Tariffs, touchdowns and a shot of Starbucks: What's really moving marketing this week
Issue #42
Weekly Exhale
So far in 2025, tech earnings have kept climbing while classic consumer brands claw their way back. One of these is Starbucks, the Seattle-born coffee empire best known for overcomplicated lattes that require a barista to scrawl a misspelt name on the cup to keep track.
Starbucks just published its latest results under the leadership of CEO Brian Niccol, tasked with fixing the brand. His Back to Starbucks strategy started with a return-to-office mandate—not that it affects him. Niccol commutes via private jet from California. His $96 million salary (11 times what Starbucks pays in UK taxes) buys him a different kind of coffee run.
Niccol’s approach is the same lesson in every episode of Kitchen Nightmares: Cut down the menu. After that, he sanctioned a "Welcome Back" ad spot with plenty of 1980s Canon SureShot photography for pre-internet community feels. We must forget that Starbucks is full of people wearing noise-cancelling headphones and staring at laptops under coffee bean prints.
Notably, he’s put his right hand on the brand bible and sworn in a new mission: “inspiring and nurturing the human spirit, one person, one cup, and one neighbourhood at a time.”
Which is funny because his final move was to revoke the open-door policy. This policy was introduced after two Black men were arrested in a Philadelphia store for sitting at a table waiting on their friend. The PR crisis caused Starbucks to shut down every U.S. location for a full day of racial bias training.
The Times bluntly reported Niccols' new position: “Starbucks is not a public toilet.”
Except, actually, it kind of is.
Better hurry kid—this place becomes a Starbucks in five minutes
Twenty years ago, The Simpsons joked that Starbucks was taking over the world. Today, stop at any UK service station, and you’ll find five of them: two standalone and three self-serve machines inside the other shops. Niccol was hired because of his performance at Chipotle, which has less than a tenth of Starbucks's presence. When a global brand buys up every retail unit on the high street, it becomes more than a restaurant.
Say what you like about McDonald’s, which has a retail footprint similar to Starbucks, consistent share price performance, and often doubles up as a shelter. For some parents, it's the only place they experience the self-respect of being able to treat their kids. For others, a $5 Big Mac might be the only hot meal. Franchise owners quietly make their own calls—offering free Wi-Fi, warmth and accessible bathrooms.
And for the 309,000 homeless people in the UK and the 771,000 in the U.S.—the bottom 1%—these unspoken generosities matter.
I like people-watching.
I spend a lot of time in insanely expensive places. But three times a week, before training, you’ll find me at Pret, W1, sipping 50p filter coffee, looking out onto the world.
Yet, I barely noticed a woman who sits in the same spot every day. Her clothes are a little ragged. There’s something distant in her expression. One morning, I accidentally sat in her seat. She just stood there. Waiting. When I clocked it, I shuffled up.
Yesterday, she came in again. But this time, another woman—polished, professional, city-type—got to her first.
“Hey, can I get you a coffee or a muffin?”
For a moment, the whole scene slowed down as my mind flashed through a version of my life where everything had gone wrong. A string of bad luck. A few difficult turns dropping me straight to zero. And then, out of nowhere, my son’s voice—small, uncertain—cuts through the silence.
“Daddy… are we okay? I’m getting hungry.”
His hand reaches for mine, searching for reassurance I no longer have the means to give. My heart drops straight into my throat.
Then—snap back to reality
Thank God for Pret. Thank God for that well-dressed city lady. And in my worst, most selfish moments, thank God none of this is happening to me.
Starbucks’ latest earnings? Flat.
But Wall Street has anointed Niccol as the company’s saviour anyway. Starbuck's share price jumped 24% on the day he joined. It went up another 11% following his “customers-only” announcement.
Jet in. Cut costs. Close doors. Easy.
But the courage to extend the hand of grace? That’s something far harder. And more valuable. Ordinary people do it every day. Picking up the slack society leaves behind. The store manager who turns a blind eye. The employee who shares the toilet code anyway. The customers and colleagues, both sides of the coffee counter, choose to see the people that their community has made invisible.
If Niccol wants Starbucks to thrive, he should thank them first. Because if the cost of a cup of coffee keeps rising, there’s much more at stake than a failed brand promise. If you want the share price to keep going up, fix the coffee. The experience doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the angels.
I happen to know.
My beautiful sister was the manager of the Starbucks store number 56898 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Her life has taken a few more turns than mine. She told me, “They used to call it a third place, somewhere you could go without buying anything. As far as I know, it wasn’t a problem! I saw it more as a public service, and I think people did, too.”
Let's rise together with every issue. ♡
Market Movements
Bank of England cuts UK interest rates | The Guardian
The tariff wars have begun—buckle up | BBC
Trade wars could have a clear winner: The UK | CNBC
Brand Beat
Every type of Super Bowl ad you'll see on Sunday | Fast Company
Are these the best Super Bowl ads ever? | LBB
T-Mobile announces Starlink coverage | T-Mobile
Five things CMOs will need to focus on in 2025 | Marketing Beat
Tesla's sales plummet across Europe | Financial Times
M&S Food MD: Five years, Brexit still isn't working | The Grocer
Meta's fact-checking u-turn vindicates Lush's decision to ditch social | The Drum
Marketers cautious about Snapchat and TikTok | Digiday
Substack advertising is turning writers into sales reps | Wall Street Journal
Glenmorangie on why ads can be a three-year investment | MarketingWeek
The business of Kendrick Lamar | Vogue Business
Sabato de Sarno exits Gucci | Business of Fashion
Loewe's CMO on behaving like a publisher | The Drum
L'Oreal sales miss estimates | CNBC
Estee Lauder plans more job cuts | Reuters
BBC and ITV slash big-budget productions in the face of streaming | The Guardian
The final flicker of cable news as we knew it | The Hollywood Reporter
System1's ad of the week is Red Bull | System1
How AI changes customer acquisition | Digital Native
Trending: a Dog Person | Thingtesting
The courage to be disliked from a marketing perspective | Coco Mocoe
"We're not a public toilet" Starbucks reverses open-door policy | New York Post
Starting Up
London boy, 16, wins $1m investment for AI startup | The Standard
Riverford veg box employees to share in £1.3m payout | The Guardian
From Bletchley Park to Paris—the UK goes for growth | Maddyness
Your brand needs its own TikTok show | Sifted
Is Scotland the place for tech startups? | The Independent
YC's proven framework for validating startup ideas | The VC Corner
Tech Tidbits
Why did Microsoft stock fall after earnings? | The Motley Fool
Google joins firms dropping diversity recruitment goals | BBC
Whilst lifting a ban on using its AI for weapons and surveillance | Wired
Wall Street banks offload $5.5bn in debt linked to Musk's takeover | Financial Times
Uber CEO says company is well-positioned on autonomous vehicles | Fortune
This app can measure custom insoles with an iPhone | Fast Company
Venture Vibes
Jeff Bezos fund ends support for climate group | The Guardian
Andreessen Horowitz stands by decision to hire Daniel Penny | TechCrunch
Nvidias 11 European investments since the AI gold rush | Sifted
Sequoia Capital's Evergreen fund grows to $20 billion | Bloomberg
Study: Bain's Global Venture Capital Outlook | Bain
Design Driven
Open AI's rebrand goes emotional | Fast Company
Explore a guide on how to be more humanly creative in the age of AI | It's Nice That
Why are so many brands playing with their logos? | Creative Review
Every logo design scene in The Apprentice | Design Week
Happiness
When research is cheap, conviction becomes priceless | Big Think
Digital drugs have us hooked, here's a way out | New York Times
This is why you are happier in the morning | Women's Health
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