Game Research/Anthropology

Research Regarding the Use of Advertisement Style Games

and the Starbucks Coffee Company

Everyday users:

Primary demographics, including consumers and average employee (or partner)

• Starbucks’ primary target market is adults aged 25-40, who account for 49% of its total business.
• Next is young adults aged 18-24, totaling 40% of Starbucks’ sales. Starbucks positions itself as a prime study and hang out spot for college students. They cultivate a “cool” image, and utilize technology to reach the younger audience. Using phone apps and providing free wifi assist in creating this image.
• (http://smallbusiness.chron.com/starbucks-target-audience-10553.html)

Social Scientists/Anthropology:

Information regarding quality of working there, both as baristas and as coffee farmers -

Coffee Farmers

• Starbucks focuses on using ethically sourced coffee beans. They want to ensure the success of their farmers, and have farmer support centres on four continents, where agronomists test soils, examine samples, and provide advice, free, to any coffee farmer who asks.
• (http://www.starbucks.co.uk/coffee/ethical-sourcing/coffee-quality)

Starbucks Partners

• Starbucks beats the average industry employee turnover rate by 140%.
• Analytics company Monitor 360 took 5,000 reviews from Starbucks employees, who gave their company an average rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars. This beats Dunkin’ Donuts (2.8/5) and Peet’s Coffee (3.2/5).
• (http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/employeerelations/articles/pages/starbucks-work-environment.aspx)
• Consistently makes “Best Company to Work For.”
• (http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/73.html)

Educating yourself on everything you can about your subject:

Number of stores open

• As of 2015, there are over 23,000 stores worldwide, in more than 65 countries. (http://www.starbucks.com/business/international-stores)

Problems With Similar Products or Information:

Problems With Advergames

• Target Audience
• Reasearches found that 85% of top food brands use Web sites to target kids.
• (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13943214/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/online-advergames-target-kids/#.VsobCPIrKUk)
• Wall Street Journal 2010, found that websites directed to children and teens were likely to use tracking tools to get information vs sites directed to a general audience
• (http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/101201FTCprivacyreport.pdf)
• Legislative Issues
• Advergames are not held to the same standards as their televised counterparts
• Similar advertisements are banned from showing around children's television programs
• Advergames are unregulated and have access to all demographics through social media, websites, etc.
• (http://www.bath.ac.uk/research/news/2014/06/02/advergames-policy-child-protection/)
• Research from the University of BATH suggests that children as old as 15 years don't realize that Advergames have influenced consumer decisions without their conscious decision. 
• (http://www.bath.ac.uk/research/news/2014/06/02/advergames-policy-child-protection/)

• Edward Markey proposed the bill "Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011"
• Online stores need parental consent for their kids' information
• This information can't be used for marketing
• (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr1895/text)

Solutions To Advergame Issues:

• Limit information collection from players
• Force breaks in gameplay
• Advertise healthy product alongside unhealthy
• Focus more on the barista experience than the product itself