To: Professor Beth Keller and Students of WRA 202-002 From: Laura Kastner Date: Sept.

18, 2012; Revised: Nov. 28, 2012 Subject: Analysis of How Starbucks Uses Rhetoric Starbucks is a Seattle-based corporation boasting the largest international coffee chain in the world and is committed to roasting and selling only the finest Arabica beans to coffee drinkers worldwide. This organizations main focus is customer service through celebration of the coffee tradition: something Starbucks describes as a place for conversation and a sense of community.1 Starbucks mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.2 Through hand-crafted beverages, Starbucks attempts to foster human connection and lead the world in community prosperity. I chose to audit Starbucks not only because I work for them, but because their very principle intrigues me. What began as a trio of men fascinated with coffee beans and Moby Dick3 rapidly advanced into a 4 The original Starbucks logo. multi-billion dollar corporation with a passion for positive community interaction. Starbucks journey is inspiring and, one day, I hope to be involved in a company with similar attributes. Rhetorical Artifacts Starbucks uses a variety of mediums to interact with the public. Six artifacts (I combined the nutrition pamphlets) I have found and assessed are as follows: Nutrition by the Cup and Nutrition by the Plate pamphlets, Make It Your Drink booklet, the www.starbucks.com homepage, Starbucks Facebook page, and Starbucks Create Jobs for USA Facebook page. 1. Nutrition by the Cup and Plate: The Nutrition by the Cup pamphlet elaborates on every drink Starbucks offersdetailing from saturated fat in grams to caffeine contentand is intended for the weight-watcher, the calorie-counter, and the health-conscious coffee connoisseur. With headings such as Delicious Sips 200 Calories or Less and Whether youre counting calories, watching your fat and sugar intake or looking for something indulgent, you call the shots, the Cup pamphlet shows that the company wants to attract consumers who want Starbucks to meet the needs of their health awareness. To prove credibility, the pamphlet also includes websites such as www.mypyramid.gov, www.americanheart.org, and www.foodinsight.org government-approved sources where one could find additional nutrition information. Furthermore, this artifact attracts an audience that seeks personalization through headings like Handcrafted just for you, Order your drink your way, and Make it yours. Starbucks wants its customers to feel
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and 2 Read about Starbucks heritage at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. The founding of Starbucks, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks. 4 Original logo courtesy of http://www.brandautopsy.com/images/various/sbux_logo_pre_1987_2.jpg. 5 Braille and Large Print Version photo courtesy of http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2012/08/30/braille-and-large-print-starbucks-orderingbook/. 6 Read about Create Jobs for USA at https://www.facebook.com/createjobsforUSA/info. 7 More on the origin of Starbucks at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. 8 Image courtesy of http://www.buffalochow.com/mt/images/seattle_chow_part_3_the_incons_p1.jpg.

