Starbucks dons a disguise

A Starbucks in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood is being unbranded, to become a concept coffee shop called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. Starbucks is experimenting with a business model that other companies have tried with some success: rebranding their chain stores in a particular region to reflect local tastes. In an article for the Huffington Post, writer Marc Gunther wonders about the trend Starbucks might be setting:

“You can imagine where this un-branding campaign could lead. A little neighborhood burger place run by McDonald’s? A little neighborhood hardware store owned by Home Depot? A little neighborhood five-and-dime operated by Wal-Mart?”

Grocery super-giant Ahold has been doing something similar for a while, but while all of their stores still look like superstores, Gunther supposes that in the future, retail outlets for international mega-corporations might be indistinguishable from your typical mom & pop store. As anti-corporatist sentiments continue to swell, I’d expect more companies to try something like this. But that begs the question: how does a mega-corporation concerned with creating a meaningful local presence protect a plethora of regional brands while capitalizing on existing brand equity? I’m interested to see how Starbucks handles this problem… and if Starbucks coffee still tastes as good when it doesn’t say Starbucks (it’s doubtful).

Huffington Post article.