“Offline Is Godsend & Critical In Terms Of What We Do As A Brand”: Starbucks’ Sushant Dash

Tea is the drink of India, but coffee is an experience. Tata Starbucks has lived up to this inkling, in every sense – by retaining its global essence in the most localised manner across a diverse country like India.

Very recently, the brand inaugurated its 400th store in India, which is a significant milestone as the brand marches towards its goal of operating 1000 stores by 2028. Situated within the historic Lakshmi Mills compound at Pudur, Coimbatore, this 400th store signifies the brand's commitment to expanding its presence in diverse markets.

Since entering the Indian market in 2012, Tata Starbucks has rapidly grown its footprint to encompass over 60 cities, leading the charge in introducing a vibrant coffee culture in a country traditionally associated with tea. Through its dedication to fostering connections over coffee, the brand has revolutionised the way people in India consume coffee, appealing to both seasoned coffee enthusiasts and newcomers alike. By tailoring its offerings to suit local tastes, the international coffee chain has introduced innovative products such as filter coffee, Masala Chai, Malabar egg puff, and Kosha Mangsho Wrap, seamlessly integrating with the rich tapestry of Indian culture.

In our BrandCraft series, Everything Experiential gets Sushant Dash, CEO, Tata Starbucks India to spill the beans (quite literally) about the brand being the OG in experiential marketing, building on the sensory elements for consumers, the role of merchandise in the overall branding experience, and more.

Edited excerpts:

Experiential marketing has come to hold a sizeable share of the entire marketing pie. How do you define experiential marketing in the context of Starbucks India, and how has it evolved over the years?

Starbucks as a brand, in some ways, is the OG in terms of experiential marketing. As Harvard famously said, people come in for the coffee, but they stay back for the experience, warmth and connection. So that's what we are as a brand. It is about the experience.

While in terms of the product, at the heart of all that we do is coffee. But once you come in, it is about the store ambience. It is about the third place, which is, in terms of experiencing the place, it is about the ambience. It's about the decor. It's about the interaction that our partners have with you as a consumer - it is then about using coffee as a product and bringing in their art. In terms of creating that beverage that gives you the overall experience. That is what the brand stands for in India.

It became more enhanced, because if you look at when we came into the country 11 years back, versus today also, coffee penetration is still at 25-26 per cent. That time it was lower - around 10 - 11 per cent. So, as a category, coffee in India is not a habit; it is not a routine. We drink tea as a routine, regularly. So, for most consumers, coffee is actually about the experience. It is about the occasion. It is an indulgence. So, in India, we needed to create that.

We needed to give that much more for people to come into the cafes. That is what we have done in terms of focusing on the experience but in a locally relevant manner. Be it in terms of design, or celebrating occasions like Diwali, the artwork that we use is what we have done in India.

And it is also about the formats. In terms of, for example, we launched the reserve store a year and a half back, which elevates the experience there. It is a complete interaction.

We have a lot of stores which we call customer-forward stores, where the brewing methods are at the forefront - but we do it with a bit of theatre, so that consumers understand the different kinds of coffees, the roast profiles, and bring that experience. That is part and parcel of what we do regularly. We have continued to do that in India but in a more locally relevant manner.

Touch and feel are essential elements in the coffeehouse experience. How does Starbucks India focus on creating a tactile and sensory experience for customers?

You have your home, and you have your office. Starbucks is the third place, after these two, where you can meet your friends, colleagues, and family; be yourself and experience in terms of comfort, connection, and a sense of community through every cup, conversation and interaction. That is what we try to create.

In terms of the touch and feel element of it, it is in terms of the store design. Be it a simple element like the community table that we have, where people can sit together and work or bring about the community feeling - it is in terms of the artwork that we use. So, for example, if you look at our Hamilton house store we use rope work as part of the décor - that rope work is by local artisans just outside of Delhi, in UP. And it is a very traditional form of art. So that brings about a certain experience to the consumer. And it also helps us to create more empathy in some ways because we are localising what we are doing.

In terms of the experiential and the sensory, it is the art of making the coffee. Our bars are made in such a way that people can actually see our partners making their drinks, and interact with them too. And that for us, is a very important part of the experience.

Unlike other QSRs, where when you come in, you are a token number, right? You will see a token number being called out. But in our case, our partners ask for your name, they call you out for your name, and your cup has your name. So that brings the personal touch and the whole focus in terms of creating that experience for the customer. So, craftsmanship and personalised touch are the elements which go into making the experience, and the touch and feel come across.

Very recently, you collaborated with Manish Malhotra for a range of merchandise. What is the role of merchandise in Starbucks' marketing strategy and how does it contribute to the overall brand experience?

For us, it has always been a very important part in terms of what we do in terms of merchandise. The merchandise, first, is about, again, creating another offering for our customers that is slightly differentiated and another way for the consumers to engage with us beyond just the coffee as a product. And in some ways, it is also about our consumers engaging with them, with us outside of our store.

So when they buy a mug, a cup or whatever it is, and they go back home or to the office, and when they're having their coffee in that, it is about one more way of us engaging as a brand with them, even though they are not at the store. That is what the role of merchandise is. And we want to do it in a manner where it is with collaborators.

