Abstract

This case is about corporate coffee giant Starbucks’ social awareness campaign ‘Race Together’, which aimed to start racial conversations as it served coffee by asking baristas to write ‘Race Together’ on the customer’s cup. The baristas were advised to engage the customers on discussions on racial relationships as a part of the company’s social responsibility initiative to maintain racial equality in America. But a part of the campaign was stopped amidst strong protests from all quarters and criticism on social media. Some of the critical remarks against the campaign focused on the company’s hiring practices, undue interference into an employee’s personal space, and its work culture. The general discussion on a sentimental issue such as racism in a coffee shop was also criticized. However, Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, proclaimed that the company would pursue his initiative of fighting for racial equity through several other elements of the campaign.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the key concern for Starbucks – delivering racial conversations along with coffee.
• Observe the acceptability of the campaign toward catalyzing social issues like race relations in America.
• Examine the viability of the word-of-mouth campaign — ‘Race Together’ in a coffee shop for addressing racial issues.
• Understand the importance of content marketing in creating brand value.
• Analyze the other elements of the campaign to streamline the social awareness program for racial equity.

Keywords

Race Together’, Starbucks, Racial equality, Social awareness campaign, Racial issues, ‘Come Together’ campaign, Racism, Race relations