Corporate Coffee Culture: Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts
Why honesty in branding goes a long way
No matter where you wander in this country, you're offered a binary choice of corporate coffee suppliers. Fly into any airport and you'll see the familiar dark green of Starbucks and the vivid orange and purple of Dunkin' Donuts. The colors and graphics are so recognizable we don't even need to see the names anymore; Starbucks recently redesigned its logo to feature only the iconic muse graphic in their signature green. They're everywhere, in every city, busily offering the illusion of choice and freedom to consumers of caffeine. Like Coke and Pepsi, they provide two sides of the same coin: they're both huge companies selling average coffee and reaping enormous profits.
As a New Englander, born and bred, I have a special place for Dunkin' Donuts. They're the only coffeeshop where I can walk in and get what I want with a two word order: "medium regular" (in Boston, "regular" is always code for cream and sugar). A Bostoner panics when she can't see at least two Dunkin' Donuts at any given time. But the Starbucks are just as populous, just as likely to inspire panic when absent. In fact, it was Starbucks and their syrupy espresso concoctions that got me hooked on caffeine to begin with. As my taste matured, I started moving over to Dunkin' for their drip coffee, which tastes less like it was scorched on the floor of the rainforest for two months before brewed.