Coffee Customization Craze! Starbucks Makes Nearly 7.2 Billion Annually from Syrups Alone!

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more premium coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Starbucks' Strategy Success: Customization and Cold Beverages Drive Growth Among Younger Generations

According to various reports from Starbucks, more than half of Starbucks' customers today are from Gen Z/Millennial generations.

"Starbucks' current brand positioning has the strongest brand affinity among all outdoor coffee brands globally. It is seen as the first choice for outdoor coffee," said Brady Brewer, Starbucks Chief Marketing Officer, during the November 3rd earnings conference call.

The younger the consumer, the stronger the brand affinity. The more diversified the products, the stronger the brand affinity. For all these reasons, Starbucks will continue to cater to a very diverse and increasingly young customer base through these cold drinks, customization, and plant-based beverages, and this strategy is working."

Starbucks' interim CEO Howard D. Schultz strongly agrees with this statement. He mentioned that the company has been observing the average age of its customer base for several years. With the introduction of more novel flavor products, loyalty among younger groups toward Starbucks has become very high.

As young consumers enjoy customizing their drinks and sharing photos on social media, various cold beverage products have become objects for DIY customization, which has also driven Starbucks' cold beverage growth, accounting for 76% of total sales in company-operated stores.

Howard added that more and more customers are further customizing their cold coffee drinks by adding high-profit beverage flavor syrups/sauces, creating customized drinks that suit their specific taste preferences.

A company R&D manager revealed to foreign media that the addition of these syrups and sauces in beverages has led to record-high sales for Starbucks in the most recent quarter. For Starbucks, these additional ingredients are very important as they bring $1 billion (approximately 7.174 billion RMB) in increased revenue to the company annually.

Thanks to the continuous introduction of new flavor syrup drinks, Starbucks' daily customer traffic has now returned to 95% of pre-pandemic levels. The increase in cold drink sales has also surprised everyone at Starbucks.

"No other coffee company in the world has the ability to immediately respond to customer customization requests, but we do! We have the ability to meet all the customization that customers want, whether in terms of flavor or decoration," Howard said at the investor briefing meeting this September.

The Starbucks Customization Phenomenon

How great is consumers' demand for syrups at Starbucks?! As people's creative ideas continue to grow, more and more Starbucks baristas can't help but post complaints!!!

"5 portions of banana milk, add caramel drizzle on top, add light cream, add ice, add cinnamon sauce, 7 pumps of dark caramel syrup, add caramel crunch, 1 pump of honey mixed into the drink, add salted black mocha sauce, 5 pumps of Frappuccino roast, 7 pumps of Starbucks exclusive syrup, add heavy cream, double blended"

"1 pump of hazelnut syrup, 1 pump of toasted white chocolate sauce, add milk foam, no caramel syrup, 2 pumps of Irish cream syrup, add cocoa powder, add honey, less of it, add 4 shots of espresso, add 1 pump of mocha, then drizzle mocha sauce on top, a small amount of skim milk, a small amount of whole milk cream, add 3 pumps of caramel brûlée sauce, add a portion of caramel pudding foam, add light cream, add chocolate shavings..."

"2 portions of banana milk, use blonde roast espresso, add 2 portions of espresso specially made for affogato ice cream, add fruit peel tea, 2 pumps of honey, add cocoa powder, add pineapple syrup, add chocolate powder (different from cocoa powder), 1 pump of caramel syrup, 1 pump of sugar-free vanilla syrup, 2 pumps of Frappuccino syrup, switch to skim milk, 1 pump of classic syrup, 1 pump of toffee nut syrup, 1 pump of pumpkin sauce, 1 pump of white mocha, 2 scoops of matcha powder, 1 pump of raspberry syrup, 1 pump of cinnamon syrup, add vanilla powder, add cinnamon powder, 1 pump of hazelnut syrup, add nutmeg powder, add 2 portions of regular espresso, add ice, add light cream, finally double blend and then, drizzle some caramel sauce, mocha sauce, pumpkin caramel sauce, cinnamon sauce on top..."

(We won't translate the rest... it's just too much to write!!)

Image source: Internet

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473