#coffee break

Coffee break on TikTok…

Traditionally I come from a country where coffee is a staple moment of everybody’s routine at home or outside. In Italy you start the day heating your moka and waiting for that unique sound ready to serve two small cups; if you’re on the go, your espresso and a Nutella croissant with the newspaper under your arm depict the average bar goer in the morning. Plenty of cafes placed here and there that offer this important drink at any time of the day.

In Italy there isn’t that status-quo of tallorgrande paper cups to carry around while going to work or while driving to get the kids from school. However, the market for coffee in North America is a well established business that in the last twenty years managed to go beyond the beans, entering a whole new dimension of corporate branding and personal status.

Today sporting a cup in your hands is not about taste anymore, but about who you are. That cup is a beacon sending a subtle message to others about your life style and preferences. Corporate identities acquired a more powerful aspect when designers begun working with the experience element to be used in the equation. Advertisers could only go so far in convincing people to buy this or that product, that’s why understanding the user was essential to the business.

Famous brands like StarbucksandTim Hortons are the two essential names in coffee consumption in Canada. The former constitute a different brand loyalty from customers than the latter which attracts a different crowd. Starbucksis not just coffee but a way of life. Those who hold that large white paper cup with the green logo on it are not just drinking their beverage, they are telling others around they belong to another plain of society, usually a middle class and above, and they enjoying being seen with something in their hands that is a totem of status-quo: I can afford an expensive coffee and I belong to a circle of people similar to mine (usually the white collars).

On the other hand the Canadian chain Tim Hortons is a business which belongs to a broader percentage of the population; it encompasses the average Jane and Joe which rise early in the morning to go to work, who hold a trade which involves labor and specific manual/technical skills; I’m thinking about your neighbor carpenter, your middle school teacher, the plumber who just repaired your sink, the road worker with the yellow vest. It’s essentially a blue collar coffee for it’s accessible price and quality.

Two distinct cups for two distinct brands. Starbucks focuses more on the logo to visually engage those around the cup in suggesting status; Tims sports a different interaction with the user to engage a larger crowd through cost and quality accessibility.

The behavior of these two brands is visible everyday at any moment, whether at the mall, outside offices, while doing groceries, at the bank. Those who spend twice as much for coffee at Starbucks want to be seen, and that’s why the cup is designed to stand out: white with the bright and visible logo that is unique and easy to identify. It never changes. Whereas Tim’s has its cups shifting throughout the year in style with different seasonal themes and prize winning months (Roll Up The Rim contest).

So, in this quick analysis of coffee, the choice of cups goes beyond the beans; it’s not just the quality but a way of expressing one’s personal status and kinship to a specific mindset or group of people. There are other brands that might have worked too making the comparison; however, in Canada this polarization of brand choice offers an outstanding window of user behavior just by looking at a cup of coffee.