Design & Project Mgmt. | Strategy | Sourcing

Starbucks,Vancouver Market Intelligence & Resource Guide

Vancouver, Canada

During his transition from Design Director in Latin America to Concepts Director for the wider Americas region, Scott Mitchem was asked to apply one of his best practices to an issue in the Vancouver market.

Starbucks was an early entrant to Vancouver. It had a strong presence but did little to evolve over the subsequent 10 years. During that time, a dynamic, third-wave independent coffee movement emerged, leaving Starbucks looking stale, corporate, and out of touch — which obviously affected sales.

Mr. Mitchem traveled to the city and led a team of local designers, industry professionals, and writers in a competitive audit of the market by neighborhood; they sourced potential vendors and FF&E items to inform a new, locally relevant design approach to the market.

The final deliverable (see document below) was a marketwide audit and intelligence brief, including recommended courses of action and the resource guide to deliver on those directives. The document was used to brief senior leadership, develop a new market strategy, and create a more relevant café design.