(International Library of Sociology) Celia Lury - Brands_ The Logos of the Global Economy-Routledge (2004)

outlets in the rest of the world. It is present in 30 countries, and was
introduced to Mexico, Germany, Spain, Austria, Puerto Rico, Greece,
Oman, Indonesia and southern China in 2002, while South America,
including Chile, was the focus of growth in 2003. Starbuck’s ‘corners’
or mini-outlets are found in airline offices, sports stadiums, airports,
hotels and bookshops, while spin-off products include ownbrand coffee
beans, bottled coffee-based beverages, music recordings, ice cream and
other foodstuffs. In 2002, the company reported consolidated net profits
of $215 million on sales that were up 24 per cent at $3.32 billion. In the
company’s annual report, Schultz lays claim to 20 million customers a
week (Mulligan and Authers, 2003:14).
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What distinguishes the strategy of Starbucks as a brand-led (rather than
product-led) company is that the differentiation of products and
services is organised in relation to the incorporation of information
about consumers. This process results in the integration (or integrity) of
the brand. But the use of information about consumers in brand-building
is not to say that actual consumers are seen as the only, or even the
best, arbiters of the qualities of products. Thus, Schulz was initially
unwilling to sell coffee drinks made with skimmed milk or with added
flavours—despite consumer requests—since at this stage in its
development he believed this would compromise the integrity of the
brand (which was, initially at least, a matter of authenticity). It was only
when the brand was well established that such innovations were
adopted. So, while there is a concern to identify customer response to
what is offered, this response was and is intensively (and selectively)
mediated. Indeed, in Chapter 3 this selectivity will be understood in
terms of the performativity of the brand as an interface, a two-way,
asymmetrical exchange of information. Moreover, while a particular
experience is held to be at the heart of the brand, this experience is
something that the company is held to have earned (see Chapter 4 for
further discussion of the notion of brand relationships). The company
thus can claim to have exclusive property rights in this experience or
lived relation: ‘We have created a set of expectations around an
intimacy of experience that lies at the heart of what we are as a
company and brand.’ The implications for ownership and use of this
identification of the lived experience of the brand as a property will be
further explored in Chapter 5.
The organisation of the production process in terms of the brand
By the 1980s and 1990s, there was a rapid increase in both the branding
of services and corporate branding—that is, the branding of a company