satisfied, confident, decisive, happy, and healthy. Starbucks desires to be viewed as knowledgeable, trustworthy, friendly, concerned, and cooperative by presenting factual information about its beverages and thus establishing an intimate relationship with customers. Similar to the Cup pamphlet, Nutrition by the Plate was created for customers who pursue seemingly healthier alternatives to their Starbucks food favorites. The artifact features all food items the company has to offer with details like cholesterol in milligrams and percent daily value of vitamins A and C. Additionally, it displays headings such as Tasty Bites 350 Calories or Less, and Eating better tastes better, Just for you, and Enjoy a variety of tasty options to fit your lifestyle and your day. These further represent Starbucks interest in consumers who want a connection with a company that is as health-conscious as they are. 2. Make It Your Drink Booklet: Through this artifact, Starbucks extends its concern for customer voice and opinion by providing a pocketsized guide to beverages. Through the Make It Your Drink booklet, Starbucks seems personable by encouraging customers to order with ease and confidence. The artifact begins with a section titled Learning the Lingoperhaps intended for customers who have voiced that the companys diction is confusing. Contrasted to companies such as Tim Hortons and Dunkin Donuts that use average size indicators like small, medium, and large, Starbucks use of size titles tall, grande, and venti can be intimidating and confusing. Here, we see that Starbucks is attempting to evoke confidence, expertness, and independence in customers through a special kind of A modified version of the pocket booklet for 5 customers with special needs. intimacy found when a big name corporation brings itself to the individuals level of understanding. This interaction makes the company look thoughtful, cooperative, and wise to consumers who desire a better comprehension of Starbucks unique expressions. 3. www.starbucks.com Homepage: Upon arriving on Starbucks homepage, one instantly thinks: Autumn. People, especially Americans, evidently love seasons (this is proved when one walks into an establishment that is prematurely adorned in Halloween dcor in July.) Starbuckslike many other companiesrecognizes and celebrates the changing of the seasons. The homepage is fun, cozy, warm and inviting, including statements like We know its Fall when Pumpkin Spice Latte returns to our stores. What reminds you of falls return? This quote brings us to the aspect of interaction: Starbucks homepage also includes a
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and 2 Read about Starbucks heritage at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. The founding of Starbucks, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks. 4 Original logo courtesy of http://www.brandautopsy.com/images/various/sbux_logo_pre_1987_2.jpg. 5 Braille and Large Print Version photo courtesy of http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2012/08/30/braille-and-large-print-starbucks-orderingbook/. 6 Read about Create Jobs for USA at https://www.facebook.com/createjobsforUSA/info. 7 More on the origin of Starbucks at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. 8 Image courtesy of http://www.buffalochow.com/mt/images/seattle_chow_part_3_the_incons_p1.jpg.

Twitter box at the bottom which caters exclusively to those wanting to interact with the corporation. The Twitter box encourages self-expression and displays Starbucks technologic versatility. This artifact is yet another way Starbucks establishes an intimate relationship with its customers and provokes customers who seek such a relationship with a coffee shop chain. 4. Starbucks Facebook Page: Through the popular social networking site Facebook, Starbucks again adapts with technologic growth by interacting with customers via social media. Its Facebook page is concise, showing highlights such as a casual poll posing the question Ice cream is best when? Here, Starbucks is attempting to foster an intimate relationship again, making customers feel active and important. Having a Facebook page alone says that Starbucks intends to attract consumers who are presumably younger and frequently use social media. Starbucks Facebook page also hosts a set of Likes, which pose as an interactive tool similar to the Twitter box of Starbucks homepage. Likes also target special causes like (RED)a movement designed to link people and companies in an effort to fight AIDS. This indicates that Starbucks intends to attract customers that are interested in activism; in this case particularly, customers that are interested in the fight-against-AIDS movement. Starbucks is hoping that, by creating this special cause page, a possible consumer who is especially concerned with AIDS will see that Starbucks is an advocate for fighting this deadly disease and will therefore be inclined to buy Starbucks products. It is by this method that Starbucks projects itself across the world as an ambassador for human, social, and, in some cases, environmental issues and attracts intended consumers who share the same insights.
5. Create Jobs for USA Facebook Page: Starbucks and Opportunity Finance Network are

working together to create and sustain jobs in our communities. By delivering responsible loans to underserved communities, OFN helps low-income people and communities to invest in America by creating and sustaining jobs.6 This brief description of the cause is found on the About section of Create Jobs for USAs Facebook page. Targeting consumers interested in unemployment as a national crisis, Starbucks communicates that it is economically aware and actively searching for ways to help our communities and hopes to draw consumers who feel likewise. This final artifact shows that the corporation desires an intimate relationship with humans across America by way of a large-scale cause. Moreover, one can find a message from Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks, on this artifact, thus making him a recognizable figure. His attempt to interact with the public proves that he is not just another faceless CEO and is a strategy to draw consumers who
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and 2 Read about Starbucks heritage at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. The founding of Starbucks, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks. 4 Original logo courtesy of http://www.brandautopsy.com/images/various/sbux_logo_pre_1987_2.jpg. 5 Braille and Large Print Version photo courtesy of http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2012/08/30/braille-and-large-print-starbucks-orderingbook/. 6 Read about Create Jobs for USA at https://www.facebook.com/createjobsforUSA/info. 7 More on the origin of Starbucks at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. 8 Image courtesy of http://www.buffalochow.com/mt/images/seattle_chow_part_3_the_incons_p1.jpg.

