the Starbucks culture, the customer is a close second. Starbucks fourth guiding principle is to Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all the clipping. We recognized early on that the equity of the Starbucks brand was vent to be the retail experience that the customers had in our stores, says Schultz, the companys CEO.Indeed, Starbucks has come a long way from its very beginnings. It has been able to identify the things it does so well from the simplest service procedure to the massive, company wide operation. It has proven time and again that the business strengths will be small isolated islands of effectiveness. The key, as Starbucks has unlocked, is finding these strengths and using them as foundation cornerstones that support the entire reinvention scheme it does almost naturally.