We have a lot of mugs which we do from a nostalgia point of view – we have a mug for Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore - it creates a sense of pride, a sense of belonging, and it brings Starbucks, as a brand, nearer to the consumer in terms of the local connect, community etc.

We also have mugs for occasions – ones which we launched for Diwali, Christmas, and even on our anniversary. Those are to remind people of those happy moments and connections that they make with the brand on those particular occasions.

We have also had international collaborations – one of them being with Disney in India, in the recent past. The one with Manish Malhotra was launched last month.  We did another one with Sabyasachi in February - March last year, where we tried to collaborate with some of the brands/designers who could bring to life the Starbucks values, and the Starbucks message to the consumers on a more regular basis.

So, in terms of merchandise, it's about creating the brand experience in a different setting and engaging with the customers more times and in a manner which is slightly different from a regular coffee or the store.

Barista Pride – celebrating beverage innovation – what is it all about? And how does it help enhance the customer experience at every store, distinctly?

Barista Pride is an annual initiative conceptualised by Tata Starbucks that celebrates beverage innovation by our partners. Designed to celebrate the remarkable dedication and passion for coffee exhibited by the brand’s partners, ‘Barista Pride’, encourages the conceptualisation of a unique beverage that is reflective of each store, each barista. Available to consumers for a limited period only, 400 stores nationwide bring forth renditions of beverages that are true to the Starbucks philosophy of personalisation, stemming from the barista’s insights into their daily interactions with consumers. The inaugural edition took place in 2019 and saw participation from 134 stores and baristas. Following the remarkable growth of the brand in the country, the program, now in its sixth year, witnessed an increase of 90 stores from the fifth edition. Barista Pride is a unique way to celebrate our partners and provide a distinctive experience for the consumers. Every store has a unique beverage, crafted by the barista with a unique story and ingredients which is available for consumers to indulge in from their neighbourhood barista for the month.

How does Starbucks ensure that its coffee experiences are not just about the beverage but also about the ambience and atmosphere of the store?

The Starbucks experience, the way we define it, has three elements. It has got the coffee. It is about how our partners interact, the connection they make with the consumer and how they craft the beverages. And the third is in terms of the place - how we make you comfortable and how we connect with you.

In each Starbucks store, in some ways, the starting point is that we are not a cookie cutter, where it is the same design in every store, or it is just a template. Every store has a certain unique element, which brings about a sense of pride to the regular consumer. People who come there saying that, “This is my store, this is about my community”.

The stores are designed to create that welcoming environment. It is about where people can connect.

There is the example of the community table. Also, in terms of our furniture, and the colour palette, there's a lot of thought that goes into creating a welcoming atmosphere. It is not about making it a very exclusive kind of thing, which deters people from coming, nor is it about making it very basic - but to get that right balance where people feel that warmth, but they also feel a little bit of the aspirational value.

If you look at our store layout, that is something that has been crafted very carefully over the years. There's 50 years of experience. One of our USPs is the way we provide an immersive experience in terms of the coffee experience - people can see our partners, interact with them, see them making their drinks, and immerse in the coffee experience.

The last part is in terms of how we localise certain elements, be it in terms of the artwork, be it the graffiti on the wall. Even, like a small store in Bombay on Chapel Road - when we were redoing the store, we got young local artists from Bandra, to do the wall as a collaborative piece, so that there's a feeling of community that develops and it becomes an immersive experience for them. Similarly, if you go to our first reserve store which is at Fort, Mumbai - if you see the back wall, the colour palette is very Indian. It is not pastel; it is bright colours. And there, again, we use a digital experience. If you can, there is a code that the whole artwork comes to light and becomes a 3D image.

So there are a lot of those experiences, localisation, and elements of design to connect with the community that we bring to the table.

Immersive technology is becoming increasingly popular in marketing. How does Starbucks use immersive technology, AR, and VR to engage customers uniquely and enhance experiential marketing in its stores?

We leverage ChatGPT quite a bit in terms of our app to customise messages for every user, depending in terms of what the user's habits are, in terms of what part of the day it is, what season it is, what the main drink or what we are currently trying to feature. And, it conversationally does that, like what the barista would do. And at the back end, we use ChatGPT, and that helps us to personalise. So, if you come to the store, it will suggest options depending on your profile - it does that on a personalised basis. It's doing very well for us, and it helps us to engage with the consumers because they get the same feeling.

I talked about how we have used it in design in terms of immersive technology. A lot of people take photographs at our Fort, Mumbai store where they get to see the design utilising immersive technology come to life in an audio-visual, 3D medium, which tells you the story behind the design. That further enhances the thought process.

These are some of the use cases, but it is more about personalisation, connecting with the consumer, and providing that warmth and connection in an online space using some of these technologies. I think it helps us as a brand because one of the challenges for most brands is that when you go offline- and for us, offline is where we started. That is the core of what we do when you go online.

The challenge sometimes is, how to maintain the same amount of warmth and connection. I think all of these help us to do that in a better manner. So, for us, it is, in some ways, Godsend and very critical in terms of what we do as a brand.