are interested in the companys foundation. The Create Jobs for USA movement is just another way Starbucks frames its message of concern for community betterment. Intimacy as a Strategy Commonly displayed across artifacts is Starbucks desire for an intimate relationship with customers. I conclude that this use of intimacy poses as a business strategy. Evidently, gaining intimacy means gaining a profit, considering the corporation has grown to over 17,000 stores in 55 countries.7 Starbucks Effective and Ineffective Use of Rhetoric These six artifacts demonstrate how this corporation uses rhetoric to its advantage. It is effective in attracting customers and involving activists by communicating that it is nutritionally, socially, and economically involved. Starbucks mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time is framed consistently across artifacts with subtle variance depending on the severity of the subject. For example, the Facebook page displays a cozy, lighthearted emotion while the Create Jobs for USA page acts as a more serious element. Starbucks frames its message appropriately in every artifact, staying mindful of the community. However, there is one very noticeable flaw in Starbucks strategy: location. Using the Google Maps search engine, one can see where the company is geographically establishedtypically urban, wealthier, developed areas. Take East Lansing for example. Notice how two Starbucks stores are placed a mile apart on Grand River Ave. but none anywhere else around campus (not including licensed stores like the one in Wells Hall.) Grand River Ave. between its intersections at Michigan Ave. and Hagadorn Rd. boasts shops and restaurants, and serves a main purpose as a tourist attraction. Many people who visit Michigan State University can be seen shopping along the avenue. It is a unique place where those with money spend moneya prime location for Starbucks stores. It would appear, by evidence of location alone, that Starbucks has intentions of attracting the fairly affluent individual, thus possessing flawed rhetoric. Starbucks may show interest in the community and show advocacy for 8 Inside the first Starbucks store located in the Pike Place Market of Seattle, WA. important social causes (as shown by the aforementioned artifacts) but the geographical placement of its cafs communicate that it has a specific target audience, not that it desires to target all types of people and incomes. The
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and 2 Read about Starbucks heritage at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. The founding of Starbucks, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks. 4 Original logo courtesy of http://www.brandautopsy.com/images/various/sbux_logo_pre_1987_2.jpg. 5 Braille and Large Print Version photo courtesy of http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2012/08/30/braille-and-large-print-starbucks-orderingbook/. 6 Read about Create Jobs for USA at https://www.facebook.com/createjobsforUSA/info. 7 More on the origin of Starbucks at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. 8 Image courtesy of http://www.buffalochow.com/mt/images/seattle_chow_part_3_the_incons_p1.jpg.

demographic Starbucks has chosen is based on a persona that is a socially and perhaps politically active, typically wealthy or well-off, cultured and relatively young citizen. This principle of location is not especially easy to detect, but through analysis, one may see how Starbucks disbursement is a strategy that counters its rhetoric. How Professional Writing Functions in an Organization When used properly, rhetoric is an effectual instrument that companies, organizations, corporations, and agencies can capitalize on. Correct use of rhetoric attracts people with its fierce combination of uniformity and wit. As a student in this field, I intend to further my knowledge in rhetorical writing and marketing and as a professional writer, I aspire to enhance a company with my skilled use of rhetoric.

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and 2 Read about Starbucks heritage at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. The founding of Starbucks, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks. 4 Original logo courtesy of http://www.brandautopsy.com/images/various/sbux_logo_pre_1987_2.jpg. 5 Braille and Large Print Version photo courtesy of http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2012/08/30/braille-and-large-print-starbucks-orderingbook/. 6 Read about Create Jobs for USA at https://www.facebook.com/createjobsforUSA/info. 7 More on the origin of Starbucks at http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/our-heritage. 8 Image courtesy of http://www.buffalochow.com/mt/images/seattle_chow_part_3_the_incons_p1.jpg.