Food & Beverage
Starbucks: The Global Coffee Operator
EPR's canonical Starbucks reference — the global coffee category anchor, the Niccol-era operational reset, the labor cycle, and the China question.
Tag
starbucks
Email Marketing
Email Marketing in Food & Beverage — The 2026 Playbook
Definitive 2026 playbook for email marketing in food and beverage — Starbucks, Liquid Death, Olipop, Poppi, HelloFresh, Chick-fil-A. Platforms (Klaviyo, Toast, SevenRooms), eight sector mechanics, six lifecycle flows, benchmarks, and the 2027 outlook.
Insights & Strategy
How the Four Models of PR Map to the Modern Crisis Canon
Six modern PR crises diagnosed through Grunig and Hunt's four models — Tylenol, Pepsi/Kendall, MSL/Netflix, Qwikster, Bud Light, and Starbucks under Brian Niccol. The diagnostic vocabulary every crisis operator needs.
Social Media
Social Media Marketing Strategies for Companies
Starbucks operates one of the most-studied corporate social media operations in any consumer category. The seasonal beverage cycle, the customer trend amplification, the platform-native production, the loyalty integration. What the discipline actually requires now.
Insights & Strategy
How to Handle Positive Reddit Reviews — The Starbucks Model
Positive Reddit reviews are public, searchable, and reach buyers a brand cannot reach directly. Why Starbucks owns Reddit, why most brands do not, and the four rules for handling positive threads.
Marketing
Leading Omnichannel Marketing Efforts from Brands
Omnichannel marketing is the discipline of running every customer touchpoint as part of a single coherent system. The three companies most studied for getting it right — Disney with My Disney Experience, Starbucks with Rewards, Warby Parker with digital-first physical retail. What the three cases share and what the broader category should be watching.
Food & Beverage
Starbucks Customers Seething Over Long Lines
Starbucks has a problem its operations team did not expect. Mobile ordering has been too successful — and the in-store handoff counter is now the bottleneck. Kevin Johnson is acknowledging it directly. What other brands deploying mobile ordering should learn from the situation.
Food & Beverage
Starbucks Is Everywhere
Starbucks operates more than 25,000 stores in 75 countries. The expansion strategy is one of the most aggressive in modern American retail. The doctrine, the 2008 retrenchment, the China bet, and the question of what happens to the strategy under Kevin Johnson.
Crisis Communications
Starbucks Pumpkin Spice PR Crisis
Starbucks just spent three weeks managing the most awkward PR crisis a beverage brand can have — proving that its signature drink does not actually contain pumpkin. The Food Babe investigation, the rapid corporate response, and the reformulation that turned criticism into a relaunch narrative.
CPG
Dunkin' PR: Marketing, Reputation, Crisis Communications and Brand Strategy
How Dunkin' built one of America's most visible consumer brands. Ownership, timeline, the 2018 rebrand, crisis comms, criticism, the Charli D'Amelio playbook, and Dunkin' in AI search.