Successful Business is Successful Space

(Continuing the Small Business Blogs)

 

So I'm walking through the CBD for the first time in a while yesterday.
Walking down urine soaked streets, amongst the staccato rattle of trams and past bleary-eyed pedestrians. And then I walk past an odd oasis of calm in this otherwise seething cesspool.

Starbucks.

It really is a very clever exercise. A bunch of very overpaid designers take the Boutique Bar aesthetic and apply it to Coffee.

And yet, there it was, gently enticing soft lighting and the sounds of old-school within: A true marvel of crafted design space.

Its’ effects were very clear while I sat inside drinking my coffee. Watching as a vacuous Barista presented an ever-increasingly absurdly labelled cups with her demented false smile. Yet oddly the people who queued for this remained vastly happier than the shuffling throngs outside. Lulled by the calming effects of this crafted space that invited us in. That cleverly crafted dynamic of unity, belonging and calm.

Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald's) once famously commented that he wasn't in the business of Fast-Food, he was in the business of Real estate.
And this is the secret here too: Real Estate
It was never their Coffee. It's run-of-the-mill at best, vastly overpriced and served production-line style in a paper cup.

What they've done is crafted excellent space.

Chances are you're reading this in the comfort of your own home, or perhaps in the middle of your workplace. But ask for a moment: how does the space make you feel? How does it create that feeling? And how were you brought to that place?
Think about all of this as feelings, not just objects and words.

And then I ask what this corner of the web does to best achieve these goals?
And what I see is a whole lot of work ahead of me.

Oh well,

Cheers,
-K

PS – It’s perhaps that I make it clear, I do not endorse Starbucks and consider them a very evil, subversive corporation who would sell your mother for a profit. As would McDonald’s.