Recently, Starbucks came under fire from the media for shifting their winter cup designs from a Christmas oriented cup to that of a plain red one. Fianca brought up a good point that Starbucks, having a slogan that highlights diversity and cultural acceptance, is only attempting to make their product appeal to as large an audience as  possible.

Starbucks currently inhabits 66 different countries and territories across the world. In being such a global company, they need to have a cultural awareness of the area in which they are expanding into. By strictly only having the Christmas cups, they immediately eliminate a large customer segment from their sales. Many people might not want to endorse or do not feel obligated to be associated with Christmas. These are the people that the old Christmas cups used to exclude.

By having the new plain red cups, Starbucks doesn’t necessarily associate itself with any one holiday, therefore appealing to a larger customer segment. In doing so Starbucks not only becomes a more culturally diverse company, but also should increase overall profit.

My only issue with this topic is that at some point Starbucks will have to draw the line. Yes, it is fine that they want to appeal to the larger customer segment by turning the cups red, but in the end they can’t make everyone happy.