When new tea and local coffee brands are writing their own "third space" stories with financing, Starbucks, which first popularized this concept, must use actions to show that it is Starbucks itself that can beat Starbucks on the "third space".
Today, Starbucks announced the launch of a new digital service feature in Meituan. Among them, the "1971 Living Room" space service is the most surprising.
If in the past, Starbucks's "third space" was to provide consumers with a comfortable space experience, then the current "1971 Living Room" is to provide a segmented activity experience under the premise of upgrading space.
In the first phase, "1971 Living Room" will provide two themed services: "Coffee has a round" and "Living Room Meeting".
Want to get together with friends, but don't want to "go out and play on your phone together"? Then you can choose "Coffee has a round", and learn coffee knowledge while playing with friends under the leadership of the coffee master, and experience making coffee by hand.
As for "meeting in the living room", this is better understood - when there is a business meeting or gathering need, consumers can find a Starbucks store with semi-enclosed/enclosed space through Meituan and book these independent spaces equipped with conference equipment.
And Starbucks will be paired with butler companions to take care of the coffee and catering needs that are interspersed with it.
Through the cooperation with Meituan, consumers can search for "Starbucks" directly on Dianping and Meituan apps to find and book the nearby "1971 Living Room" service.
The "1971 Living Room" service entrance on Dianping
At present, the service is online in more than 60 stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu, and will be promoted to more cities in the future.
In addition, Starbucks will also upgrade the "special star delivery" function on the Ustuan line.
In addition to customizing the taste of the drink according to your preferences, the upgrade delivery service will automatically recommend nearby stores and synchronize the shopping cart when the purchased product is out of stock. The "Starbucks Reserve" series of coffees will also land on the "Special Star Delivery" for the first time.
Of course, of course, the "My Starbucks Rewards Club" will also be connected with the "special star delivery" of the US group, and there will be no fewer stars.
Next, Meituan will also apply its "super store" innovative function to Starbucks. On these "Super Stores" pages, consumers can view the store event calendar and even find the store's celebrity baristas in addition to regular orders, giving each store more personality in the digital space.
These features may not seem special at first glance, but behind them are Starbucks' years of digital layout.
The location of the tip of the iceberg is always left to emotional connection
Starbucks is a big company full of "careful thinking", and this is especially true for their digital products.
Over the past few years, Starbucks has done a lot of "hard work" in digitalization to improve efficiency.
On the one hand, it is a back-end digital improvement that consumers rarely perceive, such as order management, store management and other middle-office systems.
On the other hand, it is to open up the membership system with Ali and Meituan and build digital channels for different platforms. On this basis, O2O services such as online ordering, takeaway delivery, and gift cards were launched.
These services sound boring, but Starbucks is not willing to let them dull when presented to the public.
Launched in 2017, the "Speak with the Stars" social gift experience provides a large number of beautiful theme cards at the beginning, supporting the setting of self-imposed greetings, so that users can easily express their intentions to the people they care about and pass on their thoughts.
Later, a "heart-to-heart delivery" service was added to "Speaking with Stars" - ordering a starbucks online for relatives and friends in different places? You have to print a custom greeting on the coffee cup!
Even on the "brown express" service that should emphasize efficiency the most (online ordering, picking up at the store), Starbucks has "not dead heart" to set up an unexpected single password - "I am Spider-Man", "Koi Ben Carp", "Suddenly happy", "Let's go on an autumn trip together"...
If digital infrastructure is an iceberg, then the corner that Starbucks chooses to reveal is always an emotional connection left for people, sometimes between people and people, and sometimes between people and brands.
And this time the "1971 Living Room" is no exception.
Do you want to get together with friends but worry about the show setup? Starbucks baristas set up the "party" process for you and learn about coffee with everyone.
Want to have a meeting but don't want to worry about anything other than a meeting? Then Starbucks will prepare the venue, and the Starbucks partner will come and make some food for you.
In addition, the Starbucks culture tradition of "opening a meeting with a coffee tasting" also continued into the "1971 Living Room" experience.
And these baristas are "liberated" from ordering, inventory management, and other work.
In 2019, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson introduced that Starbucks is using the company's internal AI platform to enhance Starbucks' ability to create personalized customer services and optimize store labor distribution and inventory management.
The ultimate goal of efficiency improvement, in Johnson's words, is "so that they [Starbucks partners] can spend more time communicating with customers."
Don't tell new stories, tell better local stories
We often love to talk about "humanities of technology", but when large companies taste the sweetness of technology in China, a market with a prominent label of "technology", it is difficult to implement "humanities".
Starbucks actually reached with the third space.
In the future, "1971 Living Room" will not only be able to hold meetings and organize "coffee bureaus", but also bring pet parties, sign language classes, coffee classrooms and other classes and community activities.
Many readers should be able to see that sign language classes and pet parties are actually "long" from the existing special third space.
In 2019, Starbucks' first sign language store in China officially opened in Guangzhou. By November last year, seven sign language stores had been opened in China.
Here, baristas with hearing impairments can freely exert their professional abilities and see more possibilities, and consumers can also understand the hearing impaired group and sign language culture while tasting coffee.
Launched as early as 2018, there are now more than 160 Starbucks pet-friendly stores in China, which is a small gathering place for surrounding pet consumers.
In addition to outdoor furniture for pets, these pet-friendly stores also feature special menus for dogs and cats – "Clawbucks" and "Starbucks Non-Concentrated American" (actually sugar-free cream and purified water).
These third spaces, which are close to specific communities, will eventually land in the "fourth space" for a wider audience , the digital platform , in the case of complete digital infrastructure.
With the open scheduling mechanism, the number of people reached by these community activities has also moved from the original small community to more consumers.
In addition, Starbucks opened its first intangible cultural heritage concept store last November, where it showcased batik designs. In addition, Starbucks will also hold intangible cultural heritage salons in stores in different cities to introduce cultural themes around ear pillows, leather carvings, Li Jin, and peasant paintings to more people.
This may also provide more imagination for the activities that can be carried out in the "Third Space", and starbucks stores distributed across the country have become a space for ordinary consumers to have access to these cultures.
Through these special "third spaces", Starbucks not only provides a place where consumers can stay comfortably, but even now creates a reason to make you want to come more.
I often say that innovation means not only thinking about innovative products, but also rethinking the nature of "relationships."
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wrote in "All the Way Forward."
Yes, no matter how innovative and empowered technology is, the story of Starbucks has not changed, and it is all about using the two media of coffee and space to create a closer connection between people.
The story of Starbucks China has become more and more abundant as a result.
Like this article click here